Depending on your take, this season marks 34 years as a speedway fan, with my parents first taking me to the old Belle Vue Greyhound Stadium in 1990, but didn’t start being a regular till after a family holiday in 1996. It’s 28 years since I began to make sporadic trips on a Friday night in late 1996 to watch my beloved Belle Vue Aces from the terraces, as in recent years my love of retro and nostalgia has taken me to buying old meetings and reliving the good times – even if we lost mostly. While the sport is on death’s door in this country due to too many people putting interests first ahead of the sport, it does make me think back to the old days and more so those riders that left many memories watching them. As the 90s to 2015 saw many riders come to the old stadium wearing the ‘Ace of Clubs’ on their chest, be it great riders or shockingly bad! As fans we all have our favourites, and so here I’ve picked out six riders of whom I enjoyed watching in the old stadium, as no doubt some of my picks will raise an eyebrow.
RONNIE CORREY – Meetings: 92 Points: 884.5 Bonus Pts: 99 Full Max: 2 Paid Max: 3
It was back in the 1998 season when ‘the Rocket’ Ronnie Correy came to join Belle Vue, as the Californian followed in the footsteps of other riders stateside that rode for the famous Manchester club, riders such as – Larry Kosta, Mike Faria, the Moran Brothers (Kelly & Shawn), Chris Manchester, Charlie Venegas and his former teammate at Wolves in Sam Ermolenko. Correy spent the majority of his time in British Speedway riding for Wolverhampton, to which he helped them win their first ever league title in 1991, before going on to do the league and cup double in 1996 with the Black Country side. After a year with Long Eaton Invaders, the American then signed a deal to come to Kirky Lane, and in his first year as an Ace – he became the clubs number 1 rider with an average of 9.02, and was seventh overall in the league. Ronnie was one of the few riders that fans of other clubs seemed to like (unless you were a Cradley fan I guess) as he was just a racer and always came across as one of the most likeable guys when interviewed.
Ronnie had two spells with the Aces, as after the first spell being a two-year stint In 1998 & 1999, he came back briefly in 2004 and still showed glimpses of his abilities. The popular Correy during his time in Aces colours also broke the long standing track record set by one Joseph Screen (more on him later, spoiler!) in the early 1990s, as ‘the Rocket’ lived up to his name by clocking a time of 59.0 seconds against Peterborough in 1999. That record would last for four years until Joe Screen reclaimed the title – only to lose it to Jason Crump the very next race.
One of the most memorable meetings involving the American came on September 4th 1998, when the Ipswich Witches came to town en-route to their treble winning year, as it would see the Aces finishing runners up to the Suffolk club that season. The Witches’ team boasted the likes of the top two riders in the world, in Poland’s Tomasz Gollob and Sweden’s Tony Rickardsson – but Correy would have two sensational races this night against the Swedish rider. The first clash saw it resulting in a dead heat, while the second race had him squeezing between the Witches pair of Gollob and Rickardsson, as he went on to join Jason Lyons up front for a 5-1 to the home side, and as a result, handed out Ipswich’s first loss of the entire season. While ‘The Rocket’ is a Wolves legend, he will always be remembered by me as one of the most entertaining riders we ever had at Belle Vue.
JASON LYONS – Meetings: 509 Points: 4,658.5 Bonus Pts: 334 Full Max: 19 Paid Max: 6
In 1992, it saw the Belle Vue promotion sign the talented Australian with the mullet haircut from second division side Glasgow Tigers, as the man from Mildura headed south of the border to join the Aces. Lyons soon established himself as a firm fan favourite with Belle Vue fans, as the Aussie soon became part of the furniture in Manchester, having rode for 11 seasons and earning the nickname ‘Mr Belle Vue’. His second season with the Aces saw him playing a key role to their first title success in 12 years, where the Aces travelled away to title rivals Wolverhampton – knowing that only a win in their rivals backyard would see them crowned champions.
The meeting and title race overall all came down to the very last race of the 1993 league season, where both he and Bobby Ott out gated the Swedish duo of Peter Karlsson and Henka Gustafsson, to which the Australian did a superb job of blocking off the home riders to allow Bobby Ott to take the win and crown the Aces league champions.
Jason was more than a solid hand in the side, as the Australian always gave 100% to the cause and while he wasn’t really involved with an Aces team that challenged for honours regularly, he was involved though in sides that came close. As he was part of the Belle Vue sides that lost the Knockout Cup final to Bradford in 1995, along runners up medals to both Ipswich in ’98 and Coventry in 2005. Lyons was involved in some big races throughout his career, as the 5-1 with Ronnie Correy to beat Gollob and Rickardsson being a stand out at home, along with defeating Jason Crump in a run-off for the Bonus Point against King’s Lynn back in 2001. As mentioned, despite his time in Aces colours he wasn’t involved much in terms of winning sides, as he has only won two winners medals – with a league title in 1993 and a Knockout Cup medal from 2005.
