Well my friends, we’ve reached that point in the year where the roaring of bikes around Belle Vue go silent, and the season comes to an end. If I had to choose a word to sum up the season, I’d probably use – Frustrating! Here is a look back at a 2023 season, a year of ups and downs for the club, and one which saw Belle Vue starting the year as the reigning league champions. It saw the team manager in Mark Lemon having to reshuffle the Aces pack a fair bit, that was due to the departures of Slovenian Matej Zagar, Jye Etheridge and the duo of Max Fricke and his replacement during the playoffs run in Robert Lambert.
Replacing them were two returnees, firstly the former World U21 champion Australian Jaimon Lidsey; as well as British champion Dan Bewley, to which both looked exciting signings on paper. For Lidsey, since riding for the Aces back in 2019, ‘Lids’ has won the World Under 21 title, plus ridden solidly on the continent. It was hoped he could transfer that form over to British racing, as he had a mixed year in his debut season back in 2019.
In the case of Dan Bewley, his career has skyrocketed since leading Belle Vue to the Grand Final in 2021. Where he effectively was a one-man team that year, with Belle Vue falling to the eventual champions in the Peterborough Panthers. Meanwhile down at the rising star berth was Jake Mulford, who rode for the Belle Vue Colts in the National Development League or 3rd tier last year.
The start of the season saw the Aces mirroring that of last year, as they lost their first three matches to the same opponents in Sheffield and Wolves. After back to back defeats against their Playoff final opponents Sheffield, it saw the Tigers gain revenge for last year’s Playoff final loss with a 48-42 win at Owlerton, before inflicting a 47-43 defeat on the Manchester side and the bonus point to boot. The only positive across the two matches was Captain Brady Kurtz, as he picked up where he left off in 2022, scoring 23 points. Meanwhile, the rest of the side looked miles behind that of the Tigers side and looked to be a reminder of how difficult being champions is.
After the Peter Craven Memorial Trophy meeting in early April, In which Ipswich’s Jason Doyle took home a record breaking fourth PCMT title; it saw the Aces on the road against the Wolverhampton Wolves in the Knockout Cup, and saw their season getting worse. That was because Belle Vue arguably put in their worst team performance of the season at Monmore Green, as they went down 46-20 in the first leg, and if not for the bad weather in the West Midlands, then the score would have been far worse. Again, it was Kurtz who turned up for the Aces, as that defeat seemed to be the brutal wake up call needed for Lemon’s men.
Some older fans may remember that the 1994 season, of which the Aces went into as champions after their heroics against Wolves in 93′, saw them going winless in their first three meetings too, before they finally snapped their losing streak. Well, after that dismantling in the cup to Wolves, the Aces then faced the tough task of facing the pre-season favourites in Ipswich down at Foxhall three days later, and saw Belle Vue stunning the Witches to keep their current hoodoo over the side, and record a sensational 49-41 win. The following Monday night saw them face the Peterborough Panthers away, and recorded a 55-35 win down at the Showground to make it back to back away wins.
They then had a back and forth meeting with the Leicester Lions, the East Midlands side led 43-36 with two heats to go, but guest Ryan Douglas who came in for the injured Brady Kurtz, proved to be the difference maker. Firstly, he team rode to a 5-1 with Charles Wright to set up a last heat decider, then he and Bewley were forced into a Super Heat, the first ever one for the Aces. It would see the pair then taking a 7-2 to give Aces victory and wouldn’t be the last time that Belle Vue would be involved in a superheat. They finally won at home with a dominant win against the Peterborough Panthers, with Dan Bewley returning to form to record a 15 point maximum in his side’s 56-34 win at the NSS.
A recurring theme for the year was how skewed the fixture placements seemed to be, as with the Premiership being a six team league it saw not all meetings being spread out. As was the case, the Aces got halfway through their season while some sides had six or more meetings in hand that didn’t include matches being rained off. Following the Massacre at Monmore in April, it saw Belle Vue facing Wolves three times in the month of May, the first being the return leg in the cup, of which the Aces won 54-36; before hosting them again at home and saw Belle Vue luckily securing a 45-45 draw, and produced one of the most stunning ever races in a Superheat to take the extra point and win.
