KURTZ KING AS ACES TRIUMPH

BELLE Vue manager Mark Lemon described the 52-38 home win over Ipswich as his side’s best performance of the season.

The Aces moved to within two points of the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership leaders with an impressive display in Manchester, headlined by yet another maximum for captain Brady Kurtz.

The Australian, currently second in the World Championship standings, was unbeaten for a third successive home meeting and he has only dropped points in one of his last 18 league rides at the National Speedway Stadium.

Kurtz’s 14+1 haul was backed up by 13+1 for Dan Bewley and 10+1 for Jaimon Lidsey as the Aces dominated the race wins, whilst Emil Sayfutdinov scored 12 from six for the visitors but Jordan Jenkins was withdrawn with a knee injury after a Heat 8 fall.

Lemon said: “You could probably say it was our best performance of the season. It is a statement win. 

“To beat Ipswich the way we did was convincing. We had a lot of firepower. The consistency of our team builds is important, and you learn from successes.

“I think there’s so much talent in this group of riders. The top two are really blossoming and bringing the rest of the boys with them.”

Ipswich promoter Chris Louis said: “Issues at reserve certainly played a part in the size of the deficit, but it wasn’t the difference between losing and winning.

“All in all, disappointing to lose by 14 but I believe if you look at previous history, we can still go into the home leg for the aggregate point knowing that we can do it for sure.

“They’ve had some disastrous results away from home, so we need to capitalise on that and make sure we get the aggregate point out of it.”

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Photo credit: IAN CHARLES