NEWPORT star Jason Doyle has been added to the line-up for the Premier League Riders’ Championship at Sheffield on Sunday.Doyle comes in as the next highest-averaged rider in the league after Rye House’s Chris Neath was ruled out having suffering concussion in a motocross accident last weekend. The Rockets will still be represented in the Owlerton showpiece event by Jordan Frampton.Sheffield co-promoter David Hoggart, who is also the co-ordinator of British Speedway’s major events series, says the strong field means many riders will be in with a chance of victory, with the home side represented by Shane Parker and Ricky Ashworth.Hoggart said: “We have the best field available, riders who have all beaten each other around the Premier League circuits and whilst many of us would like to see Shane retire at the very top we may as well paint a target on his racesuit as there are 15 others who will do their damnedest to prevent that.“It’s a terrific line-up and I know the majority of the crowd will be willing Shane and Ricky on for the title but we are expecting lots of travelling support.“We’ve been told there are coaches coming down from Scotland and once again Sheffield Speedway are very proud to be hosting this prestigious national event.“There is no better sight than the terraces packed out under lights with the riders battling so very hard for the title. It should be a great night.”PLRC DRAW: Jason Doyle (Newport), Ben Barker (Plymouth), Aaron Summers (Redcar), Shane Parker (Sheffield), Kevin Wolbert (Edinburgh), Charlie Gjedde (Newport), Mark Lemon (Newcastle), Sebastian Alden (Berwick), Sam Masters (Somerset), Kauko Nieminen (Leicester), Rusty Harrison (Workington), Kevin Doolan (Ipswich), Joe Screen (Glasgow), Tero Aarnio (Scunthorpe), Ricky Ashworth (Sheffield), Jordan Frampton (Rye House).
PHIL Morris has described the inaugural British 125cc Youth Championship last weekend as a “fantastic night of racing.”The event was staged at Eastbourne following the Eagles’ KO Cup semi-final against Poole, and after a successful night Morris feels it will now have a regular place on the calendar.Henry Atkins took the honours, going through the card unbeaten in qualifying races and Final, with Jack P Blackburn and Ben Woodhull also on the rostrum and Lewis Whitmore in fourth place.Morris said: “It was a fantastic night of racing on a track that was very wet due to persistent rain throughout the twelve heats. The rain only eased for the Final.“Henry was a very deserving winner as he won all of his heats and the big Final which counted. Jack was second and has improved beyond recognition, and Ben had another solid meeting and was always in line for a podium place.“Lewis is a very intelligent rider who has already got a fantastic racing brain by using outside swoops and cut-back moves to pass riders after his bad starts.“The other eight riders all had great races. Young Tom Brennan was unlucky to have an engine failure on the start-line of his first race, and he then used borrowed equipment from William O’Keefe and just missed the Final by a point, and Kenny Bowdery missed out because of a fall when leading a heat. A special note must go to Jack Collins and Macauley Leek who had two really special races when they raced by side-by-side.“We would like to thank the BSPA for sanctioning the event, Eastbourne for running it, and Wessex Marina for sponsoring it. Everyone voted it a great success, and I’m sure this will definitely now be an annual event.”SUPER7EVEN SERIES SPEEDWAY GB EVENTSBRITISH UNDER-21 FINAL: TAI WOFFINDENELITE LEAGUE PAIRS: POOLEBRITISH FINAL: SCOTT NICHOLLSPREMIER LEAGUE PAIRS: GLASGOWPREMIER LEAGUE RIDERS CHAMPIONSHIP: Sheffield, September 25 ELITE LEAGUE RIDERS CHAMPIONSHIP: Swindon, October 15 PREMIER LEAGUE FOURS FINAL: Leicester, October 23
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BELLE VUE boss Jim Lynch paid tribute to No.1 Rory Schlein, who played a vital role in the Aces’ shock KO Cup win at Peterborough – despite being absent due to shoulder and hand injuries suffered in the first leg!Lynch said: “When Rory came out of our treatment room, en route to Manchester Royal Infirmary for X-rays, he told Chris Harris he could borrow his engines.“Rory’s motors are flying and Chris took the chance to prove his recent problems are mechanical by blasting to 16 points. He was awesome. It was an amazing win by the lads and Rory was there in spirit. He even thought of the team on his way to hospital.”BIRMINGHAM promoter Graham Drury admits that problems with Polish club Tarnow mean that Krzysztof Kasprzak may well have ridden his last race for the Brummies.Drury said: “It’s not been good enough, and I would have to say at this stage that unless something dramatic changes at the Polish end, he has probably ridden for Birmingham for the last time, which is a shame.“I don’t regret signing him because he’s had a pretty good record with his previous clubs, but for some reason this season something happened where his Polish club were struggling and they thought they could just ban their Polish riders from coming over here.”COVENTRY boss Alun Rossiter has praised Danish star Kenni Larsen, who has ridden through the pain barrier in recent weeks only to take another knock to his broken wrist in last Thursday’s 45-45 draw against King’s Lynn.Rossiter said: “We’re pleased with Kenni this season, I appreciate his efforts and he certainly came on strong towards the end in some important matches.