Unfortunately though, their winning streak was snapped later on in the evening as the return fixture saw the Monmore Green outfit having the Wolves captain Sam Masters denying the Aces victory with two superb rides, as the hosts won 46-44 win. As we hit mid June, Belle Vue were six points clear at the top of the table following a narrow 47-43 victory over King’s Lynn Stars at home. Soon after it saw Mark Lemon’s side sent crashing back down to earth at Leicester, as an in-form Lions team put the Aces to the sword by dishing out a 52-38 win.
Belle Vue continued their dominance over the Peterborough Panthers with an eighth straight win over the Cambridgeshire side, by taking both fixtures home and away and saw the last victory for the 2021 league champions being that of the second leg against the Aces in the Playoff Final. Later in the month saw yet more silverware heading its way to Manchester courtesy of the Premiership Pairs’ events at Leicester, as the duo of Dan Bewley and Brady Kurtz took victory, beating the duo from Peterborough in Ben Cook and Richie Worrall, despite the Panthers pair edging the Aces by one point in the qualifying races.
July on paper saw a tough run of fixtures for the champions, as it saw fixtures against Wolverhampton and Ipswich both being home and away, while the month would end away at Sheffield. Belle Vue took a comfortable 57-33 win at the National Speedway Stadium against Wolverhampton, before suffering yet another narrow defeat to the West Midlands club a week later, where once again they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, slipping to a 47-43 loss. The turning point in that match came in heat 11, where Dan Bewley clipped the curb and sent him crashing into Zach Cook and sustained a back injury from collision. However, the home side turned the tide to take three heat advantages in the final four races to win.
A few days later saw a see-saw battle down in Ipswich, where the lead went back and forth and saw the deciding race being heat 14, where Charles Wright and Tom Brennan recorded a big 5-1 to put the Aces ahead with a race to go, as Brady Kurtz held off Jason Doyle and Emil Sayfutdinov to seal a massive 46-44 win. Four days later saw the return fixture up North, as a late rally saw the Aces take a 49-41 victory. After a 50-40 loss at Owlerton to Sheffield, the Aces overturned the deficit against the Tigers and Sheffield’s new signing in Tai Woffinden; as Woffy couldn’t prevent a Belle Vue win and the bonus point staying on the right side of the hills.
The Aces would sign off the season with two huge wins over bottom side King’s Lynn 57-27, before then blitzing the imploding Leicester Lions 61-29 in their final league meeting of the regular season to make sure that Belle Vue would finish top of the table. Once again, a lack of fixtures hindered the Aces season, as they had to wait nearly a month before their semi final fixture.
Of course, keeping with tradition for the Aces, the injury jinx struck Mark Lemon’s side once more. Firstly, when they lost the services of Charles Wright for the season, that was due to the Stockport native involved in a horrific crash while riding on debut for Wroclaw in the semi final of the Polish playoffs. As Wright had been a key figure and arguably the best team rider within the side. Soon after, it saw German rider Norick Blödorn sustaining an injury days before the original staging of the semi final, after he got collected in a spill during the penultimate round of SGP 2 in Denmark, as the Aces were looking like going into their biggest massive fixture with five fit riders.
In the Playoff era, historically, a full strength Belle Vue side and postseason don’t go together. As prior to the semi finals against Ipswich, it has seen the Aces out of 22 playoff matches, being able to track a 1-7 on just six occasions. The last time they did, came back in the 2016 Grand Final against Wolverhampton.
Moving onto the semi finals – and the Aces opted to face Ipswich and see a rematch of last year’s semi final between the two, where Belle Vue won and had a hold over the Suffolk side ever since with seven straight wins. However, the Witches were red hot coming into these playoffs, having scraped through into the top four by the skin of their teeth, thanks in large to the Peterborough Panthers who beat Leicester in the final match of the season to deny the imploding Lions a playoff spot.
