Thursday, April 23, 2026
OXFORD SPEEDWAY
Oxford Speedway

REPORT: Spires fall away in final stages at Leicester

RPOxfordSpeedway

BETGOODWIN Oxford Spires slipped to a eighteen-point defeat at Leicester’s Beaumont Park last night (Thursday), with home side Leicester Lions consolidating their place in the top four with a 54-36 victory.

Lions leapt into a 23-13 lead after six races, before Charles Wright and Craig Cook combined for a 5-1 in Heat 7 to close the gap, with Cook passing Joe Thompson on the second lap.

Earlier, Spires had taken a 4-2 from guest Richard Lawson and Luke Killeen in Heat 4, which was a 5-1 for the majority of the race, before Sam Masters passed Killeen on the final lap.

The scores were 10 points apart, when Australian Max Fricke became the second Lion – following Masters in Heat 7 – to hit the tapes in Heat 10. Grand Prix rider Fricke was placed back into the re-run off a 15-metre handicap, and took two laps to overhaul team-mate Masters. He then reeled Wright and Cook and passed both in a spellbinding final lap, with Fricke making the final move on Cook on the very last bend.

After four second places, Rohan Tungate came into Heat 12 as a tactical substitute. But Lions’ Ryan Douglas won the race, despite an early challenge from Cook, and Spires had to settle for a 3-3. Lions then stretched the gap with 5-1s in Heats 13 and 15, as both Fricke and Douglas completed six-ride paid maximums.

The consistent Tungate top-scored for Spires with 9+1, while Wright provided two of Oxford’s three heat wins and posted 8+1. Guest Richard Lawson put in plenty of effort and scored eight points, while Cook was also in the thick of the action and overcame a spectacular fall in Heat 3 to score 6+1.

Skipper Maciej Janowski looked off-colour and only contributed 2+2, while Peter Kildemand struggled to dial himself in on his first visit to Leicester since 2014. Killeen battled hard, but also suffered two heavy falls during the evening.

Spires’ manager Peter Schroeck said: “It was a tough day for us – this is a tough track to visit. I can’t knock the boys for effort, but we fell short of taking any points tonight.

“That was an unbelievable ride from Max Fricke in Heat 10, when he went off the 15 metre-handicap. It almost did him a favour because he could pick his lines from back there. He certainly earned his money in that one and it’s good for the fans to see races like that.

“We kept in it and we were just 10 points behind for most of the second part of the meeting. We hoped we could close the gap with the tactical substitute, but that didn’t happen and then they pulled away at the end.

“It’s lovely when you can win away from home, but they can be tough meetings. You only have to look at the results from tonight, we’ve had a difficult night here, but Belle Vue struggled even more at Ipswich and Aces are the defending champions. We’ll pick ourselves up again, ready for the next meeting.”

Spires are back in action at Sheffield on Monday, in a meeting being shown live on TNT Sports and Discovery+

The next meeting at the BetGoodwin Oxford Stadium sees the BetGoodwin Oxford Spires take on defending champions Belle Vue Aces in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership next Thursday (July 17) at 7.30pm. Tickets are on sale on the Oxford Speedway website at: https://oxfordspeedway.club/tickets/

Leicester Lions 54: Max Fricke 17+1, Luke Becker R/R, Ryan Douglas 17+1, Kyle Howarth 6+1, Sam Masters 7+1, Drew Kemp 4+1, Joe Thompson 3.

BetGoodwin Oxford Spires 36: Maciej Janowski 2+2, Rohan Tungate 9+1, Craig Cook 6+1, Charles Wright 8+1, Richard Lawson 8, Peter Kildemand 2, Luke Killeen 1.

PHOTO by Les Aubrey