“He’s always been really keen to ride for Coventry, and it’s very nice when you get people like that. You see those people in this sport who don’t have any commitment but he’s totally the opposite, and all credit to him for that.”EASTBOURNE recovered from an early 23-13 deficit at Lakeside on Monday to take only a one-point deficit into next week’s play-off semi-final second leg against the Hammers.Manager Trevor Geer said: “We’re certainly pleased with that, to come from ten points down was a good effort and we have to be confident ahead of the second leg.“There again we were confident before we raced at home Poole (in the KO Cup) last Saturday, so you never know what’s going to happen at Eastbourne!”KING’S LYNN boss Rob Lyon is remaining positive ahead of next Monday’s play-off semi-final second leg, after seeing the Stars’ eleven-point lead cut to three during the final three heats of their home match against Poole.Lyon said: “To get into that position when we had done all the hard work, it was a shame. The turning point was Heat 11 when (Kevin) Wolbert came alive. We hit back, but in Heats 13 and 15 you can’t take it away from the Aussie boys, they were a class above.“Fair play to Poole, they came back at us really well. I thought they might crumble after about ten heats but credit to them. We have done that before away from home this season. We have got a three-point lead and we have to go with the attitude of winning the meeting – and getting the boys up for it.” LAKESIDE manager Neil Vatcher admitted the Hammers had not hit their first leg target in defeating Eastbourne 47-46 on Monday – but he says they can still go to Arlington with the aim of upsetting the Eagles.Vatcher said: “We were looking for a ten or twelve point lead because Eastbourne are strong at home. But having said that, we went to Eastbourne earlier in the season without two of our heat-leaders and we took them to a last-heat decider, so it’s not all over.“We’ll go there next Monday and give it our very best shot. Poole went there last Saturday and won by twelve, so Eastbourne aren’t invincible. We’ve got to re-group and focus on a big night next Monday.”PETERBOROUGH manager Wayne Swales admits the Panthers’ shock Knockout Cup exit at the hands of a weakened Belle Vue team came as a massive disappointment to all at the Showground.Swales said: “That’s not a nice way to end the season really with a surprise defeat as well. I know you take every meeting as it comes but we would have expected to have come out of that with a win to be honest.“We lost it at reserve, our two got one point from eight rides while the Belle Vue reserves got 15 paid 17 and that’s the difference. We didn’t expect Hans to come back and get 12s and 14s so we can’t blame him for it. The two reserves just didn’t even look like scoring points and that’s a real surprise because they’ve had some excellent meetings.”POOLE boss Neil Middleditch declared himself satisfied with the outcome of Monday’s play-off semi-final first leg, with reserve Kevin Wolbert stepping up to support Chris Holder and Darcy Ward and keep the Pirates within three points of opponents King’s Lynn.Middleditch said: “I’m pleased, because halfway through the meeting it was looking a bit grim for us. But Chris and Davey were just unbelievable and I’m proud to be their manager.“Kevin really learnt quickly and was a big bonus for us. Chris was helping him with some of the set-ups, and although it was a bit of patchwork team they gelled together really well.”SWINDON will remember one of their all-time greats in Thursday’s Bob Kilby Memorial meeting at Blunsdon, with teams representing his three clubs – the Robins, Exeter and Oxford – all taking to the track.Swindon co-promoter Gary Patchett said: “We are delighted to be staging this meeting and we hope supporters of Oxford and Exeter take the opportunity to come and see their teams in action one more time. We would love to see the sport return to both cities and we staged a very successful meeting along similar lines two years ago including a Cradley Heath team and they now have a side in the National League.“I am also hoping fans who perhaps no longer come and watch the sport but remember Bob Kilby will come along to support the event which is in his memory.”WOLVERHAMPTON star Tai Woffinden admits he doesn’t want the season to end as he has hit a rich vein of form with four successive home maximums, including his win in the Gary Peterson Memorial Trophy on Monday.Woffinden said: “I’m feeling so confident on the bike now, I feel more relaxed and I don’t put myself under any pressure these days, I just go out there to give it my best in every race.“The bikes feel really good and it’s just a shame the season is coming to an end, I feel really good and I think I only have seven or eight meetings left between now and the end of October.”
