"ZORRO" & ACES Clip the Eagles wings

Pic from: MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS.CO.UK

BELLE VUE ACES 54 - 34  EASTBOURNE EAGLES 

Monday evening saw the imperious Belle Vue Aces turn on the style as Maximum man Magnus Zetterstrom nicknamed "Zorro" in Speedway circles, notched up a full house as the rampant Aces thrashed the Eastbourne Eagles at Kirkmanshulme Lane on Monday night winning 54 - 34.

Eastbourne travelled up north with a guest pairing of ex-Aces in the the shape of Morten Risager and Kevin Doolan in their side, as replacements for Adam Shields who has chosen to quit speedway once again due to problems and the injured Russian rider Denis Gizatullin.

Belle Vue were hoping to get back to winning ways after they had lost to Lakeside a couple weeks ago, so a win at home was crucial due to the sides around them in the league had ridden more matches than the Aces, as they have found themselves nearer the bottom of the league after a Miserable month of May for the Manchester outfit.

Weather for the meeting was sunshine along with blue skies and with the tractor going round spraying the track with water, it was hoped to keep the dust down as it was a very warm evening and apart from that it looked a good track once again.

In the Opening heat it saw a shared heat as the Eastbourne pair of Bjarne Pedersen & Lukas Dryml make the start, as both got out of the gate and on a 5-1, That was till Dryml fell whilst in second place. Matej Zagar and Artur Mroczka took the opporunity to get by for a 3-3 and with another 3-3 in heat 2 it took the 3rd Heat to finally see a side gain an advantage in the contest.

Sadly for the Aces it was the Visitors who went in front, as after Timo Lahti and Simon Gustafsson scored a 4-2 heat win with Simon Gustafsson coming under Craig Cook for the race to the line and and made the score line 10-8 in favour of the Eagles.

Belle Vue responded and then took control of the meeting from then on, as in the next heat Magnus Zetterstrom made the gate and was joined up front by his team mate Ales Dryml, as he out raced Cameron Woodward down the back straight getting the drive ahead of the 3rd & 4th bend on the first lap.

Dryml did well to hold off the advancing Woodward for the whole race as he was all over the Aces Captain, but the Czech man held on in doing so helped his side take the lead in the meeting with a 5-1 race win. In the following race it saw Craig Cook & Kevin Wolbert score another a big 5-1 as they beat the Eagles Bjarne Pedersen and Ales Dryml brother Lukas, as they got a maximum heat advantage and saw the Cumbrian rider Cook, clock the quickest time of the season on the Belle Vue track in a time of 58.4

Heat 6 Saw GP Star Matej Zagar pull off a magnificent move as he went round Cam Woodward on the 3^rd bend and had the cut back under Kevin Doolan on the 4^th bend, as he powered to the front and clocked up an impressive 58.9 in the race too considering he was in 3^rd place for the first lap, it also seemed the Slovenian had certainly got to grips to the Belle Vue Circuit this season as it was reminiscent of ex World Champion Jason Crump in the way he carved through the field too. However it was Polish rider Artur Mroczka having yet another inconsistent meeting as he rode well in couple of races then finished last and looked like a novice at other times too.

It was Seventh heaven for the home side, as the Aces grabbed yet another Maximum heat advantage, With Zetterstrom speeding round the outside of Gustafsson and got him on the 3rd bend of the opening lap and with Zorro pulling away, his team mate Kauko Nieminen passed fellow Finnish rider Timo Lahti for second place and as they entered the last lap.

Simon Gustafsson then hit a bump and slid off towards the safety fence and looked at one point as if the Swedish rider would stay down and try to force a re-run, seeing as his team mate was in last place. He tried to get off the track and reach halfway across the track before the red lights came on for the race to be stopped, in the interest of safety.

The referee awarded the result to the Aces with yet another 5-1 coming home to the hosts, and they were building up a good lead as it was 10 points the lead at this stage as it was 26-16 and they were flying, no pun intended!

