Jason Doyle reigned supreme during the Peter Craven Memorial meeting on Monday evening at Belle Vue, and in doing so, made history by becoming the first rider to win the prestigious title on four separate occasions.
Having safely negotiated his programmed heats, finishing third behind Brady Kurtz and Niels Kristian Iversen, Jason made a customary jet propelled start to lead a tapes to flag victory, ahead of Robert Lambert and Dan Bewley in the 6 man final.
This gave Jason his first victory in the meeting since 2020, and no rider in the 56 year history of the event has stood on the top podium as many times as Jason, nor has any rider managed to achieve three wins on the bounce.
At 37 years of age, Jason is now in the twilight of his career, but still in the UK, he continues to be a force, as his scores would still suggest, he is at the top of his game. In 2022, Jason was winning races for fun, 71 times last season out of his 95 races, did Jason hit the flag first, that's a whopping 75%. Cain and Myself still love to poke fun at Rob, especially the alarming stat this season that Jason didn't manage to win a race at Peterborough last week, albeit, four times finishing behind his partner. I guess that even Jason needs to understand the with a rider like Emil around, there may be a few occasions where he can't win races, but at least settle in behind.
But still, outside of the UK, there is still that lingering doubt, that can Jason ever recapture the dominance he shows in the UK? I like to deal in facts, and facts I shall deal. I begin with the World Championships, and since his title in 2017, and arguably had it not been for injury, he would now be a double World Champion, he has not recorded an overall rank above 6th. In fact, his 10th of 2022, is the lowest he has ever finished in the series, since he began in 2015. Now, we can all argue that the calibre of rider in the SGP is far greater than that of UK racing, and this is true, but Jason never truly looked settled in 2022. We will watch with great interest in 2023, to see if he can still mix it with the best, especially as Jason has already stated that he "was terrible last season" and "simply didn't have the pace"
Jason hopes a "massive change" in 2023 will elevate him back amongst the best in the world, because a wild card spot in 2024 may not be an option, something I believe he was extremely lucky to receive in 2023.
Over to Poland, and another new club for 2023 in Krosno, after previous spells with Torun, Zielona Gora, Czestochowa and Leszno over the past 8 years. In reality, Krosno don't have a great look about them for 2023, as they look to stay in the Ekstraliga after a Liga 1 title in 2022. A lot will depend on Jason, and his form in 2023, as in terms of back up, returning duo Andrejs Lebedevs and Vaclav Milik have a lot of pressure on their shoulders. Marko Levishyn is an emerging talent I like, but the less I say about Krzysztof Kasprzak, probably the better, at this stage!!!
Back to Jason, and in 2022, we saw his average fall below 2 in Poland for the first time since his debut with Torun in 2015, or in Layman's terms, close to the 8.00 mark. And if we compare his 71/95 race wins in UK, in Poland, its a mere 26/84, a lowly 31%. Again, the calibre of rider in Poland, is still greater than that of the UK, but the pressure this season will be far greater in a lesser team, and I mean that in the greatest respect to Krosno, compared to that of Leszno. How will Jason react to the added pressure of holding a club's fortunes together?
2023 could be a massive season for Jason, whether it be on the World Stage, or in Poland, Sweden or the UK, but one thing that Monday night proved is Jason is still one of, if not THE, best rider in the UK. I wouldn't want Rob to hear me say this too many times but Jason is still a joy to watch, and we can only hope he misses the start sometimes because he has genuine pace, whatever the track. Lets be honest, to go from winning a meeting at Wolves to Belle Vue isn't for everyone.
For the rest of this week, and the Podcast, please take the time to visit our Social Media pages and vote in our Rider of the Week. I will be sharing these again as you get to decide who picks up the second award of the Round the Boards season. Friday evening will see our Meeting of the Week and Edinburgh vs Glasgow in the first Scottish derby of the season. This week will see the first leg of Sheffield vs King's Lynn on BSN in the KO Cup, a meeting I have invested interest in, and after Monday at Wolverhampton, we have to be better, much better!!!
For now, I hope you enjoy the speedway you watch this week, there's lots to be positive for over the coming weeks and months, and we can all do our bit to promote the sport, whether that be word of mouth or social media, a huge tool.
Speak later!!!
Nathan
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