Aces crowned as Champions

Belle Vue are the 2024 Premiership Speedway champions.

The Aces landed the title for the second time in three years with a 49-41 victory at Leicester last Thursday to complete an emphatic 103- 77 aggregate play-off final win over the Lions.

World No.4 Dan Bewley completed a sensational unbeaten home and away Grand Final performance with his second 15-point maximum in succession, whilst captain Brady Kurtz was also unbeaten with 11+1 at Leicester’s Pidcock Motorcycles Arena.

It is s record-breaking fourteenth top-flight league title for the most successful club in the country, following on from the 2022 Premiership win when the Aces ended a spell of 29 years without the title.

A strong finish to the first leg had given Belle Vue an 18-point advantage, but with Leicester having beaten the Aces 53-37 and 55-35 earlier in the regular season, the home fans flocked to the East Midlands circuit, with the crowd boosted by a huge volume of travelling Aces fans who packed out the first bend terracing.

But any hopes of the home side making a strong start to pull back the deficit were ended when Aces skipper Brady Kurtz swept around the outside of the opening bends to win heat 1.

Reserves Antti Vuolas and Jake Mulford put the Aces ahead in heat 2 with a 5-1 maximum as Mulford rode hard to keep Drew Kemp behind him for 4 laps.

Ryan Douglas was fast away for the home side in heat 4, but Bewley worked the outside line, gaining all the time, before cutting back off the last bend to steal the win by less than a tyre’s width.

Leicester looked to level the scores as they made the start in heat 5, but Kurtz drove under the two Lions, with Norick Blodorn also coming through to third to move the Aces 6 points up on the night, and 24 ahead on aggregate.

With 4 shared races following, it was just a matter of time as to when the Aces would seal the title.

Max Fricke and Richard Lawson raced to their first heat advantage of the night with a maximum in heat 10, but that only delayed the celebrations temporarily before Kurtz and Blodorn ensured the return of the league title to Manchester with a 4-2 in the next.

As the huge travelling support started to party on the first bend, it was left to Bewley to wrap up his second successive maximum of the Grand Final to complete home and away final wins.

Afterwards captain Kurtz said “I mean, what a club and what a team! It really has been a team effort.” 

“That’s what it takes when it comes to play-off speedway and it was awesome to show what we can do in the semi-final against Sheffield, and now here at Leicester as well”.

Dan Bewley who has been with the club since 2016, but missed out on the 2022 Premiership win said “It’s a bit more special for me. The team won a couple of years ago, but it’s the first time I’ve won the title with the Aces. I won the National League with Belle Vue Colts, but never with the Aces, so it’s pretty special”.

Meanwhile the Belle Vue Colts secured the National League Runners-up medals with a hard fought 55-35 win over Sheffield at the National Speedway stadium on Monday.

The Colts went into the meeting without 15-year-old sensation William Cairns who was ruled out with concussion after a horrific crash in the British Under 19 Championship at Oxford on Sunday.

Needing to win by more than 5 points to snatch second place in the league, the Colts suffered a 5-1 reversal in the opening heat, and still trailled by 2 points as rain started to fall at heat 6.

They went into heat 10 still locked together 27-27 with Sheffield, but a 5-1 from Sam Hagon and Harry McGurk finally move the Colts ahead.

Further maximum wins in the next two races saw the Colts move clear, before Sam Hagon closed out the match winning heats 13 and 15, with man of the meeting Chad Wirtzfeld taking heat 14 to complete a superb 16+2 point haul.