Things got even better as Arthur Mroczka came to the party finally as he made the gate and took off into the sunset as Morten Risager tried to put a challenge together, but the Danish reserve for Eastbourne couldn`t put anything together in way of a challenging the Pole, While at the back the Dryml brothers battled out who would scored the 1 point as Ales held off his brother trying to pass him and held on to 3^rd spot as they extended the lead to 12 points now.

Heat 9 saw the Australian Cam Woodward get a jet propelled start from the gate leaving the other riders trailing in his wake, as the field was a bit spilt with Doolan nowhere at the back as his team mate won the race to give Eastbourne only their 3rd heat win of the match.

Belle Vue struck back in what was a bitter sweet heat for the Aces, As the pair of Zagar and Mroczka were on a 5-1 together and looked in no danger as Lahti was no threat at all, Mroczka messed up on the final bend as went too wide and let Lahti happily swoop up the inside of him as he raced him for the line and beat Artur to make it a 4-2 instead of a maximum 5-1.

Artur wasn`t happy at all ,as he came round shaking his head and no doubt was using some colourful language in his native Polish.

That then brought out Bjarne Pedersen going for double points as he donned the black and white helmet colour in Heat 11.

Pedersen had got out the gate alongside Zorro and it was the Swede that managed to get the drive ahead of Bjarne coming out of turns 1 &2 as managed to hold off the Eastbourne number 1 rider, so for 4 laps held a good good racing line blocking him off and stopped him getting the 6 points, Belle Vue managed to limit the damage for a 4 - 4 heat score line.  

Eagles management made the decision to put Simon Gustafsson in as their final double points rider in the next race, This time around it worked to some extent, as they got a 5-3 heat advantage out of it. Craig Cook had made a great gate and the rising British star held off Gustafsson on the back straight getting the drive and never looked back as he held on to the lead and was never challenged after that. Kevin Doolan took the third minor place as they got their first heat advantage since heat 3.

Heat 13 saw a re-run ,as in the first attempt it was deemed Matej Zagar was a bit too quick for the referee liking from the gate, however as the red lights came on Zetterstrom reared up and nearly had the bike hit him as he went backwards.

Magnus Zetterstrom does a flip!

In the re-run, The Eagles pair of Pedersen and Woodward got out before the Aces did, however Magnus Zetterstrom passed them both coming off bend 2 as Zagar cruised past both Eagles as well to set up a 5-1 for the Aces and thanks to Zorro he guided Zagar round to which the Slovenian slowed and let the Swede get the win and take full points to make the score 54-34.

Heat 14 Timo Lahti was kicked out for moving twice in a row as his back wheel was spinning while the tapes were down, which isn`t allowed and so the referee put the red lights on to disqualify him and in came Kevin Doolan to replace him in the race.

Kauko Nieminen and Kevin Wolbert both made a great start ahead of the Eagles and then Wolbert lost 2nd place to Doolan, till he stormed up the inside of Doolan and got into back in second position with a fantastic move indeed.

Heat 15 saw the nominated riders race and had the Eastbourne pair of Bjarne Pedersen and Cam Woodward ride against the home pairing of Matej Zagar and Kevin Wolbert.

Zagar shot out of the traps and went off, Wolbert had two near crashes as he nearly hit the fence when he hit a rut on the 4th bend and scraped the air fence and did the same next lap on the 4th again trying to gain on the Eagle rider, How managed to stay on was amazing as Woodward took second place and relegated him to the back ,so the meeting finished like it start off with the a share of the points and the Aces won the meeting with an incredible 20 point difference in the score line.

Belle Vue: 

Matej Zagar 12+2, 

Magnus Zetterstrom 12 (MAX) 

Craig Cook 8 

Kevin Wolbert 7+3

Kauko Nieminen 6+1 

Ales Dryml 6+1

Artur Mroczka 6

Eastbourne: 

Bjarne Pedersen 11

Cameron Woodward 6+2

Kevin Doolan (G) 6+1

Timo Lahti 6

Simon Gustafsson 5

Morten Risager (G) 3+1

Lukas Dryml 0