KING’S Lynn suffered a nightmare trip to Belle Vue with a 61-29 defeat as their current Premiership problems continued.

The Minors & Brady Stars were blown away inside four races at the National Speedway Stadium, conceding 5-1s in each of those heats as the Aces kept up their impressive home form.

Stars had intended to use Craig Cook as a guest for Niels-Kristian Iversen – but he was ruled out due to illness, and the rider replacement facility proved inadequate against such a strong home team.

The hosts did it from the gate but also from the back, with Jye Etheridge and Norick Blodorn both passing Thomas Jorgensen in Heat 2, whilst a brutal move by Brady Kurtz on Richard Lawson in Heat 3 created space for team-mate Charles Wright to follow him through.

Stars finally looked set to respond in Heat 5 as Richie Worrall and Lewis Kerr hit the front, but Wright worked his way through from the back to pass both visiting riders.

The run of race advantages was pegged, but the Stars could still make little headway with Max Fricke making a smart move off turn two in Heat 7 to get clear of Kerr and Lawson.

There was an awkward tangle in Heat 9 when Jorgensen lifted on turn three and collected Wright, with both riders coming down – and in the re-run, Kurtz swept around Josh Pickering to take another Belle Vue victory.

The Aces roared to another 5-1 in Heat 11 as Tom Brennan and Matej Zagar rounded up Lawson, before Pickering gave the Stars some respite with a win over Fricke in Heat 11.

But the home side marched on with a 4-2 in Heat 12 and then maximum points from Zagar and Fricke in the next as Pickering was passed on the inside.

The Stars captain battled hard in the finale and produced a blockbusting ride to get the better of Fricke and Brennan, taking the win on the line from the British youngster.

But with the Aces still going through the 60-point barrier, it was a sobering defeat for the Stars with their home match against Wolves on Thursday now of paramount importance.

Boss Alex Brady said: “It was a tough night, but when you only have one race winner (Pickering), you don’t deserve anything out of it.

“We were pretty poor tonight, so our apologies to all the King’s Lynn fans and to everyone watching.”

BELLE VUE 61: Max Fricke 11+2, Matej Zagar 11+1, Tom Brennan 10+1, Brady Kurtz 9, Charles Wright 7+1, Jye Etheridge 7+1, Norick Blodorn 6+2.
KING’S LYNN 29: Josh Pickering 14, Thomas Jorgensen 4+1, Richard Lawson 4, Lewis Kerr 3+1, Richie Worrall 2+1, Jason Edwards 2, Niels Kristian-Iversen r/r.