Belle Vue Aces win British Speedway Premiership title to end 29 years of hurt as they beat Sheffield Tigers

ByEurosport

Updated 13/10/2022 at 22:41 GMT

The Belle Vue Aces weathered a mid-meeting Sheffield Tigers storm to win the British Speedway Premiership title at Owlerton. The Tigers began the meeting with the daunting task of overhauling a 12-point deficit. However, after 10 heats, the deficit was down to two, but an exclusion for Tobiasz Musielak in Heat 11 re-set the momentum and the Aces won the title with one heat to spare.

Belle Vue win British Speedway Premiership title to end 29 years of hurt

The Belle Vue Aces won the British Speedway Premiership, beating the Sheffield Tigers 90-84 after the second leg of the grand final.

The Aces had lost four finals in the last seven years, and team manager Mark Lemon was in a state of disbelief in the wake of the win.

‘It is elation beyond belief,” said Lemon

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“I didn’t think this could happen. So much hard work has gone into this. The fans have waited 29 years for this – they have waited so long and look at them, they are loving it!”

The Sheffield Tigers welcomed Belle Vue to Owlerton for the second leg trailing 39-51 after Robert Lambert produced a 15-point maximum performance at the National Speedway Stadium in the first-leg to put Belle Vue in firm control.

However, Simon Stead’s Tigers had beaten the Aces 57-33 last month at Owlerton and, drawing on that experience, they made steady progress, cutting the arrears to eight points after seven heats.

And when Lewis Kerr and Connor Mountain collected places one and two for a 5-1 in heat 8, with the gap down to four, the Tigers’ designs on a first-ever top-flight title began to grow; and when Kerr won heat 10, with Jack Holder third, the lead was down to two.

Heat 11, though, would re-set the momentum.

The race was stopped after Brady Kurtz came off and slid under the air fence, and when Tobiasz Musielak was excluded, the Belle Vue Aces were afforded a 5-1. Kurtz was awarded first place, with Matej Zagar in second and Justin Sedgmen collecting just one point for the Tigers.

The Aces had established a six-point advantage at 81-75, and were now in touching distance of a first national title since their 1993 British League Division One, and Heat 14 saw Tom Brennan and Norick Blodorn collect second and third to bring 29 years of hurt to an end for the Belle Vue Aces.