Sheffield completed a stunning early season double over Premiership champions Belle Vue with a 47-43 win at the National Speedway Stadium last night.
The Tigers led for much of the meeting in Manchester and secured their victory with a 4-2 in a last-heat decider as Tobiasz Musielak took the win with Jack Holder adding third place.
And the result also gave Simon Stead’s side the re-introduced aggregate bonus point, and a maximum of five points out of five from their opening two matches.
Holder (11) and Musielak (10+1) top-scored for the visitors whilst Aces skipper Brady Kurtz notched 11 and Jaimon Lidsey chipped in with nine.
West Cumbrian Dan Bewley only had one win on the night, picking up just four points and a bonus while Charles Wright, Belle Vue’s other former Workington rider scored five and a bonus point.
It wasn’t a particularly good night for Sheffield skipper Kyle Howarth, another ex-Comet, with four and two bonus point but he was delighted at the team’s success.
Sheffield manager Stead, a former Workington star, said: “We’re obviously delighted with how we’ve started the season – two really good results against a very good Belle Vue team.
“I’m proud of how the lads have applied themselves – it’s early doors and we can’t get carried away, but it’s a really positive start.”
Belle Vue’s Lidsey said: “A few of the boys were struggling tonight. Dan [Bewley] had a bit of a shocker but he’s not one to settle for that, we all know what he can do around the NSS and I’m sure he’ll bounce back.
“There’s a long way still to go this year and I think once we’ve ironed out these early snags, we’ll be back on top and we’ve got a couple of weeks now to regroup before the next one.”