Individually though, he enjoyed a few successes, with victory in the Peter Craven Memorial Trophy meeting in 1996, as well as being crowned the Overseas Champion twice in 1998 and 2001, with both occasions being down at Poole. Lyons would finally qualify for the Grand Prix series back in 2003, having seen him try for years, but his best performance came as a wildcard at the British Grand Prix held at Coventry’s Brandon Stadium in 2000, by which he made the final and came fourth. The Belle Vue legend was also part of three successful Australian sides that lifted team gold, having won the old World Team Cup in 1999 before victories in the updated format (World Cup of Speedway) in 2001 and 2002.
JOE SCREEN – Meetings: 242 Points: 3,507.5 Bonus Pts: 279 Full Max: 13 Paid Max: 5
In another universe it may well have seen the Screen Machine never wearing the Ace of Clubs on his chest, as back in 1988 it saw a tug of war for one of the UK’s hottest prospects in 16-year old Joe Screen, with the Manchester club facing stiff competition from the Hackney Kestrels for his signature. Thankfully though for Belle Vue fans, it saw the Aces win out on that battle, with Screen enjoying a successful few years with the club, as well as individually too. The 1989 season proved to be an Incredible debut season for young Master Screen, as while he was part of the successful Belle Vue Colts side that won both the league and knockout cups in the junior league, it saw him also making big strides in his debut year with the Aces.
His first meeting for the seniors came on Good Friday 1989, against a team that he would join later on in the Bradford Dukes, where he would score ten points on debut and won three races. Joe was part of the successful four-team-tournament side that won at Peterborough in 1992, before winning the league title with Belle Vue in 1993. Screen would also enjoy success on his own, as won the British U21 title in 1990 and the league Riders Championship in 1992. But there is no doubt that the 1993 season belonged to the Chesterfield native, as he won his second British U21 title along with the World u21 qualifier at Belle Vue, culminating in beating Wolverhampton’s Mikael Karlsson in a run off to be crowned World U21 champion in Pardubice, in the Czechia.
Screen, who was a vital cog in the Aces machine that saw them being crowned league champions – then asked for a shock transfer away from the club, that was due to fallout with the then Belle Vue promoter the late John Perrin, as the two argued on a contract. The Belle Vue fans were left gutted and angry with him leaving, and as Screen explained in 2021 during an appearance on the Mx Speedway Memories YouTube stream, he explained that Perrin had made it an awful place to ride at Belle Vue, so he just wanted out and some things behind the scenes saw it making him out to be the bad guy. He said he never wanted to leave Belle Vue, and even years later in his third spell he said he wished he hadn’t moved, but of course circumstances caused it. That said, the move did wonders for him, as won the Knockout cup with the Bradford Dukes in 1995 (ironically at Belle Vue) and then a couple years later won the 1st season of the Elite League in 1997.
The following year saw him back in Aces colours for the 1998 season, where the club finished second behind the treble winning Ipswich Witches sides, and during the year saw Screen holding the Golden Helmet match race trophy for a few meetings. In 1999 he joined the Hull Vikings, which saw the infamous Sky meeting of Joe coming up behind Jimmy Nielsen and knocking his arm, which led to the Swede hitting the deck and is an incident he has always regretted, even apologising on TV moments after the clash. Screeny’s medal collection grew while down on the south coast with Eastbourne, as he won both the league and cup with the Eagles during his three years down there.
He then re joined Belle Vue for a third spell in the summer of 2003, as ‘Super Joe’ would stay with the Manchester club till 2008, and saw him having his testimonial year with the club in 2004. Joe nearly added another league title to his name in 2005, but the Aces suffered bad luck losing Kenneth Bjerre on the eve of the playoffs – as it proved too much of an ask to beat Coventry in the Playoff Grand Final. A week after that heart-breaking loss, his Midas touch returned and saw him being part of the first Belle Vue side to win a trophy since 1993, as they beat his former side the Eastbourne Eagles to lift the KO Cup.
KAI LAUKKANEN – Meetings: 133 Points: 845 Bonus Pts: 129
‘The Flying Finn’ joined the Aces mid season in 1999 as a replacement for his fellow Finnish countryman in the injured Jarno Kosonen, as Kaj had previously rode for Long Eaton Invaders and the Glasgow Tigers where his average in the Premier League (now Championship) kept growing year on year. Much like Jason Lyons earlier in the decade, Laukkanen joined Belle Vue from Glasgow and saw his average being up and down during his two spells at Kirky Lane, as while Kaj was an entertainer and would always threaten to produce a stunning pass on the outside on a visiting rider it was only the consistency that let him down for me.
His first meeting in Aces colours came back on May 21th 1999 – where he scored 6+2 on his home debut against the Ipswich Witches, and would see Laukkanen racking up some massive scores throughout ‘99 with a 16+3 at home to Hull, and an impressive 11+2 as part of the Aces last win down at Eastbourne. While the Finnish rider was one of the star riders during his time in Manchester, he could be an enigma too which was frustrating. But when he was on song in a meeting, it would be a difficult night for opposing riders for sure. While most riders I grew up watching were solid riders and racers, but for me, Kaj just had an aura about him on track where you felt like you would see something special, especially if he missed the gate.