PREMIER LEAGUE LATEST…
BERWICK’S patched-up team recorded a narrow 43-41 home win over Rye House in a meeting abandoned one race short due to the curfew just after they had taken the lead – the second time that has occurred in Bandits/Rockets matches this season!Boss Ian Rae said: “It was an excellent spectacle for the crowd who lapped up every move, every pass and every thrilling moment provided by the 12 riders on show, all of whom deserve high praise indeed for their efforts.”EDINBURGH star Kevin Wolbert says he is happy with his current form – after dominating the scoring in the Monarchs’ 54-39 defeat at Redcar last Thursday, with the German piling up a 16-point total.Wolbert said: “I’m on an engine I crashed with last season, but it seems to be going pretty well for me just now. I’m quite happy with the way I’m riding at the moment.”GLASGOW manager Stewart Dickson believes his side will face a tough battle against in-form Newport if they are to lift the Knockout Cup, with Final dates set for the first two days of October.Dickson said: “I actually think they might start favourites as their rebuild to their team has made them pretty strong. However, we have only raced them the once this season so far and that was the day after we lost Josh Grajczonek so I wouldn't read too much into that.”IPSWICH will hand a Foxhall debut to Australian youngster Cameron Heeps on his 16th birthday in the 16-lap Classic on October 27 – and a full team place with the Witches next season is expected.Heeps said: “That’s the plan, and to double-up with Mildenhall. I’m loving it over here, and this has always been my dream since I started riding bikes at the age of four. I can move up to the Premier League on my birthday and Chris (Louis) tells me that he has put me in the field for the 16-lap meeting at Ipswich.”LEICESTER boss Jason Attwood was delighted to see his side put an end to a recent barren run with two wins in two days – away at Scunthorpe and at home to Somerset.Attwood said: “It was a big monkey off our backs, myself included, because every week it’s been ‘you’ve not won a league match since April’ so to get seven points from the weekend was fantastic. It’s been coming and now we want to do more of the same against Redcar this week.”NEWCASTLE promoter George English offered congratulations to opponents Glasgow after the Tigers emerged as winners by six-points after two hard-fought KO Cup semi-final meetings on the same day.English said: “It was a marathon session, and the racing to the end got extremely physical, but Glasgow’s strength in depth won through and we wish them well in their task to win the Cup over Newport. Our top two of Stuart Robson and Mark Lemon are freshly back from major injuries and perhaps this many races in one day and the trip down the motorway between meetings took too much of a toll on their scoring power, but that is speedway and I reiterate we wish Glasgow the very best of luck in the final.”NEWPORT are through to their first major Final in twelve years, having overcome Workington over two legs in the Knockout Cup semi-final last weekend.The Wasps did their hard work in the first leg, defeating the Comets 59-31 at Queensway Meadows, and promoter Steve Mallett said: “It was good to see the Wasps put on another terrific show, especially in such tricky conditions.”PLYMOUTH promoter Mike Bowden admits that Kyle Hughes is a major doubt for the Devils’ run-in after struggling to find form since his recent injury. Bowden said: “Kyle went through the fence in the first race at Rye House and that shook him up. He scored only one point from three rides and I decided to take him out of his final scheduled race. I will be having a word with him, but it is clear that his confidence is shot to pieces.”REDCAR will open a new grandstand at the South Tees Motorsport Park this Thursday when the Bears take on Leicester in their latest Premier League fixture.Promoter Brian Havelock said: “We have come a long way as a club since the sport was re-launched on Teesside in 2006. Following the opening of a well-appointed clubhouse two years ago we now are able to accommodate 180 spectators in comfort with our new stand on the fourth bend adjacent to the pits.”RYE HOUSE manager John Sampford refused to criticise reserve Nelson, who fell in the final race of the Rockets’ Premier League match at Berwick which handed a narrow two-point win to the Bandits.Sampford said: “Nelson was chasing hard after Ricky Wells. If he had passed him, we’d have won. If he hadn’t, but he’d stayed on, we’d have drawn. It was his seventh ride of the night and he was getting tired. But you can’t fault him for effort. His racing instinct just