PREVIEW: Oxford Spires in big clash against Belle Vue

OXS Oxford Spires are seeking to extend their unbeaten run to four meetings, when they host second-placed Belle Vue Aces in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership at Oxford Stadium on Thursday evening (7.30pm).

Belle Vue from Manchester are the most successful team in British Speedway history, having been top-flight league champions on 11 separate occasions, most recently in 2022. Oxford have won five top-flight championships of their own.

Aces are led by British Grand Prix star Dan Bewley. He won the Speedway Of Nations alongside Robert Lambert last weekend at Belle Vue’s National Speedway Stadium, as Great Britain became World Champions for the second time in four seasons.

Spires won the previous clash between the two sides at Sandy Lane on May 23 by 46-44, after a dramatic last-heat 5-1 for Rohan Tungate and Chris Haris over Bewley.

Oxford team manager Peter Schroeck said: “Belle Vue will want to prove a point after the way they were pipped at Oxford in our previous clash, and they have Brady Kurtz riding for them this time around, so they will present a challenge. But a few of our boys have found a bit of form and hopefully we can make things a bit easier for ourselves and take a good victory.

“We’re coming off the back of a fabulous team performance at Birmingham last week and we want to take that momentum forwards.

“It’s getting to the stage of the season where we can’t afford to slip up. We’ve got that fourth spot, which would get us into the play-offs in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership, and we need to concentrate on continuing to score points, to keep the others behind us.

“As a club, we acknowledge what Dan Bewley – along with Robert Lambert – achieved last weekend by winning the Speedway Of Nations so that Great Britain became World Champions. I hope the fans turn up in numbers and give Dan the reception that he deserves.”

Spires are unchanged from recent meetings, while there is some doubt over the Belle Vue reserves. Tate Zischke was injured on his debut for Aces, while Connor Bailey is believed to be taking some time out of speedway due to mental health issues.

Tickets are already on sale on the Oxford Speedway website at https://oxfordspeedway.club/tickets/

Admission is available at the early bird price of £22 for all adults, which increases to £24 on Race Day. All under-16s go free. A reminder that Oxford Speedway is online ticket sales only – tickets remain on sale on the website until the start-time of the meeting.

The same programme will be used as for the Oxford Chargers vs Scunthorpe Stags clash on Sunday and supporters are reminded to bring this back with them and save themselves £3. Fresh programmes will still be on sale on Thursday.

Oxford will be holding their annual collection to the Speedway Riders’ Benevolent Fund – a very worthy cause that raises funds for both short-and-long-term injured speedway riders.

Please note that free parking at the Unipart car park and the free shuttle bus are back in operation on Thursday evening.

Teams:

OXS Oxford Spires: Rohan Tungate, Drew Kemp, Maciej Janowski, Charles Wright, Chris Harris (C), Erik Riss, Ashton Boughen (RS).

Belle Vue APTI Aces: Brady Kurtz (C), Norick Blodorn, Jaimon Lidsey, Ben Cook, Dan Bewley, Antti Vuolas (G), Jake Muflord (G) (RS).