Rampant Aces maul the Panthers

BELLE VUE ACES 54 

PETERBOROUGH PANTHERS 39 

 

Last night (Monday) saw a resurgent and rampant Belle Vue Aces carry on their recent fantastic form as they destroyed the Peterborough Panthers at Kirkmanshulme Lane with a 54-39 victory in front of the Sky TV camera ,thanks especially with a paid maximum by Slovenian Grand Prix star Matej Zagar. Zagar was top scorer for the Aces scoring an impressive 11+1 and wasn`t beaten by a single Peterborough rider all meeting. 

Belle Vue was still riding on a crest of a wave after the last week as they got their win of the season over Coventry Bees last Monday and on Wednesday was give the green light to move ahead to the next step of the new National Speedway stadium which is adjacent to the stadium they use now. 

Team manager for the Aces Jason Attwood had called on his riders in the press release prior to the Panthers meeting to "Carry on as you are doing", so with that said they heeded his advice and dismantled the Panthers.

Peterborough have had travel sickness in the early stages of this season as riders haven`t showed up or not been riding to their capabilities as they should be doing. On Paper this match looked to be a very tight encounter which a couple of riders in the Panthers ranks having experience on the Kirky lane circuit, That however didn`t count for anything as yet again the Panthers looked toothless.

You got the sense from the first race things weren`t going to go the way for the Panthers when Ryan Fisher touched the tapes and the referee put the red lights on to stop the race, even though the Belle Vue riders had made a great start and had got out the gates on a 5-1 maximum and looked to be cruising. Fisher subsequently was swapped with the reserve rider Dakota North much to the displeasure of the American rider.

Heat 1 was re run but was still the same result as Zagar and German Kevin Wolbert shot out the gate and never looked back as the opponent’s big name rider and ex Ace Kenneth Berra was left trailing in the Aces wake as they took full points and made a good start to the meeting.

Dakota North in the next heat made use of racing in the opening heat as he made the gate and pulled away from the Aces reserve pair of Ales Dryml and Kauko Nieminen as he took the win with his team mate another ex Ace from last season Patrick Hougaard trailing far at the back with nowhere of being in contention.

In Heat 3 the pairing of Magnus "Zorro" Zetterstrom and Craig Cook showed their team riding skills again as they extended the lead for Belle Vue to 8 points but was a bit of a heart fluttering moment for the home side as the two home riders got out of the gate and Cook lifted which took him right across the track and Zetterstrom had to quickly adjust to avoid crashing into his partner and took the inside holding off a fast Linus Sundstrom coming hard too. On the next lap Cook made up for his mistake as he got some extra grip on the same corner and came up the inside of Sundstrom to put them on a 5-1 and despite a late challenge by Sundstrom on the final lap Cook held on and made it 13-5 after 3 races.

Heat 4 and another 5-1 for the Aces as Nieminen and Artur Mroczka both made the start getting out in front and the Peterborough looked like amateurs as the Aces just went for it especially Mroczka whose style of hunched over the handlebars approach was working for him as he looked like he meant business in the match. 

Peterborough decided to use one of their tactical substitutes to go for double points in the next race to and cut in this Aces dominated match. So Panthers team manager Jan Staechmann put the Black & White helmet cover on his fellow Dane Kenneth Bjerre to hope and gain some extra points along with Ryan Fisher to get an 8-1. 

Bjerre made a jet propelled start from the gate and had the two Home rider chase him down for a lap and a half before deciding to team ride and secure 2nd and 3rd spots and avoid the visitors getting a bigger lead than the 6-3 heat advantage they got. Bjerre took the chequered flag and doubled his points for beating an opposing rider making it 6 points and so after 5 races it was 21-12 to the home side and were looking very good value for that lead too.

Matej Zagar made it 2 from 2 in heat 6 though he didn`t have things go his own way as Kenni Larsen from the Panthers made the gate and made a little mistake on the second but got away with it as Wolbert and Zagar gave chase. Zagar passed Wolbert and entering the 3rd lap cut up the inside and managed to hold position and cut Larsen off which gave him that extra bit off breathing space and so crossed the line for his second win of the night and became the 1st winner not to come from gate 4 all night.

Heat 7 saw Artur Mroczka make a great start off gate 1 and went to the fence where the dirt line was romped home to take the win as the riders were spread out a bit with Dryml having an up and down night.

Peterborough Panthers thought their luck had changed as they made the gate and got out together until the 2nd bend when Dakota North hit a rut and lifted leaving Wolbert room to come under him taking 2nd place, He then gave chase on Ryan Fisher who on the 4th bend lifted and allowed the German to come through to take the lead and he made no mistake by seeing out the rest of the heat.

