Tape’s Up, Your Local Paper, Wednesday, April 9, 2025
After the home and away cup successes against Oxford to start the season, this past week has seen the Stars return to earth with a bump.
Last week’s home loss against Belle Vue was down to bad luck, but Monday’s 57-33 defeat in the return meeting at the National Speedway Stadium was a sobering experience.
Mechanical issues didn’t help with Chris ‘Bomber’ Harris stopping while comfortably winning Heat 2, but in truth, it made very little difference to the final scoreline on the night.
The Stars struggled for race wins with only Ben Cook and Richard Lawson the ones to take the chequered flag.
In comparison, the Aces won 13 of the 15 heats with their top three of Brady Kurtz, Dan Bewley and Jaimon Lidsey accounting for ten heat wins between them.
For the first time this season, the Stars' strength in depth didn’t kick in. Niels-Kristian Iversen top scored with 11 points and Ben Cook scored an encouraging 7+1 from the number 1 position, but other than those two, it was a disappointing evening all-round.
However, we won’t be the only team to go to Belle Vue and struggle this season. They are a side that are traditionally strong at home so we shouldn’t be too down beat by the result.
On Thursday, the Stars face another daunting away trip to Sheffield. The Tigers have of course been rocked by the devastating injury to Tai Woffinden before they even rode a meeting this season.
However, last week they demolished Birmingham on their own patch by 61-29 with former Stars favourite Anders Rowe scoring a paid maximum on debut.
The Tigers are another side with top-end power with the Holder brothers and Josh Pickering forming a formidable top three even without the absent Woffinden.
It will be vital that the Stars middle and lower order get the better of their counterparts if the Stars are to get a positive result.
Whatever the result at Sheffield, it will be important for the Stars to get a win against the Leicester Lions at the Adrian Flux Arena next Monday.
The Lions are one the sides that we will be competing with for a play-off spot come the end of the season.
The Lions started off with a comprehensive 57-33 win at Birmingham to open their season but were then run close by same opponents in their home leg before sealing a 46-44 win.
Last season, the Lions won on their first visit before a makeshift Stars side saw them off with a thrilling win at the end of the season.
The meeting is sure to be a close contest but I’m confident we will get a good result to kickstart our season again.
The past week has seen the speedway season get into full swing and it’s been encouraging to see some good performances from Stars riders in meetings across the UK and Europe.
Nicolai Klindt reached the semi-finals of the Championship Pairs at Workington on Saturday.
He then followed that up by finishing runner-up in the prestigious Alfred Smoczyk Memorial meeting at Leszno, only losing out to Grand Prix star Dominik Kubera in a run-off for the title.
Chris Harris was also in action in the Championship Pairs and also reached the semi-finals before being knocked out by eventual winners the Redcar Bears. Harris continued his fine start to the season by winning the Championship Riders’ Final at Scunthorpe on Sunday.
Harris made one of his textbook slow starts but rode a remarkable opening lap to dive between Kyle Howarth and Steve Worrall to claim the title.
His celebrations as he crossed the line show that even at 42 years-old, he still retains the passion for winning titles.
But after a tough evening for them both at Belle Vue on Monday, a couple of days to rest and re-group before Sheffield will be just what’s needed.
On the podcast this week, we have Max Perry as our guest as we look forward to the start of the Young Stars National Development Trophy campaign, which gets underway at Birmingham on Monday.
The club has assembled a very youthful side which is full of promise for the future.
The side is spearheaded by Jody Scott and Luke Harrison with Ashton Vale and Perry forming a solid middle order.
Harrison Rodgers and local motocross rider Calum Mitchell are taking their first steps into league speedway.
The final rider is arguably the most exciting addition in the form of Cooper Rushen.
Rushen is a talented prospect who has just turned 15 years old and has already won the 125cc British Youth Championship twice and followed that up by winning the 250cc Championship last year.
He is exactly the type of young rider the club needs to be attracting for the future.
The Pride of the East podcast is available to listen on Spotify or Amazon and we can now also be found on YouTube Music with all episodes available for free.
