TOM BRENNAN says that defending Premiership champions Belle Vue have “silenced the critics” after a hat-trick of away wins.
The ATPI Aces have produced a crucial run of victories at Ipswich, Peterborough and Leicester within a week.
They now return to the National Speedway Stadium on Monday night to face Peterborough as they bid to finally get their first home win of the season.
Brennan said: “It’s been a frustrating start to the season to say the least. To have two meetings rained-off already is really hard.
“It’s been a bit stop-start and we need more bike time at the NSS. We lost at home to Sheffield and that hurt quite a bit.
“But we just need a run of fixtures at the NSS. Then we’ll all get dialled in and start to produce results.
“No matter what though, the wins away have proved that we’ve got the team to defend the Premiership title. Everyone wrote us off after two early defeats, now we’re up at the top of the league again.
“We’ve definitely silenced the critics for now. Nothing is won in April so we need to kick on now and get a bit of momentum.”
The wins at Ipswich and Leicester were probably unexpected on difficult tracks.
But Brennan believes that’s the strength of this ATPI Aces squad with a variety of ability on all circuits.
He added: “We can ride big and small tracks. But we have strength in depth. Jaimon Lidsey got 14 and top scored at Peterborough from reserve, that shows how good we can be.
“The main thing for me is that we now get some home advantage. That was possibly our most important aspect of 2022 was big wins at the NSS.
“In previous seasons, because our track is so fair and all riders love it, it was difficult to have any home advantage. We need to make sure we have that again in 2023.
“Peterborough have lost their No.1 Nicki Pedersen but they will still be strong on Monday. They love the track and we’ll have to make sure we are ready for them.
“In a strange way, we are good on their track and they are good at the NSS. They have track specialists at our place.
“But hopefully we can keep this winning run going. Everyone is buzzing again and it’s a good feeling.”
LINE UPS:
Belle Vue Aces: Dan Bewley, Norick Blodorn, Tom Brennan, Charles Wright, Brady Kurtz, Jaimon Lidsey, Jake Mulford.
Peterborough Panthers; Chris Harris (G), Hans Andersen, Ben Basso, Richie Worrall R/R, Niels Kristian Iversen, Ben Cook, Jordan Jenkins.
Words by Holeshot Media.
Images by Taylor Lanning.