kicked in.”SCUNTHORPE promoter Rob Godfrey is keen that his side quickly put their surprise home defeat against Leicester behind them, with more important meetings to come before the end of the season.Godfrey said: “We can’t do much about it now. We’ve just got to make sure we win our next one, against Newport. That’s a big meeting because they’re a club who could climb the table with a couple of away wins and we have to make sure they don’t get one against us.”SHEFFIELD manager Eric Boocock says he fully understands why Tigers’ No.1 Shane Parker wants to bow out of the sport whilst he is still a major force at Premier League level.Boocock said: “He says he wants to go out on top, and I do understand him because I got out of speedway when I was on a ten-point average, I’d had enough and there was no-one who was going to talk me out of it. I was only 30 when I quit and I know what he’s feeling like.”SOMERSET have rescheduled their Somerset Open Championship for September 30, with the line-up set to feature Bjarne Pedersen, Jordan Frampton, Charlie Gjedde and Claus Vissing as well as the majority of the current Rebels septet.Promoter Debbie Hancock said: “It was always our intention to try and re-stage the Somerset Open. The meeting will be ‘dedicated’ to our charity partners for 2011, The National Autistic Society, the meeting being titled as the ‘NAS Somerset Open Championship’, who will not only present the trophies at the end of the meeting, but will also undertake a collection on the night to help boost their funds.”WORKINGTON boss Tony Jackson has admitted defeat in the club’s bid to find a replacement for Peter Kildemand, who has told the Comets promotion that he will not be able to continue for the rest of the season, with the transfer deadline having passed last week.Jackson said: “We have not managed to get anybody, which has been incredibly frustrating. We have had a chat about it, and it is a shame we cannot bring anybody in and having to operate rider replacement for the rest of the season is far from ideal.”FIXTURE PICTURE…
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 21:PREMIER LEAGUE: Somerset v Edinburgh 7.30
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 22:PREMIER LEAGUE: Ipswich v Berwick 7.30, Redcar v Leicester 7.30 MIDLAND CUP 1st leg: Birmingham v Coventry 7.30 BOB KILBY MEMORIAL: Swindon 7.30
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 23:PREMIER LEAGUE: Edinburgh v Somerset 7.30, Scunthorpe v Newport 7.30 MIDLAND CUP 2nd leg: Coventry v Birmingham 8pm
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 24:PREMIER LEAGUE: Leicester v Redcar 7.30, Newport v Scunthorpe 7pm, Rye House v Sheffield 7pm, Workington v Ipswich 7pm NATIONAL LEAGUE: Stoke v Newport 7.30 FENCE FUND CHALLENGE TROPHY: Berwick v Edinburgh’s Tartan Army 7pm
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 25:PREMIER LEAGUE RIDERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP: Sheffield 5pm NATIONAL LEAGUE: Newport v Scunthorpe 6pm NATIONAL LEAGE KO CUP FINAL 1st leg: Mildenhall v Stoke 4.30 BRITISH YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 6: Stoke 1pm
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 26:ELITE LEAGUE PLAY-OFF SEMI-FINAL 2nd leg: Eastbourne v Lakeside 7.30, Poole v King’s Lynn 7.30 PREMIER LEAGUE: Glasgow v Sheffield 5pm
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 28:ELITE LEAGUE KO CUP SEMI-FINAL 1st leg: Belle Vue v Lakeside 8pm
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 29:PREMIER LEAGUE: Ipswich v Newcastle 7.30, Sheffield v Workington 7.45 TEESSIDE SILVER HELMET: Redcar 7.30
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 30:ELITE LEAGUE KO CUP SEMI-FINAL 2nd leg: Lakeside v Belle Vue 8pm PREMIER LEAGUE: Edinburgh v Leicester 7.30, Plymouth v Sheffield 7.30, Scunthorpe v Glasgow 7.30 SOMERSET OPEN: Somerset 7.30
SATURDAY OCTOBER 1:PREMIER LEAGUE: Leicester v Edinburgh 7.30, Workington v Rye House 7pm PREMIER LEAGUE KO CUP FINAL 1st leg: Newport v Glasgow 7pm NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAY-OFF S/F 1st leg: Stoke v Mildenhall 7.30BORDERNAPOLIS: Berwick 7pm
SUNDAY OCTOBER 2:PREMIER LEAGUE: Rye House v Scunthorpe 2pm, Newcastle v Berwick 6.30 PREMIER LEAGUE KO CUP FINAL 2nd leg: Glasgow v Newport 4pm NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAY-OFF S/F 2nd leg: Mildenhall v Stoke 4.30 NATIONAL LEAGUE: Buxton v Newport 3pm
MONDAY OCTOBER 3:SKY SPORTS ELITE LEAGUE GRAND FINAL 1st leg
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 5:NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAY-OFF S/F 1st leg: Belle Vue v Sheffield 8pmCHALLENGE: King’s Lynn v USA Touring Team 7.30
