Thursday, April 23, 2026
OXFORD SPEEDWAY
Oxford Speedway

REPORT: Spires put up good display at league leaders Ipswich

RPOxfordSpeedway

BETGOODWIN Oxford Spires put up a decent showing in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership at Ipswich’s Foxhall Heath stadium last night (Thursday), before current league leaders Ipswich Witches pulled away in the closing stages to win by 54-36.

Spires went into the fixture with a depleted line-up, with Erik Riss, Rohan Tungate and new signing Victor Palovaara all missing, while they had suffered a massive 25-65 defeat in Suffolk back in April. 

Second time around, Spires put in a much better performance. Reserves Peter Kildemand and Luke Killeen both enjoyed a good evening and commenced their evenings with a 4-2 in Heat 2.

Killeen posted a notable victory in Heat 4. He charged around Jason Edwards into the lead, while Emil Sayfutdinov pulled up while trailed off at the back on the opening lap. Spires’ skipper Maciej Janowski passed Edwards on the third lap and Spires took a 5-1 to level the scores at 12-12.

Even better was to follow for the visitors, as guest Richard Lawson won Heat 5 ahead of Danny King, while Charles Wright won a battle for third place with Tom Brennan. The 4-2 placed Spires in front at 16-14.

Ipswich are not top of the league by accident, and Witches started to display their class, although Lawson and Killeen showed further resistance with a 4-2 in Heat 8.

Spires continued to battle. Both Lawson and Wright passed Dan Thompson in Heat 11 to ensure a 3-3, while 17-year-old Mitch McDiarmid passed Edwards for third place in Heat 12 on his first-ever visit to the track.

Spires were still only ten points down with two heats to go, before Witches closed out with two 5-1s. The second of those occurred in a re-run Heat 15, which looked good for Spires in the initial staging, before Kildemand picked up an exclusion for a collision with Brennan.

Lawson proved a shrewd choice of guest with 11+1, while Kildemand (9) and Killeen (7) outscored the home reserves by 16-8.

Oxford team manager Peter Schroeck said: “We said we didn’t come here just to make the numbers up tonight and I think we achieved that.

“We had a couple of young lads in our line-up and I was pleased how both Luke and Mitch did. I’m always thinking one meeting in advance, and tonight kept them in the right frame of mind heading into the meeting for the Cheetahs at Workington on Saturday.

“Overall, I am pleased with our performance this evening. This is a tough track to come to, but we gave Ipswich a battle.”

Spires are back in action at Leicester on Monday evening.

The next meeting at the BetGoodwin Oxford Stadium sees Spires take on the Sheffield Tigers in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership clash next Thursday (August 14) at 7.30pm. The last time the two teams met at Cowley it resulted in an exciting Super Heat after a drawn meeting. Tickets are on sale on the Oxford Speedway website at: https://oxfordspeedway.club/tickets/

Ipswich Witches 54: Jason Doyle 8+1, Adam Ellis 10+2, Danny King 8+1, Tom Brennan 12, Emil Sayfutdinov 8+1, Dan Thompson 7+1, Jason Edwards 1.

BetGoodwin Oxford Spires 36: Charles Wright 5, Richard Lawson 11+1, Rohan Tungate R/R, Mitch McDiarmid 1+1, Maciej Janowski 3+2, Peter Kildemand 9, Luke Killeen 7.

PHOTO by Steve Edmunds