LEICESTER were brought back down to earth after their KO Cup triumph as they were beaten 61-29 in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership at Belle Vue on Monday.
The Watling JCB Lions once again found the power of the Aces at the National Speedway Stadium too hot to handle, with the league leaders repeating the scoreline of the previous Manchester meeting between the sides in June.
The final margin was arguably harsh on the Lions, who on many occasions looked to have got themselves into decent positions only to be undone by the superior speed and track knowledge of their hosts.
But with Belle Vue clearly destined for the play-offs, and strong title favourites at this stage, finding the key to avoiding damage of this kind at the NSS will be essential if the Lions are to add to their silverware.
They were limited to three race wins on the night, two of them coming back-to-back from Ryan Douglas in Heats 11 and 12.
Douglas won a fierce battle with Jason Doyle in the first of those, repassing his fellow Australian into the second lap, and he then took a tactical substitute outing in the next race and stormed inside Peter Kildemand on the third bend to take the win.
But the Aces gained revenge in the closing stages, first when maximum man Brady Kurtz and Doyle overtook Douglas on successive laps in Heat 13, and then with Doyle and Zach Cook carding another 5-1 in Heat 15 with Cook showing a real turn of speed after a last place in Heat 3.
Nick Morris was the Lions’ other race winner as he did well to hold off Kildemand in his first ride, but his night then went backwards including a frustrating Heat 7 where he led the race only to be picked off by Doyle, and then as he was looking to back around the Aces heat-leader, home guest Mitch McDiarmid shot through to take second place.
Lions’ own stand-in rider Jonas Jeppesen was always in the action and defeated an opponent in three of his five rides, whilst Dan Thompson looked very fast in Heat 10 when he dived inside Norick Blodorn and put pressure on Kurtz.
But he too found himself shuffled out of promising positions on other occasions – including Heat 14 when Cook and McDiarmid somehow found a route to the front on the third bend as the Aces completed the meeting with three successive 5-1s.
Lions manager Stewart Dickson said: “We’re still in second place in the table, but obviously our away form on a couple of tracks is a bit of a concern.
“If you’re going to win the play-offs, you’re going to have to come here and do a better job than what we’ve done this season.
“We prepared for the meeting with the right intentions and I can’t question the riders’ effort. They were all trying really hard, but unfortunately we’ve been blown away again here for the third time this season, and we have to try and figure that out.
“You can’t feel sorry for yourselves because then you’ll just get run over even more, and to be fair I don’t think we did that. But the home team have got unbelievable speed around here, and again it wasn’t our night.”
Lions are back on the road on Thursday with a trip to Sheffield in the first of back-to-back fixtures against the Tigers with the home return on Thursday August 13.
BELLE VUE 61: Jason Doyle 12+2, Brady Kurtz 12, Zach Cook 11+1, Mitch McDiarmid 8+3, Norick Blodorn 8+2, Peter Kildemand 5, Will Cairns 5.
LEICESTER 29: Ryan Douglas 10+1, Jonas Jeppesen 6, Nick Morris 4, Dan Thompson 4, Joe Thompson 2, Drew Kemp 2, Sam Masters 1.
Photo credit: IAN CHARLES
