BELLE Vue Speedway staged their annual press day last month, but that’s as close to the track that the Aces will get for some time after all sporting events were put on hiatus as a result of coronavirus.
The club had been due to stage their opening meeting, the Peter Craven Memorial, on March 21 before speedway’s governing body confirmed the season was on hold until April 15.
Only new winter signing Peter Kildemand was missing from the formalities after his native Denmark locked down the country’s borders as a result of the rapidly escalating Covid-19 pandemic.
Belle Vue once again track two teams for the 2020 season: The Belle Vue Aces in the British Speedway Premiership and the Belle Vue Colts in the sport’s third tier National Development League.
Steve Worrall and Kyle Bickley were recently confirmed as team captains for the Aces and Colts respectively, with Worrall delighted at his new appointment.
He said: “I’m very grateful to [team manager] Mark Lemon for giving me the opportunity to step up to the captain’s role this year, as I didn’t have much chance to prove myself the last time!”
Worrall was last handed the skipper’s armband in 2018, but in his first meeting of the season he crashed heavily and suffered a badly broken leg which kept him out of the saddle for several months.
Now he is ready to step up to the plate once again, once the season eventually gets underway. He continued: “Obviously it’s an uncertain time for speedway right now.
“But we’re in the same boat as a lot of other sporting events so all we can do is wait and see what happens when the BSPA review the situation on April 15.
“It was good to get out for a ride while we had the chance, though. All winter long we’ve been practicing on smaller tracks so it was nice to get some speed up at Belle Vue.
“There’s a good energy amongst the guys. We’ve got quite a young team this year and I think that will bring the fun factor and the excitement to our meetings.”
British Speedway suspended the start of the 2020 season for one month as a result of increasing government measures to combat coronavirus. Chiefs will review the situation again on April 15.