BELLE Vue’s Premiership league campaign got underway in sensational style at the National Speedway Stadium with not only their first win of the 2022 season, but also one of their biggest victories to date.
Bolstered by recent Slovenian signing Matej Žagar, The ATPI Aces demolished reigning league champions Peterborough with a 64-26 thumping on Monday, May 2.
Lead by skipper Brady Kurtz with a flawless 15-point maximum, the home heroes were men on a mission and made good on their threat to clinch the win on home shale.
Peterborough were surprisingly below par in Manchester, suffering several strokes of bad luck in the face of the rampant home team while having no answers to their awesome strength.
Four races in and the score sat at 20-4 in favour of the APTI Aces and the momentum only continued to build as the sheer positive energy in the pits spilled out onto the circuit.
In total, the Belle Vue boys recorded an incredible seven 5-1s and five 4-2 leaving the Panthers desperately searching for any kind of heat advantage, which they were denied at every turn.
Žagar said: “I was really looking forward to today’s meeting and this was a very important result for us. Peterborough are the reigning champions so we did feel a little pressure to start with.
“But our desire to win was very strong, especially after such a tough start to the season in the League Cup, and all the boys scored well and our efforts paid off.
“We did perhaps expect a bit more of a challenge from them, but we dug deep right from the word go. We were quick, we were gating and everyone was just on point.
“For me, it was a big relief to start off with a good performance and like I said it was important for the team to get off to a strong start in the league.
“It really does take the edge off the nerves as we start looking ahead to the next meetings. We all clicked right away so hopefully we can keep this going throughout the year.”
The ATPI Aces take their Premiership campaign on the road to Ipswich on Thursday, May 5 before we welcome the Cool Running Colts back to the National Speedway Stadium on Friday, May 5.
Their NDL clash with the Leicester Lion Cubs is already shaping up to be one heck of a night, and tickets, programmes and parking are now on sale at bellevue-speedway.com
RESULT – BELLE VUE V PETERBOROUGH – MONDAY, MAY 2 @ 12:00PM
Belle Vue ‘ATPI’ Aces 64: Brady Kurtz 15, Max Fricke 12+1, Matej Žagar 10+1, Tom Brennan 9+1, Charles Wright 8+1, Jye Etheridge 7+3, Norick Blödorn 3+1.
Peterborough ‘Crendon’ Panthers 26: Michael Palm Toft 7, Ulrich Ostergaard 7, Chris Harris 5+1, Hans Andersen 3+1, Scott Nicholls 2, Benjamin Basso 1, Jordan Palin 1
Premiership League Points: Belle Vue 3 Peterborough 0