SPEEDWAY: Craig COOKS up success over the Wolves!

BELLE VUE ACES      55 WOLVERHAMPTON   38

Craig Cook helped inspire the Belle Vue Aces to a big win on Wednesday evening as the Cumbrian rider top scored with 12 points in the Aces win over the Wolverhampton Wolves 55-38 at Kirkmanshulme lane.

Matej Zagar and Michael Palm Toft picked up a 4-2 in the opening heat of the meeting as the Belle Vue riders were split by guest rider in the Wolves ranks,  in Chris Harris as the Coventry Bees rider came in for the ill World Champion of Tai Woffinden.

  

The reserves race saw Stefan Nielsen leading the race with ease, before he then took a wider line on the 2nd bend and caught the air fence leading to the home rider coming off and led to a re run.

In the re run of the heat two, a majority thought it would be a routine 5-1 for the visiting side as Aces reserve Lee Payne had struggled to get in around the points of late and much to the shock of a few, Payne managed to claim second place and saw Wolves get a 4-2 instead, with Lee Payne managing to get a good gate and then followed Tom Perry round to see the Stoke Potter split the Wolves pair.

Craig Cook and Scott Nicholls then picked up the first maximum for the hosts in the meeting as they raced off with a 5-1 that was then followed up with a 4-2, when Stefan Nielsen took the race win with his team mate Ritchie Worrall finishing in third.

Cook was it again soon after, as he and Zagar rode a team race which saw the Slovenian gp man shepherding his partner round for an easy 5-1 for the Aces and have the score 20-10.

Wolverhampton team boss Pete Adams was quick to try to stem the advantage going to far ahead and so nominated Chris Harris as a tactical ride in the next race.

Harris had the most favored gate 4 in the race as that gate is beyond a massive advantage when on it. The Coventry man made a jet propelled start off it and made full use of the grip off the starting gate and saw him blast ahead and saw the Wolves get out on a 8-1 temporarily, before Scott Nicholls then managed to move into second place but couldn't see him track down Harris and so it saw Wolves gain a 7-2 with Piotr Pawlicki in third and Harris score six points.

Wolves then pulled it back to one point, after Ricky Wells and Joe Jacobs scored a 5-1 with Michael Palm Toft falling off on the 3rd bend and found Lee Payne once more on his own, only this time round he was helpless to do anything and have the score move to 23-22 to the hosts.

Heat 8 saw Nicholls and Worrall score a reversal of that heat score as Nicholls guided his team mate to victory.

The second reserves race of the meeting saw a 5-1 to the Aces and a surprise win for Lee Payne who won his first Elite league race after he made a blinding start and managed to ride a good line round for the whole race to see a maximum win for the hosts.

 

Three successive 4-2's for the Aces then put them in an even more commanding position and seen the score 45-30 to the home side, with the meeting won it was now a case of turning the screw on their foes.

Heat 12 saw one of the races of the night as between Nielsen, Proctor and Palm Toft, it saw the lead changing a few times with Nielsen leading the race up until Wolverhampton rider Ty Proctor made a move on him and then saw Palm Toft race him hard , but he pushed him wide and move right out across him to block his charge and take the win.

Craig Cook and Matej Zagar then scored another 5-1 in heat 13 in which they beat Harris and Pawlicki, with Zagar making a hard but fair move on the Polish rider to see him taken wide and let Zagar come up the inside into second and see the home fans cheer their riders to victory.

Ricky Wells then collected his second race win of the night for the away side, as he passed Ritchie Worrall to see the Wolves man hold off Worrall for the win.

The final race of the night saw Chris Harris out pace Craig Cook, as the Cornishman took the win with Pawlicki finishing in third to see a Wolves 4-2 and finish on a high note despite it counting for nothing and see Belle Vue avenge their loss on the Monday night at Monmore Green in the away fixture.

Belle Vue = 55

1. Matej Zagar 3, 2', 3, 2' = 10+2
2. Michael Palm Toft 1, Fx, 1, 3 = 5
3. Scott Nicholls 2', 2, 2', 3, 0 = 9+2
4. Richie Worrall 1, 0, 3, 2 = 6
5. Craig Cook 3, 3, 1, 3, 2 = 12
6. Stefan Nielsen Fx, 3, 2', 1 = 6+1
7. Lee Payne 2, 1, 3, 1' = 7+1

Wolverhampton = 38

1. Chris Harris (G) 2, 6!, 2, 0, 1 = 11
2. Ty Proctor 0, 2, 0, 2 = 4
3. Jacob Thorssell 0, 1, 1, 0 = 2
4. Ricky Wells 0, 3, 0, 3 = 6
5. Piotr Pawlicki 1, 1, 2, 1, 3 = 8
6. Joe Jacobs 1, 2', 1, 0 = 4+1
7. Tom Perry 3, 0, 0, 0 = 3

Wolves win toss take 1 and 3

Elite League points: Belle Vue 3 Wolverhampton 0