Peterborough found themselves in a hole as they were 11 points down and not looking likely to do anything as their riders weren`t firing and so in Heat 9 FINALLY the Panthers got a heat advantage with the rider who looked unlikely to win or do something all evening in Patrick Hougaard! 

The first attempt Kenni Larsen just jumped too early and the red lights came on for unsatisfactory start, Second attempt was the same as this time it was Craig Cook as he somehow managed to avoid hitting the tapes as he had a problem with his clutch leading to a third re run.

After some running repairs for Cook in the pits riders came to tapes and so we tried again, this time they got again and Hougaard shot to the front and the Danish pair of Larsen and Hougaard tried to get away but was dealing with a determined and fast Cook on their tails, But thankfully for the Panther duo they got the 5-1 and close the gap to 6 points on the home side.

Belle Vue then re-established their lead again in Heat 10 and was the race of the night, Kevin Wolbert made the gate and his team mate Matej Zagar was on the graveyard gate 3 as nothing good came from it all night so wasn`t a surprised that he was last entering the first bend. The Panthers pair of Linus Sundstrom and Norbert Kosciuch was closing down Wolbert and as they entered lap 2 Zagar rode the inside line passing Kosciuch and so his sights now switched to Sundstrom.

Zagar was flying all over the track with the Slovenian passing Sundstrom on lap 3 before getting retook on bends 3 and 4 and then tried hard to pass down the back straight but was blocked then he gave it one last blast coming to the last bend and roared passed the Swede for a hard earned 5-1 and give the Aces back their 11 point lead.

Zagar racing was equal to the exploits of an former Belle Vue Legend 3x World Champion Jason Crump as he has the same never say die attitude that the Australian used to have round the tight Kirky Lane track. The fans were delirious with delight at his fantastic race for the 2nd place.

Belle Vue then notched up a second 5-1 as the Aces pair got out the gate and Dryml joined Mroczka at the front before Ryan Fisher passed the Aces captain before Dryml re-passed him starting the next lap as he cut him up the inside and they held on to the front two places and made it 42-27 in favour of the home side.

Last throw of the dice for the Panthers came when they put their final Tactical substitution on Patrick Hougaard for double points after his heroics in the previous race.

Race was re run as the tapes on the inside didn`t go up properly, so in the re run the Belle Vue riders Nieminen and Zetterstrom got out and looked good for the home side however Hougaard had to switch bikes for the re run as he had a problem and from the gate it seem to stop then get going. 

Towards the end of the race Nieminen didn`t seem that quick as Zetterstrom was using his experience to help block the advances of North trying to challenge.

In the battle of the big guns Heat 13 Matej Zagar made it a fantastic 4 from 4 as he warmed up for this weekend’s European Grand Prix in Bydgoszcz Poland as he led from start to finish flying away from Larsen and Bjerre who didn`t give chase and just made sure they stemmed the run of 5-1`s being conceded by the visitors. 

Heat 14 was another great race with Sundstrom as Cook made the gate but the Swede cut back and blocks Cook by the fence leading to Cook cutting back himself on 4th bend and passed him on the line holding off Linus as he tried to make any kind of move on the young Cumbrian rider. Dryml had an engine failure as he locked up when North got out of shape. 

Final race of the night saw the Peterborough side get a consolation heat win as Kenni Larsen and Linus Sundstrom gated ahead of the nominated pair of Mroczka & Wolbert and just finished the meeting off with a 5-1 for the away side and so Belle Vue take the 3 points on offer and climb to the heady heights of 4th place   where the Aces haven`t venture for a long time. Belle Vue face a tough difficult task in 2 weeks time when they face the Poole Pirates with World champion Chris Holder and Darcy Ward hoping to plunder the points from Manchester.

     

 Belle Vue Aces  54

1. Matej Zagar 3 3 2* 3 =11+1 paid max
2. Kevin Wolbert 2* 1 3 3 0 =9+1
3. Magnus Zetterstrom 3 1* 0 2* =6+2
4. Craig Cook 2* 2 1 3 =8+1
5. Artur Mroczka 3 3 3 0 1 =10
6. Ales Dryml 2 0 2* 0 =4+1
7. Kauko Nieminen 1* 2* 0 3 =6+2

Peterborough Panthers  39

 1. Kenneth Bjerre 1 6^ 0 1* =8+1
2. Ryan Fisher exct 0 2 1 =3
3. Norbert Kosciuch f 1* 0 =1+1
4. Linus Sundstrom 1 2 1 2 2* =8+1
5. Kenni Larsen 1 2 2* 2 3 =10+1
6. Patrick Hougaard 0 0 3 0^ =3
7. Dakota North 0 3 0 1* 1 1* =6+2