Bewley Becomes British Champion

Belle Vue asset Dan Bewley produced a flawless performance to win his first ever British Championship title at Belle Vue’s National Speedway Stadium on Sunday.

The Cumbrian ace went through the card winning all five of his programmed rides to qualify straight to the Grand Final race with a mixture of fast gating and his trademark dashes from the back.

Bewley blasted clear in the Grand Final, streaking away for the win, to land his first senior national crown, just six short years after making his debut in the sport with the Belle Vue Colts.

And in an afternoon of double delight for Belle Vue fans, Aces’ rising star Tom Brennan claimed second place on the rostrum, whilst another ex-Ace, Glasgow’s Craig Cook took the third spot.

Cook joined Bewley in qualifying straight to the final race after he finished on 13 points from five rides. Meanwhile former champion Danny King led the charge into the semi-final race on 11 points where he was joined by Ashton-Under-Lyne-born Kyle Howarth (10 points), Brennan (10), and reigning British Champion Adam Ellis (9).

It was Aces youngster Brennan who led from the start in the penultimate race to book his place in the Grand Final with the other three were involved in a terrific scrap before King settled into second place to also go through to the final.

Bewley’s victory was never in doubt once the tapes went up for the final, leading from the gate to eventually win by a distance.  Cook briefly got into second before Brennan repassed him to take the silver medal.

The British Championship victory continues a remarkable season for Belle Vue favourite Bewley who recently won both the World Championship British Grand Prix in Cardiff, and the Polish Grand Prix in Wroclaw.

 He said “It was great to be back at Belle Vue for this meeting.  You always want to win meetings like this but it’s extra special to do it in front of my ‘home crowd’ in Manchester.”

“It’s a special feeling to have ticked this one off.  It was good to have gone through the card but that doesn’t mean anything going into the final.  You’ve got three other guys next to you that want it as badly as you, so I knew I needed to make a good start and I’m delighted to have finally won.”

 Tom Brennan, who had been jointly leading the original running of the meeting last month before rain caused its postponement and restaging, was delighted with his silver medal saying “To be known as the British No.2 is pretty special, and the amount of work and effort that went into this meeting, for me, was unbelievable.”

 “It was in my mind from the previous meeting, what I had done and what I would need to do to replicate that.  My family have been a huge inspiration to me and while it would’ve been great to win, I’m over the moon with silver and I couldn’t lose to a better man than Dan.”

Pictures by Ian Charles