LEICESTER continue their push for the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership play-offs when they head to Manchester to face Belle Vue on Monday (7.30pm).
The Watling JCB Lions have a nine-point cushion on King’s Lynn in the race for the top four, and the Aces are the side immediately above them in the standings.
Belle Vue have 24 points from 15 matches compared to the Lions’ 21 from 14, but notably the Aces have an unbeaten home record.
Last week they demolished Birmingham 60-30 at the National Speedway Stadium, which by coincidence is the margin the Lions have to defend for the aggregate point after their own emphatic home win last month.
The Aces’ top three of Brady Kurtz, Dan Bewley and Jaimon Lidsey all scored maximums against the Brummies, and Kurtz is now unbeaten in his last four matches at the NSS, and for 19 rides in total.
The last time the Australian dropped a point on his home track was on the occasion of the Lions’ previous visit way back on May 19 when he finished last in Heat 10 behind Ryan Douglas and Kyle Howarth.
Lions will look to their influential skipper Max Fricke to lead the charge on his old home track, with Ryan Douglas also going into the meeting off the back of a paid-18 maximum in last Thursday’s win over Oxford.
It will be rider replacement once again for the injured Luke Becker at No.2, whilst the Aces are boosted by the return of Norick Blodorn after a knee injury.
Lions boss Stewart Dickson said: “I’ve never won at Belle Vue in my life, so it would be nice to try and win there!
“We do have a 30-point lead so at the very minimum I would expect a point, but the way the boys are going let’s see if we can get more.
“We’ve never turned up there with all of them showing the consistency they need. It’s one of those tracks that everybody can ride but you need to have the set-up spot on.
“We know that they’ve got top, top riders but we have our own GP rider as well, so we’ll see what we can do and a minimum one point keeps on the tails of the other teams.
“Our form last year took us up to second place in the table and although it’s the top four who qualify for the play-offs I don’t want us to be contesting fourth place – I want us to get as high up the table as possible.”
BELLE VUE: Brady Kurtz, Norick Blodorn, Jaimon Lidsey, Zach Cook, Dan Bewley, Tate Zischke, Jake Mulford.
LEICESTER: Max Fricke, Luke Becker r/r, Ryan Douglas, Kyle Howarth, Sam Masters, Drew Kemp, Joe Thompson.
