Issue 80 5th July 2015

5th July 2015
Issue 80
Aces ♣ News
web: www.bellevueaces.co ♣ facebook: www.facebook.com/bellevuespeedway ♣ twitter: @TheAces
Matej Zagar leads Dakota North & Maciej Janowski (IC)
Aces foil the Pirates...
Meeting Reports
News & scores from the Aces win
over Poole on pages 3 & 4.
A Trio of Champions
Next Meeting at Belle Vue
The first 3 riders for the Grand
Opening Meeting of the NSS have
been announced, see page 6.
Monday 6th July - 7-30pm
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Aces v Lakeside
Preview and teams on page 7.
Cook - There’s No Pressure On Me
British No.2 Craig Cook is relishing a return to the
hallowed shale of Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium this
weekend where he will don the coveted No.16 race jacket
as the wildcard of the British GP.
Although "gutted" not to have bagged his maiden national
title in the British Final, a hard-earned second was more
than enough to bring the 28-year old back to speedway's
own theatre of dreams.
Cook says he gained “valuable insights” from last year’s
competition, when he scored just 2 points from five rides,
and that he feels “no pressure whatsoever” ahead of the
series’ flagship event.
Craig Cook leads Freddie Lindgren at Cardiff last year (IC)
He reflects: ”To be at the centre of 50,000 fans was an
unbelievable feeling and it didn't hit me until we went out on parade that I was actually a part of it. I've never
experienced anything like it before.
"The meeting was as tough as I expected and in the end a bad night boiled down to inconsistent gating, but
there was no rider in that field that I felt it was beyond me to beat.
“One of the biggest changes I’ve made this year is bringing Ashley Holloway on board to tune my engines,
which is new territory for me because nobody save for my dad has ever worked on them.
“He’s built me a couple already this season but it wasn’t until the British Final a few weeks ago that I started
using them in the UK because really they were build for overseas, for the bigger tracks.
“But both are working phenomenally well in this country and as a result I’ve seen big improvements in both
my scores and my performances, so it’s likely I’ll keep using them for the rest of the year.
“I’m not going to lie, it would’ve been great to turn a wheel at the Millennium Stadium as the British
Champion this year and I can’t believe I managed to fluff up the start in the re-run of that final race!
“In hindsight I know it was rotten luck but that’s the way it goes sometimes.You win some and you lose
some, and having the opportunity to star in the British GP is a fantastic consolation prize.
"I’m not in the Cardiff pits simply to make up numbers, I’m there because I deserve to be and if I ride like I did
at Wolves against the best in the world who’s to say a GP win is beyond me?
“There’s always room for improvement but I'll be honest I feel like I took some major, positive steps forward
in the British Final and that means more to me than winning the title ever could.
"These days I actually feel like a proper rider! It's me riding the bike rather than holding on for dear life and as
long as I can keep taking positive steps forward then the sky's the limit.
"As far as I'm concerned there's no pressure on me whatsoever in Cardiff; in fact I feel confident! Normally,
with it being such a big meeting, I'd expect a few nerves but don't feel rattled at all.
"Every one of those sixteen riders is as human as I am and any one of us could win on the night, so I'm just
going to go out there and enjoy myself and whatever will be, will be.”
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Pirates Flounder In Aces Storm
Josh Grajczonek & Stefan Nielsen on their way to a 5-1 (IC)
Reigning Elite League champions Poole were sent back to
Dorset last Monday with plenty to ponder on after being
battered 49-44 by their Belle Vue counterparts at
Kirkmanshulme Lane.
After two rigorous matches against league leaders
Coventry last week, the Rentruck Aces were prepared for
an equally tough clash against the Readypower Pirates on
their home turf.
The visitors certainly didn’t disappoint in that respect and
proceeded to cause all kinds of headaches for the hosts by
swiping several heat advantages in the meeting’s early
stages.
Concern was mounting when the Belle Vue boys found
themselves straying into dreaded tactical territory while
the night was still young, with the Pirates seemingly sitting
comfortable out in front.
But team manager Mark Lemon was ecstatic to see his
squad recover from what looked like an irreversible 10point deficit thanks to a crucial tactical ride from Matej
Zagar and Scott Nicholls.
He said: "Poole came here fancying their chances and they
gave us plenty to think about early doors but as the gates
came to us, the boys settled in and rattled off some pretty
awesome results.
"Obviously the pressures of the scoreboard was having an
effect on everybody, some maybe more than others, and
what you've got to be careful with in situations like that is
heads dropping.
"But there's a lot of resilience in this team and despite a
couple of the guys having an off night we chipped away and
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worked really hard behind the scenes, and in the end got a
result we deserved.
"Maintaining confidence in the pits is the key to recovering
any points deficit and the boys responded very well to pull
it together and turn things around as effectively as they
did.
