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The Belle Vue Aces have a 14 point advantage as they head into their second leg of their Elite League play-off semi-final next Monday after a 50-36 victory over the Swindon Robins last night in Manchester.
The meeting, which was abandoned after heat 14 due to heavy rain, was a dominant one for the hosts, with guest Andreas Jonsson aiding with 11 points and Josh Grajczonek adding 9+1.
Robins captain Troy Batchelor scored eight as Swindon suffered a nightmare start which included crashes for all three of their heat-leaders.
It was the Aces that began strong from the off as Max Fricke and Jonsson stormed to a 5-1 in the opening heat, and this positive start continued with the Aces building on their early dominance.
By heat ten, the Aces had produced seven heat winners, in addition to successfully negating a Robins tactical ride.
With the meeting coming to a close, the visitors began to close the gap, but it wasn’t enough as time ran out, both on the track and due to the weather.
Belle Vue boss Mark Lemon said: “If you had said to me beforehand that we’d be taking a six-point lead into the second leg I’d have been happy, so to be taking a 14-point lead down to Blunsdon is just tremendous.
“We’re in a play off situation where every point scored is as crucial as the next and the boys gave an exceptional performance tonight. They all did their job and we really hit the ground running.”
Swindon boss Alun Rossiter said: “It’s a big gap for us to overcome going into the second leg, but you can never say never. The reserves did a good job really, they battled hard and scored pretty well but it was our heat-leaders that let us down a bit.
“We are going to need a big wake-up call for the second leg next week, but I’m sure we can do it. We won’t give up, we’ll pick ourselves up and keep believing we can overcome the deficit.”
Belle Vue Aces 50
Andreas Jonsson (G) 11; Josh Grajczonek 9+1; Scott Nicholls 8; Steve Worrall 7+2; Craig Cook 6+2; Stefan Nielsen 5+1; Max Fricke 4+1
Swindon Robins 36
Troy Batchelor 8; Charles Wright 7+1; Peter Kildemand 6; Nick Morris 5; Aaron Summers 4; Lewis Rose 3+2; Grzegorz Zengota 3.
