Following on from the Lakeside Hammers recent home wins against Sky Sports Elite League leaders, the Poole Pirates, and third placed side, the Wolverhampton Wolves, the Essex based Club will be looking to keep the momentum going this Friday, 28th May, when Play Off hopefuls, the Peterborough Panthers, visit the Arena-Essex Raceway.
Earlier this week the Peterborough Management made several changes to their side, which has resulted in three riders joining them and four departing the club. Australian Rory Schlein has joined them from Coventry, Polish rider Kamil Brzozowski will ride in this Country for the first time and Frenchman Mathieu Tresarrieu returns to UK racing following a two year spell away. Friday will be the first time that these new riders will be seen competing for the Panthers. The current Grand Prix leader, Kenneth Bjerre will miss the meeting due to a commitment in his home country of Denmark and the Panthers Management have booked in Ipswich rider, Scott Nicholls as a guest replacement. Bjerre’s fellow Dane, Neils Kristian Iversen, will also be missing for Friday’s important meeting as he has still not recovered from an injury sustained earlier this month. The ‘Rider Replacement’ facility will be used to cover his rides and as he is second in the Panthers averages any of their riders will be permitted to take an additional ride. The remaining two riders to complete the Peterborough line-up are Polish rider Krzysztof Buczkowski and Australian Troy Batchelor.
For the Hammers reserve Paul Hurry is still suffering from the broken finger he sustained in the match against Poole and is likely to be out of the team for another couple of weeks. The Hammers Team manager, Jon Cook, has brought in Australian Kevin Doolan, who rides for the King’s Lynn Stars in the Premier League as a guest replacement. The Australian has been in good form this season and top scored for the Stars earlier this week in their home match against Stoke scoring a 15 point full maximum.
Jon Cook commented: “We need to keep the momentum going on Friday against the new look Peterborough team. They are looking to gain one of the four Play Off places come the end of the season and we are determined to maintain our second place in the table. The Panthers Management appear to have made a good choice for their guest as Scott Nicholls usually goes well around our Raceway. Following our fantastic win on Monday against Wolverhampton in front of the Sky Sports cameras I’m sure the fans will be in for another great evening’s entertainment.”
The action gets underway at the usual Friday start time of 8pm with the parade of riders scheduled for 7.45pm .