"Being forced into tactical territory is something no club
want to be faced with, especially on home turf, so when
we found ourselves in that position in Heat 7 there was a
little bit of concern.
"That's not the time to start hitting the panic button
though. We had a problem that needed to be dealt with
and the boys knew the only way to solve it was to go out
there and do their job.
"In the circumstances I felt Matej was the best man for the
task, even though he himself wasn't feeling too confident,
but luckily for him he went out there with Scott and
performed exceptionally.
"You've got to remember that this is only our second
home meeting in seven weeks which has been very
frustrating for us because we haven't been able to hit the
ground running at home.
"In hindsight, that could bode well towards the end of the
season so we've got to look at that as a positive, but it's
true of any team that you build a lot of confidence on
your own track.
"It was a bit of a shaky start to our season but our
campaign is starting to gain momentum these days and I
think tonight we proved once again that this team is
capable of making the play offs."
Aces v Pirates
Meeting Results:
29th June 2015
Heat 1: Watt, Zagar, Holder, Fricke 2-4 (2-4)
Elite League
Heat 2: Newman, Starke, Nielsen, Worrall(F) 1-5 (3-9)
Belle Vue Aces 49
Heat 3: North, Janowski, Nicholls, Cook 1-5 (4-14)
Poole Pirates 44
Heat 4: Grajczonek, Nielsen, Newman, Gomolski 5-1 (9-15)
Belle Vue:
Heat 5: Fricke, Watt, Starke, Worrall 3-3 (12-18)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Heat 6: Janowski, Holder, Cook, Grajczonek 1-5 (13-23)
Heat 7: Zagar(T), Nicholls, North, Gomolski 8-1 (21-24)
Heat 8: Grajczonek, Watt, Starke, Nielsen 3-3 (24-27)
Heat 9: Worrall, Fricke, Newman, Gomolski(F) 5-1 (29-28)
Matej Zagar 2 6^ 3 3 2 = 16
Max Fricke 0 3 2’ 1 = 6+1
Craig Cook 0 1 1 2’ = 4+1
Josh Grajczonek 3 0 3 3 1’ = 10+1
Scott Nicholls 1 2’ FX 1 = 4+1
Steve Worrall FX 0 3 1’ = 4+1
Stefan Nielsen 1 2’ 0 2 = 5+1
Heat 10: Holder, Watt, Cook, Nicholls(FX) 1-5 (30-33)
Heat 11: Zagar, Janowski, Fricke, North 4-2 (34-35)
Poole:
Heat 12: Newman, Nielsen, Worrall, Starke 3-3 (37-38)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Heat 13: Zagar, Holder, Nicholls, Janowski 4-2 (41-40)
Heat 14: Grajczonek, Cook, Newman, North 5-1 (46-41)
Heat 15: Janowski, Zagar, Grajczonek, Holder(FX) 3-3 (49-44)
Matej Zagar (CDS)
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Chris Holder 1 2’ 3 2 FX = 8+1
Davey Watt 3 2 2 2’ = 9+1
Dakota North 3 1 0 0 = 4
Kacper Gomolski 0 0 F = 0
Maciej Janowski 2’ 3 2 0 3 = 10+1
Paul Starke 2’ 1’ 1’ 0 = 4+3
Kyle Newman 3 1 1 3 1 = 9
Behind the scenes of Aces v Poole
Top left: Matej Zagar Max Fricke & Mark
Lemon in discussion (CS)
Top right: Mark Lemon puts the black &
white helmet colour on Matej Zagar (CS)
Above left: Josh Grajczonek
(CS)
Above: Aces Team Manager Mark Lemon a lot
happier than Poole Manager Neil Middleditch
(CS)
Left: The Aces on the victory truck
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(CS)
NSS News
A Trio of Champions.
On March 19th next year, Manchester will play host to one of the biggest
speedway events in recent memory as the National Speedway Stadium
prepares to stage its grand opening meeting.
Fans of the methanol sport nationwide have been enthralled with the
progress on this state-of-the-art venue ever since the first sections of steel
were installed on Kirkmanshulme Lane in May.
The event will take on a guise very similar to that of a Speedway Grand Prix
and feature sixteen of the world's finest riders. Early indications suggest
that the meeting will be a complete sell-out.
Nicki Pedersen (HB)
Today the club were delighted to reveal the first confirmed trio of riders
competing for the Peter Craven Memorial Trophy (PCMT), who between
them have a combined total of five world titles.
Three of those sensational SGP golds belong to Danish dynamo Nicki
Pedersen, a veteran of the sport's international scene and who currently
occupies second spot in this year's competition.
The 38-year old has not competed on UK shores since 2011 when he
starred for East of England outfit the Peterborough Panthers, and has been
an extremely rare sight here ever since.
