BELLE VUE COLTS 57 – 33 OXFORD CHARGERS
Belle Vue kept their 100% home league record intact at the National Speedway Stadium this past Jubilee Friday, following their 57-33 win over the Oxford Chargers on what was a warm and sunny afternoon in Manchester. Following their massive win last week against Armadale, it saw things heading the same way again after the opening four heats, with the hosts building up a big lead.
Due to having a British Youth Championships round following this meeting, it saw stand-in starting marshal Steve Casey being keen to get riders up at tapes and getting on with the racing, while the match referee in Seth Perkins was guilty of being inconsistent on a couple of decisions early on. Sam Hagon of the Chargers was clearly rolling at the line prior to tapes up in Heat 3 – yet the Chargers rider found himself behind the Colts duo of Harry McGurk and Nathan Ablitt out of turn one when on a 5-1, with the referee pulling back for unsatisfactory and warning Hagon.
Typically, Hagon made the gate in the rerun along with Ablitt, but thankfully McGurk joined his teammate up front after a pass on turn three to see a 5-1 and lead 14-4. Jack Smith carried on from his maximum performance last week with the quickest time of the day at 61.78 in heat 4. The second poor decision by the referee came in Heat 5, when Ablitt was making his final checks before the race and noticed the starting marshal had moved off and had a nano second to get setup at the gate, look for the green light and have him missing the tapes on the outside gate and was a clear case of an unsatisfactory start, but the referee let it go.
The race itself saw the two guest riders for Oxford in Ben Morley and Henry Atkins getting out on a 5-1 with Harry McGurk cutting through both down the back straight to take the lead and pull clear, while Ablitt struggled to get in a passable position with the heat and track being more dusty than normal. With constant watering of the track to keep the dust down on a traditionally hot bank holiday day in Manchester, it meant that it drew the meeting out longer and gave the visitors time to reassess things.
In one of the following races, it saw an Oxford rider being allowed three time longer to be ready than Ablitt was allowed, with inconsistency amongst the track and match officials in the meeting for me.
Ben Morley recorded the Chargers first race win of the day in Heat six, as the Oxford number one for the day got the better of Colts new signing Jake Mulford and the younger of the McGurk brothers in Sam. Oxford seemed to grow for a time with that win for Morley – as the Chargers picked up two more race winners in Sam Hagon and Henry Atkins, as they were both parts of a couple of 4-2s to see them from 12 down to now eight behind at 28-20.
Ablitt and Mulford got back to winning ways in Heats 9 and 10, with the former being part of a 4-2 with Harry to move them back to a ten-point advantage. Belle Vue then came on strong towards the back end of the meeting by outscoring their opponents 19-5. There was a scary moment involving Arran Butcher following the end of heat 11, when the Chargers reserve crossed the line and found himself running out of room with teammate Ben Morley by the fence, which led to him sliding off and getting stuck under the air fence.
Heat 13 saw Morley gating for the visitors – but that was before both Mulford and Smith passed the guest rider on the opening lap to see a second 5-1 in a row, with Ablitt and Freeman making it a hattrick of maximum points in the penultimate race to take them to 54-30. It looked like going to be another heat advantage for the Colts in the final race – as Jack Smith was out front and Jake Mulford in third, but Mulford’s bike packed up on the third lap to let Sam Hagon through for a point. Victory for Belle Vue took them above the Chargers in the league but have ridden the most meetings of all the teams with six matches.
Belle Vue Colts = 57
- Jake Mulford – 3, 2, 3, 3, R = 11
- Sam McGurk – 1, 1’, 2, F = 4+1
- Harry McGurk – 2’, 3, 1, 3 = 9+1
- Nathan Ablitt – 3, 0, 3, 3 = 9
- Jack Smith – 3, 2, 3, 2’, 3 = 13+1
- Archie Freeman – 3, 0, 1, 2’ = 6+1
- Freddy Hodder – 2’, 1, R, 2’ = 5+2
Oxford Chargers = 33
- Ben Morley (G) – 0, 2, 3, 2, 1 = 8
- Henry Atkins (G) – 2, 2, 1’, 3, X, 2 = 10+1
- Sam Hagon – 1, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1’ = 10+1
- Jacob Clouting – 0, 1, 1’, 0, 1 = 3+1
- R/R for Nathan Stoneman (HA – 2, BM – 3, SH – 2, JC – 0) = 7
- Arran Butcher – 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, F/X = 0
- Jacob Fellows (G) – 1, 0, 1 = 2
In the 4th round of the British Youth Championship – it saw Luke Harrison remains perfect in this year’s 250cc competition with a fourth straight maximum, while in the 500cc, it saw a slight surprise with Berwick’s Ace Pijper taking the victory ahead of Belle Vue’s Sam McGurk on his home track and who has won the three previous rounds. Meanwhile, Freddy Hodder finished fourth behind Max James level on eight points, but having saw James finish ahead of him in two races.
500cc
- #53 Laylan Richardson – 1, R, R = 1
- #696 Ace Pijper – 3, 3, 3, 2 = 11 WINNER
- #44 Freddy Hodder – 3, 2, 2, 1 = 8
- #116 Sam McGurk – R, 2, 3, 3 = 8 SECOND
- #777 Billy Budd – 2, 1, F = 3
- #54 Max James – 2, 3, 1, 2 = 8 THIRD
- #72 Owen Booth – 1, 1, 1, 0 = 3
WINNER – ACE PIJPER
250cc
- #22 Jamie Etherington – 1, 1, 0, 1 = 3
- #86 Sonny Springer – 2, 3, 2, 2 = 9 SECOND
- #152 Ashton Vale – 0, 2, 1, 2 = 5
- #145 William Cairns – 2, 1, 3, 1 = 7 THIRD
- #9 Luke Harrison – 3, 3, 3, 3 = 12 MAXIMUM, WINNER
- #33 Charlie Wood – 0, 0 WITHDRAWN
WINNER – LUKE HARRISON
A Track With A VUE 