Ipswich boss Paul Hurry bids to break Belle Vue’s dominance at the business end of meetings as the Tru7 Group Witches take on the Aces in Manchester on Monday night.
The Rowe Motor Oil Premiership champions were leading Belle Vue after eight heats when the sides last met at the National Speedway Stadium on April 20, but three 5-1s from Aces top guns Brady Kurtz and Dan Bewley ultimately sunk the Witches 51-39. World No.3 Bewley is currently out of the Aces side, nursing a broken femur and a compressed vertebra, suffered in Denmark on May 20. As a result, Belle Vue has recruited former Ipswich hero Jason Doyle as a replacement at No.5.
Heats 13 and 15 will see Belle Vue track Doyle, plus his Speedway GP rival – world No.2 Brady Kurtz.
Hurry hopes Witches’ heat leaders can break Belle Vue’s dominance in these races when their top guns take to the track.
He said: “Now they have Jason replacing Dan, it’s going to make it just as hard. But will they be as dominant in those last few races as when we were last there? Then they had Dan and Brady.
“Hopefully, we can learn from what we did there at the start of the season, maybe push them and get a better result. If we don’t beat them, hopefully we can run them close so that we have the chance at home to get the aggregate bonus point.
“Obviously the Aces have made changes by bringing in Jason, but our boys are all starting to grow. Tom (Brennan) is overcoming a few niggly problems. Danny (King) goes really well around Belle Vue – he won the British title there in 2016.
“Jason Edwards has had some brilliant rides around there and Philip (Hellstrom-Bangs) did really well there in the FIM Speedway of Nations in 2021 and 2024. They all know what to do and how to do it. It’s just getting them all to do it on the same night.”
The Witches are next in action on Thursday, when the Aces head for Foxhall Stadium. Advance tickets are available online HERE.
Just over 24 hours before that meeting, Ipswich chairman Richard Coleman will be making a special announcement about the future of the club in The Diner at Foxhall on Wednesday evening at 7pm, with fans, sponsors and media all welcome to attend.
STARTING LINE-UPS
BELLE VUE ACES: 1. Brady Kurtz (captain), 2. Norick Blödorn, 3. Peter Kildemand, 4. Zach Cook, 5. Jason Doyle, 6. Tate Zischke, 7. Will Cairns.
IPSWICH TRU7 GROUP WITCHES: 1. Tom Brennan, 2. Danny King (captain), 3. Richard Lawson, 4. Scott Nicholls, 5. Tobiasz Musielak, 6. Philip Hellstrom-Bangs, 7. Jason Edwards.