JASON CRUMP (Meetings: 223 Points: 2,960 Bonus Pts: 60 Full Max:71 Paid Max: 9)
What can you say about this man that hasn’t already been said, a triple world champion, and saw all those title wins coming while riding for the Aces in his career. He is one of the very few riders that has openly said loved riding at the old Kirky Lane circuit, but there by the same token, there were only a select few of riders who could give him a real run for his money around the Belle Vue track, riders like Leigh Adams, Scott Nicholls and Chris Harris.
As the 21st century hit, Belle Vue found themselves struggling in the Elite League with top riders not firing, as Peter Nahlin walked out on the club allegedly wanting to be paid in cash up front, and then in 2001, it saw Jimmy Nilsen forced to retire after a crash in the Danish GP and left the Aces with no real number one and up a certain creek. John Perrin who had a thing for pulling off massive coups in his time in charge, then pulled off arguably the biggest one since at the club, as the World Number 2 in Jason Crump traded in his armour with the King’s Lynn Knights for the Aces of Clubs on his chest in 2002, and would spend the next five years with the Manchester side. It saw the Aces finish second bottom, with Crumpy’s former side in the Knights occupying the wooden spoon position.
As a team Belle Vue had a poor season, but for Crump it was great – as he finished with a 10.44 average and would see it only dropping under that total once, ironically, when the club had its best season in 2005 – when he finished with 10.35 on the year. After a year at Poole in 2007, he returned to Belle Vue in 2008 before his final spell at the club towards the back end of the 2009 season, where the Aces were trying to avoid bottom. However, his last meeting for the Manchester club saw it almost costing him his World Title hopes, as he sustained a hand injury when Troy Batchelor of Ipswich ran him to the fence and saw him crash out. Which left Crump having a 4-hours operation to have skin grafts and was unable to even lift his arms and even needed help to put his helmet on for him.
Fortunately for him, he would see the championship out and win his third World Title, and by doing so joined a select club, as he followed in the tyre marks of former Aces legends in Peter Collins, Ove Fundin, as well as the two late greats in Ivan Mauger and Peter Craven. In terms of silverware with the club, he would only win the Knockout Cup (2005) and Pairs (2006) with Simon Stead.
CHRIS MANCHESTER – Meetings: 202 Points: 1,556 Bonus Pts: 132 Full Max: 3 Paid Max: 5
The 1994 season saw a very different looking Aces team to the one that had lifted the title at Wolverhampton the previous October, as one of those new faces to the side was 20-year old American Chris Manchester, who had won the United States National championship at the age of 19, and was the youngest ever to win it back in 1992. Manny went through the card unbeaten scoring a maximum 15 points en route to the title, as it was a field that included Bobby Schwartz, Mike Faria and future World Champion Billy Hamill. The victory was made all the more special when you realise the last man to go unbeaten and win the title was that of the legendary Bruce Penhall, as he scored 15pts himself when he won it back in 1980.
Despite the Aces finishing rock bottom in his first year, it saw him posting a decent average and would only go up over the years, as he recorded his first full maximum in 1995. Much like the others on this list, the mix of Belle Vue in the 90s and success saw opposites attract and the closest he ever came to glory was losing to Bradford in the KO cup final in ‘95. Without question though, the 1996 season was by far his best year of racing, but it was also the beginning of the end of his potential. ‘Manny’ won the North American championship to qualify for the Overseas Final at Coventry in June later that year, as the Californian would take the title by dropping just a single point all night to win it outright on 14 pts. However, unfortunately for him and the majority of the field too, they were all later disqualified for not starting with flat tyres, as his hopes of making the Grand Prix series ended by not being able to take his place in the Intercontinental final.
In the league – Chris upped his average from 8.35 to 9.27 in the following year, as the Aces reached the quarter finals stage of the Knockout cup before going on to lose to Wolverhampton in the replay of the tie, having saw the aggregate scores all square at 96-all in the original running. However, his career then took a huge fall in late ’96, with the American involved in a nasty crash up at the old Cleveland Park track at Middlesbrough, as many point to this incident as to when Manchester lost his nerve. His average fell massively in 1997 – dropping some 3.71 off his previous average to finish with 5.56. When he did record a paid maximum in the year, he never regained the form that saw him being one of the top rising stars. Manchester returned home early in the ’99 season, as he looked a shadow of himself and confidence wasn’t there, but his final race in an Aces bibs was a winning one against Wolverhampton, as it proved to be his last action for Belle Vue prior to retiring.
But by mid 2003, Manchester was brought out of retirement by John Perrin, and saw the American upping his previous average from 2.80 to 4.79 in his final spell with the Aces. Manny was a fan favourite and everyone was fully supportive of him in trying to get his confidence back on a bike, as the 2003 spell saw him scoring well but it didn’t last long. Watching old footage of him on DVD, Manchester when on song, looked untouchable on the track and beating some big names it makes you think what could have been, if only not for that crash.
A Track With A VUE 