Belle Vue boss Mark Lemon is keen to avoid relying too heavily on Brady Kurtz and Dan Bewley after they powered the Aces to a 51-39 win at home to Ipswich in their Rowe Motor Oil Premiership opener on Monday.
Reigning champions Ipswich flew out of the traps at the National Speedway Stadium, claiming a 21-15 lead after six races. But a tactical substitute ride from Kurtz in heat seven turned the meeting in Belle Vue’s favour as he racked up the first of three 5-1s with Dan Bewley.
The 12 points the Aces achieved from those heats made all the difference, but team manager Lemon admits his team cannot rely exclusively on their SGP heroes to deliver the points, with Kurtz scoring 17 and Bewley 10 paid 13.
He said: “Ipswich got off to a great start and that was a little bit concerning, I’m not going to lie, and having to use a tactical in heat seven wasn’t the plan! I wasn’t feeling too optimistic that we could turn it around in a heartbeat, and the resistance that Ipswich put up against us was a good effort.
“But we came good at the end and obviously we had Brady and Dan performing like they have, which is fantastic, but we don’t want to be relying on those guys week in, week out.
“The scores don’t really relate to how hard the guys at the lower end are trying, and I thought Peter Kildemand rode his socks off for six points.
“It was a really good team effort and taking a 12-point lead against the champions is good. We’ve got to go down there and make sure we put on a great performance as we look for the aggregate point, but it’s always good to win the first league match.”
ATPI FIM Speedway GP of Great Britain – Manchester wild card Tom Brennan starred for Ipswich on 11 points. Meanwhile, there was also a huge moment for rising star Jason Edwards, who defeated Bewley in heat four, with an impressive assist from Poland’s Tobiasz Musielak in second.
Edwards didn’t realise his teammate was behind him as he produced one of the rides of his career so far to beat Bewley.
He said: “It’s funny because I didn’t know it was Tobi. I thought it was Dan chasing me, so I was trying as hard as I possibly could, and then I looked as I went over the line and realised it was Tobi. I watched it back online and Tobi did everything.
“The nice thing early on at Belle Vue is Dan and Brady can’t do the big laps that they do. When heat 13 comes, they can make people look stupid. If you can get a start early on and get your head down, you can get the win.”
Elsewhere, Aussie racer Jaimon Lidsey starred on 15 paid 16 points as the league’s newest club Northampton suffered a 50-40 loss at King’s Lynn in their historic first-ever meeting in the Premiership Knockout Cup.
Team manager Chris Adams commented: “Obviously we are disappointed that we lost, but to only lose by 10, we will take that on our first meeting. It’s a difficult place to come and King’s Lynn has ridden at home already this season.
“They are more used to the track. We had a bit of an up-and-down night with all the lads, but we hung in there, so it was not too bad in the end.
“Jaimon rode well, and he is a pleasure to watch on the bike – a very talented young rider. All of them had up and down notes – some wins and some losses.
“We have some race winners across the board, but we had too many last places really. There were positive signs; it was only our first match, so we are not getting carried away.”
British battler Chris Harris fell just short of a maximum on 12 paid 14 for the Stars, with SGP star Max Fricke tallying 10 paid 12.
King’s Lynn team manager Rob Lyon was pleased to see his team bounce back from opening losses against Ipswich. He said: “It was a much better performance and it’s something to work on, although we’re still not where we want to be. We’ve still got to go to Northampton away in this mini-league, so we’ll see what we can do there, but this was much, much better.”