He came heartbreakingly close to adding a fourth world championship to
his tally in 2012 but lost out to Poole Pirates frontman Chris Holder after
an intense, final confrontation in Torun.
Chris Holder (HB)
Holder, who hails from Sydney, has also given the Aussie seal of approval to
an appearance along with the UK's Tai Woffinden, two of speedway's
youngest ever former world champions.
Ex-Wolves captain Woffinden became an instant national treasure when in
2013 he provided Britain with its first world speedway champion since
Mark Loram thirteen years previously.
In the same breath, the 24-year old made history as the youngest ever rider
in the grand prix series to be crowned the World No.1, beating the
previous record set by the ever-popular Holder.
Aces chief David Gordon says the management team are "elated" to kick off
the announcements with three global superstars and that fans can expect
even more big names to join the programme.
Tai Woffinden (Jarek Pabijan)
He said: "When we initially approached the riders, their enthusiasm was
fantastic and we couldn't be more thrilled to already have three world
champions in the line-up for this event.
"A grand prix-style format is what we've always envisaged for the stadium's grand opening meeting and even now we're in
discussion with several other world class riders.
"There's still a long way to go until March 2016, but the level of interest from riders worldwide in competing at this venue will
guarantee us a brilliant night of speedway."
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NEXT MEETING AT BELLE VUE
Aces v Lakeside
Monday 6th July at 7-30pm
It’s a case of second time’s a charm for Belle
Vue after their initial encounter with the
Vortex Hammers fell foul of the weather in
June, and was called off several hours before
tapes up.
Now the Rentruck Aces are keen to resume
Matej Zagar leads against Lakeside last season (IC)
their Elite League campaign after a week out
of action by taking a maximum haul from Monday night’s clash and maintaining their place in the top four.
Unfortunately for the Vortex Hammers, a staggered start to the season has been aggravated by the news that
both Kim Nilsson and Ashley Birks have been sidelined due to significant injuries.
As a result, Lakeside have opted to fully utilise the guest facility to patch up their squad and have recalled two
of the Readypower Pirates to Kirkmanshulme Lane as substitutes for the evening.
Aussie international Davey Watt steps in at No.5 to cover for the missing Swede while Paul Starke takes his
place at No.7 in place of Birks, who suffered a dislocated shoulder at Glasgow last week.
COO Chris Morton says he has always regarded under-strength clubs with extra caution and that despite the
Hammers’s current situation in the standings, his team should not become complacent. He said: “Historically, Lakeside have always performed well at Belle Vue due to its similarity with Arena Essex
and so on that basis their position in the league table becomes rather insignificant.
“Things have really been picking up for them lately and as a result there’s a fresh element of confidence about
them, so we shouldn’t be taking anything they present us with for granted.
“We’ve had some very entertaining matches recently but from a management point of view, we can’t afford
to continue to leave things until the last minute and take our matches down to the wire.
“That’s something the lads fully understand though. They know what what they’re expected to do so
hopefully they can stamp their authority on the meeting right from the gate in Heat 1.”
TEAM LINE-UPS - MONDAY 6TH JULY
Belle Vue ‘Rentruck’ Aces
Matej Zagar; Max Fricke; Craig Cook; Josh Grajczonek; Scott Nicholls (C); Steve Worrall; Stefan Nielsen
Lakeside ‘Vortex’ Hammers
Andreas Jonsson(C); Mikkel Bech; Edward Kennett; Richard Lawson; Davey Watt (G); Adam Ellis; Paul Starke (G)
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Aces News Extra
Aces at Cardiff
Belle Vue had two riders in the British Grand Prix
at Cardiff last Saturday with Matej Zagar and
Craig Cook taking part.
Craig had won the wildcard into the event when
he finished second to Tai Woffinden at last
month’s British Final.
Both Matej and Craig made the best possible
start to the event when they won their opening
rides, Matej went on to score 10 points and
reached the semi-finals whilst Craig scored 7
points and missed out on a semi-final place by
just one point.
A great performance by both our riders!
Matej Zagar leads Greg Hancock (IC)
Craig Cook leads Chris Holder, Greg Hancock & Maciej Janowski (IC)
Craig Cook celebrates winning heat 3 (IC)
UPCOMING MEETINGS
6TH JULY
10TH JULY
13TH JULY
20TH JULY
Aces v
Lakeside
Lakeside v
Aces
Aces v
Leicester
Aces v Kings
Lynn
at Belle Vue
7-30pm start.
at Lakeside
8pm start.
at Belle Vue
7-30pm start.
at Belle Vue
7-30pm start.
Elite League
Meeting.
Elite League
Meeting.
Elite League
Meeting.
Elite League
Meeting.
Please Note: Fixtures are correct at time of newsletter production, please check www.bellevueaces.co for any late changes
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