PREVIEW: BELLE VUE v LEICESTER (ROWE MOTOR OIL PREM)

BELLE Vue and Leicester both bid to bounce back from disappointment last week when they meet in tonight’s (Monday) televised ROWE Motor Oil Premiership fixture.

The Aces and the Lions both suffered heavy defeats on the road on Thursday with the Manchester side going down by 18 points at Sheffield, whilst the Midlanders were hammered 60-30 at Ipswich.

Belle Vue are racing at home for the first time in a month and will operate rider replacement for captain Brady Kurtz.

Meanwhile Leicester are without Rising Star Sam Hagon after a crash at Berwick on Saturday, and the Lions have named Luke Killeen as guest replacement.

Aces manager Mark Lemon said: “This will be a meeting between two very evenly matched teams, and both are very much in the hunt for a place in the play-offs.

“Leicester have a similar goal to us in this meeting. They took a heavy loss at Ipswich and will be very keen to set the record straight, particularly with our last encounter in mind.

“We won’t underestimate the Lions, with the calibre of riders they have and especially led by our Belle Vue asset and SGP rider Max Fricke, and we expect them to put up a fight.”

Lions boss Stewart Dickson said: “It’s fair to say Belle Vue is not one of our happy hunting grounds, and although they’re weaker with no Brady Kurtz I’m not surprised they’ve gone with r/r because of their normal form there.

“We need to show a reaction to Thursday night. I think our next three meetings, with King’s Lynn coming up and then home to Sheffield, will make or break our season, that’s how I see it at the moment.

“Those three meetings could have a very big bearing over whether we’re going to be challenging for the top four.”

BELLE VUE: Brady Kurtz r/r, Norick Blodorn, Jaimon Lidsey, Ben Cook, Dan Bewley, Connor Mountain, Connor Bailey.
LEICESTER: Max Fricke, Richard Lawson, Sam Masters, Luke Becker, Ryan Douglas, Craig Cook, Luke Killeen.
SCB Referee: Craig Ackroyd