Great Britain racer Dan Bewley is elated to have won his first trophy with the Belle Vue Aces and has been reflecting on a brilliant performance in the Grand Final.
The Maryport star roared to home and away maximums in the Rowe Motor Oil Premiership Grand Final against the Leicester Lions.
Bewley went unbeaten on 15 points at the Pidcock Motorcycles Arena on Thursday – following up his 15-pointer in the home leg at the National Speedway Stadium on September 23.
It has been a sensational finish to 2024 for this year’s FIM Speedway GP of Great Britain – Cardiff and British Championship winner, who has also achieved a career-best fourth place in the Speedway GP series and reached the PGE Ekstraliga play-off final with Wroclaw and the Bauhaus Elitserien play-off final with Swedish side Dackarna.
Belle Vue won their first league title since 1993 in 2022, but without Bewley in the side, so he was elated to finally get his hands on a top-flight trophy with the Manchester club, where he first competed at National League level in 2016.
He told the official British Speedway social media channels: “It’s probably even more special for me. I am sure the whole team is over the moon – everyone is. It’s the first time I have won anything with the Aces. I won a couple of things in the National League, but never for the Aces, so it’s pretty special.
“I think this is my first full max home and away this season, so it’s a good time to do it. All the boys chipped in over the two legs, though, so it is a good result for everybody.
“I have just been enjoying my riding. I feel like when you have a good team – and we are all mates in the team – it’s fun coming here.
“We will have a bit of a celebration – maybe a trip to Wales to go mountain biking. I think we are looking forward to that. Thanks to all the fans who made it to Leicester. That was pretty awesome.”
Aces captain Brady Kurtz also went unbeaten at Leicester, scoring 11 paid 12 from four, and he was pleased to see a Belle Vue team that was written off as underdogs going into the play-offs finish as British speedway’s top dogs in 2024.
Kurtz said: “There’s nothing wrong with being underrated! We always had the team. We have such a good line-up. We had the boys who stepped up and did the business when it mattered, and I think that’s all you need in the play-offs.
“It has been a cool season with such a good group of guys. It has been a fun team, and it was really fun to finish off like that.
“It’s such a good club to be part of. I am honoured to be captain. It’s nice to hold that trophy up.
“We have such good fans at Belle Vue and it’s really sick to see them turn out in force. I am happy we brought the trophy home for them.”
Kurtz completed a sensational 24 hours by securing a place in the sport’s individual Grand Prix series for the first time in his career.
Just one day after leading the Aces to ROWE Motor Oil Premiership glory, Kurtz won the GP Challenge at Czech Republic venue Pardubice, scoring 13 points to head up the four qualifiers for next year’s World Championship.
Kurtz said: “The tough conditions normally suit me. I have been fast everywhere in Europe this year and when I saw that it was wet and heavy, it looked like Belle Vue in the rain all over!
“I don’t really have any worries in tough conditions, and I think that’s where I got my advantage.
“It has been a really good year. Years like this don’t come around too often. We won with Rybnik (in Poland), we won with Belle Vue on Thursday, and I am so happy I got it done here too.”
Denmark’s Anders Thomsen and Poland’s Dominik Kubera, who both have recent GP experience, completed the rostrum on the night, and there was also good news for Leicester skipper Max Fricke who took the final place in the 2025 series.
Great Britain’s Tom Brennan scored four points in his first experience of the GP Challenge event.
