Ipswich boss Paul Hurry hailed Tru7 Group Witches hero Richard Lawson after he defied a nightmare morning to lead his side to a 50-40 victory over King’s Lynn on Monday.
The Rowe Motor Oil Premiership champions triumphed in their first home league meeting of 2026, with Lawson dropping just a point on his way to 14, while top gun Tom Brennan scored 12 paid 14.
The Witches suffered unfortunate disqualifications for Scott Nicholls, when he touched the tapes in heat three and then moved at the start in heat nine.
This was before Tobiasz Musielak crashed on the final turn of heat 13 after being unsettled by King’s Lynn No.1 Max Fricke, with the Aussie not excluded by referee Chris Gay.
While these situations didn’t go their way, this was little compared to the trials Lawson faced on route to Foxhall.
Hurry admitted: “There were a few little fiascos before the meeting. His van broke down. Richard is Richard – even if the applecart is falling apart around him, he still goes out there and does his job. You can’t fault him for that.
“I got a phone call at 7am to say, ‘Paul, my van has broken down.’ Very kindly, his Poole teammate Fraser Bowes brought him and his equipment up, which I would like to thank him for.
“He had emptied the van in a rush and, on the way up, Richard realised he had forgot to put his boots and race suit in.
“We had to phone around and we found some. Cameron Heeps had sold an old Ipswich suit to someone, and they said they were more than happy for Richard to use it to get us through.
“Fortunately, he keeps his head. Nothing really flusters him, and he went out there and did the job.”
Hurry admits the Witches also suffered some misfortune during racing – not least Musielak’s disqualification as he battled Fricke. He said: “You do get tough racing, and you do get some sort of contact. But the contact you don’t want is going into a corner, which is at the most unsettling point on the track for a rider.
“Max did touch Tobi – very minimally, but it’s enough to unsettle the bike. If you look at the width of a speedway tyre on the front wheel, it’s probably three inches and only half an inch makes contact with the floor. Even when you get the slightest of touches, it reacts.”
Former Ipswich star Jordan Jenkins made his return to Foxhall as a guest for the suspended Philip Hellstrom-Bangs. Despite a difficult start, he raced to an impressive second place in heat 14, holding his nerve on the run to the line to beat Speedway GP rider Fricke.
“Jordan did extremely well in his last race,” Hurry said. “It’s just frustrating that he didn’t do that early on in the meeting. Jordan is more than capable of doing that. That’s why I wanted him to have a go. I know what he is capable of doing and what he can produce. He did it in that last race.”
Next up for the Witches is a Rowe Motor Oil Premiership trip to Sheffield on Thursday, with Belle Vue the next visitors to Foxhall on May 14.
Tickets for the Aces fixture, which brings world No.2 Brady Kurtz and Britain’s world No.3 Dan Bewley to Foxhall are on sale HERE now.
FINAL SCORES
IPSWICH TRU7 GROUP WITCHES 50: 1. Tom Brennan 12+2, 2. Danny King 8+1, 3. Richard Lawson 14, 4. Scott Nicholls 1, 5. Tobiasz Musielak 7, 6. Jordan Jenkins 3, 7. Jason Edwards 5+1.
KING’S LYNN STARS 40: 1. Max Fricke 12, 2. Paco Castagna 0, 3. Chris Harris 7+1, 4. Ben Cook 7+2, 5. Jan Kvech 6+1, 6. Cooper Rushen 6+3, 7. Jody Scott 2+1.