Wolves on fire in win at Belle Vue

The teams were led on to the track by an Air Training Corps marching band for Belle Vue's big celebratory meeting last night.

But few of those Aces riders are likely to be there next year after Wolves seized the baton right from the first notes of the overture, going on to win by 57-37.

The Gorton 100 meeting marked the centenary of that district being included in Manchester. The Aces could go another hundred years and not run into this kind of home beating.

So vast was the gulf between the two teams that the Wolves fans massed on their traditional "grassy knoll" on bend two were almost too embarrassed to cheer.

Wolves' dominance was reflected by their 12 race winners, their 20-point victory margin and the fact that no fewer than five of their team were paid for double figures.

The peerless Fredrik Lindgren rolled up another maximum, executing a Monmore Green-style cut-back off the second bend to hit the front in heat five.

Only James Wright headed him, in heat 11, but the Swede flashed instantly through on the inside seconds before partner Nicolai Klindt found a hitherto unsuspected wide dirt line to blast round the Ace.

Klindt was excellent all night, playing the junior role in three 5-1s and a 4-2 on a track not suited to his style.

But if you want youthful zest, Tai Woffinden is very much your man at the moment.

From sheer exuberance the 19-year-old jumped the pits ramp to the track for his second race as if auditioning for the Steve McQueen role in "The Great Escape", having already produced the pass of the night in heat three.

As cunning in its conception as it was precise in its execution, the move was lined up over the course of a lap and a half's probing, before Woffinden went high to the fourth bend boards, sprinted under his rival and went out to take his line on the pits bend.

Pretty much all the rest of the passing involved the hapless Tomasz Chrzanowski. If speedway heats were decided over 50 metres his average would be up there with that of Lindgren.

As it was, the Pole's repeated fate was to see Wolves riders zip past on either side of him before a lap had taken place.

From youth to maturity and skipper Peter Karlsson produced a captain's performance with his paid 12, snuffing out both Belle Vue double-point tactical rides with aplomb.

There was punch at reserve to. Ty Proctor reeled off three fine wins, although there was an air of fortune to the first when Ostergaard fell.

A late brace of victories for Krzystof Kasprzak and one for Wright were the Aces' sole moments of note.

But it's Wolves who were calling the tune.