It saw the Witches also buoyed by winning their first top title since 1998 as their Premiership Knockout Cup victory over Sheffield a week prior, saw momentum well and truly on their side. However, they too, would suffer a blow on the eve of the playoffs as Jason Doyle crashed out in the Danish GP just days before the first leg.
In his place saw the ‘Playoff specialist’ in Chris ‘Bomber’ Harris coming in to guest, along with Belle Vue Colts captain Jack Smith as a guest down at reserve and saw the Witches thrashing the ‘cold’ Belle Vue side 54-36.
Despite the efforts of Brady Kurtz (10pts) and some support by Jaimon Lidsey and Tom Brennan, the Aces were lacklustre from start to finish and put in an embarrassing performance.
In the return leg, the Aces suffered two massive blows in the early part of the meeting, as going in search of heat wins to overturn this 18-point deficit became harder with back to back 4-2s from the Witches to lead by 22 pts after four races gone. Belle Vue then looked to get back in the match with a 5-1 from Norick Blödorn and Jaimon Lidsey in heat 5, with the hosts then outscoring Ipswich 17-7 from heats 7 to 10 to put them right back in the tie. The visitors struck a body blow courtesy of Emil Sayfutdinov and Keynan Rew in heat 11, as a 4-2 stunned the hosts and edged them closer to the Grand Final. Belle Vue needed three 5-1s to complete an unlikely comeback in the final three races, as back to back maximums saw the Aces giving themselves a chance with one race to go.
Heat 15 produced arguably one of the races of the season, as it saw the lead change hands numerous times over the course of the first three laps, before the Witches duo of Sayfutdinov and Doyle sealed the win overall for Ipswich. Where a 51-39 loss on the night was cushioned by a 93-87 overall aggregate score and see them making first final since 2019.
Rider of the Year: BRADY KURTZ
It saw Brady lead from the front all year, and coming up big more often than not. No doubt, he will be the first name down on the sheet in terms of team building, as Brady has shown he isn’t afraid to mix it with the big boys and arguably been the real number 1 this year. Plus he has shown to be a real team rider too.
Improving Rider of the Year: JAIMON LIDSEY
While he has ridden well on the continent, racing in England for me is far more challenging than racing constantly on the bigger tracks in Poland, and tests how great of a rider you are. Lids’ had an ok year in 2019, but for me he always seemed to be under the radar by pundits and always contributed, even outscoring the 1 and 5.
Disappointment of the Season: DAN BEWLEY/ Away at Wolves & Ipswich POSF
This will seem harsh, but for me and some Aces fans alike, it is perhaps that we expect more considering he racks up big scores in Europe. His performances as a number one compared to others have been pretty poor, with Kurtz and Lidsey arguably being better riders. Another frustration was low scoring on smaller tracks, as well as the constant riding of the outside line and came across like a one track pony. In terms of meetings, the dire performances of both firsts away to Wolves in the cup and Ipswich in the Playoff Semi, were embarrassing one with a lack of fight in both matches.
Heat of the Season: Super Heat v WOLVES
This will no doubt be in the discussion of best races seen at the NSS, as while it may not surpass that of the ‘Here comes Fricke’ race against Somerset many years ago – it was without doubt one of the best races this season. Much like the final race this year at the NSS v Ipswich – it saw everyone leading at one point in time, and saw the heat scores switching back and forth too. My view may be skewed on it because it saw us dead and buried in that meeting, before we turned it around and saw it heading to the eventual superheat.
Highlight of the Season: Premiership Pairs
In a year that seemed like a stop and start one. Winning a trophy is something not to be sniffed at, and adding more silverware to an already massive trophy cabinet is always a bonus. On paper, we may well have been the favourites due to riders pulling out through injuries or other reasons. But you can only beat who is in front of you, and the duo of Brady Kurtz and Dan Bewley came up trumps for the Aces against Sheffield in the semis and Peterborough in the final.
Thanks for all that have enjoyed the posts and special thanks to: Speedway Social, Mark Wat19 and ‘Stavros’ on for the support
A Track With A VUE 