CHAMP TAI – JOIN THE RIDE!TAI Woffinden is ready to step up his planning for the big £100,000 charity fund raising project for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity.Woffinden wants British Speedway fans to get right behind him and show their support as he prepares for this summer’s cycle ride to coincide with the British FIM Speedway Grand Prix at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium.The ride will start on Friday July 11 from a venue near Newport. Further staging posts, where fans can join the ride, will be placed one hour, and half an hour from Cardiff to cater for both age and ability.All riders will arrive at a Premier Inn location in Cardiff centre where they will be fed and watered before the final few hundred metres to the Millennium Stadium itself. Once there, Tai and his followers will complete an underground lap of the complex before riding up the pit ramp onto the famous Cardiff track. A lap of that will follow, then a ride up victory lane to the podium where individual photographs will be signed by the World Champion, with his trophy.All riders will then be able to use organised changing facilities before being allowed to stay and watch the GP practice session, which starts at 3pm.All in all, a once in a lifetime opportunity for YOU to rub shoulders with Tai and experience the unique aura of this iconic venue.The rules are simple. You must be aged 16 yrs and above. You must have a roadworthy bicycle. And, most important, you must raise at least £100 yourself and deliver your raised total on the morning of the ride.Places are limited to ONE HUNDRED PEOPLE! Tai is hopeful that four fans from each of 25 British Speedway clubs will join him in this endeavour. If you would like the chance to participate, please visit the Speedway office at your next meeting, leave your contact details and pay £1 towards the charity to enter the draw.At a time and date to be announced, Tai himself will conduct an online LIVE draw to select the four fans from each club who will make up the lucky 100 for this magical experience!And finally, several of Tai's buddies are joining in! Confirmed so far - Belle Vue Promoter CHRIS MORTON and American GP Superstar GREG HANCOCK.More names to follow soon!Good Luck!
SPEEDWAYGB EVENTS SERIES 2014:ELITE RIDERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP: Re-staging TBCBRITISH UNDER-21 FINAL: JOSH BATESBRITISH FINAL: Wolverhampton, June 16PREMIER LEAGUE PAIRS: Somerset, July 11PREMIER LEAGUE FOURS: Peterborough, August 3PREMIER RIDERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP: Sheffield, September 21NATIONAL LEAGUE MAJOR EVENTS:NATIONAL LEAGUE PAIRS: Mildenhall, June 15NATIONAL LEAGUE FOURS: Coventry, August 10NATIONAL LEAGUE RIDERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP: Rye House, September 28BRITISH SPEEDWAY FIM EVENT DATES:WORLD UNDER-21 CHAMPIONSHIP Semi-Final: MIKKEL BECHGRAND PRIX QUALIFIER: Berwick, June 7
ELITE LEAGUE LATEST…
BELLE VUE maintained their 100 per cent home record with victory over Birmingham on Monday despite a strong challenge from the Brummies especially in the first half of the meeting.Aces skipper Craig Cook said: “I think at first everyone was a little bit rusty after not riding here for a couple of weeks, but even so we knew it was important for us to win against Birmingham.“It was in the back of my mind that they might lead for the first four or five heats and since we started off with the trickier gate positions, we knew we'd have to keep it close in the early stages at least. Then we kicked on from there and got the win.”BIRMINGHAM skipper Danny King says the Brummies must maintain the attitude of recent away matches when they return to Perry Barr eager to bolster their points total in a bid to climb the table.Following Monday’s defeat at Belle Vue King said: “It was a good effort by the lads but frustrating at the same time because a couple of us should have scored better, including myself.“We need to take confidence from the performance at Belle Vue and we have to be picking up points at home if we are going to stand a chance of getting ourselves up the table.”COVENTRY manager Gary Havelock felt a point was the least his side had deserved from a narrow 43-47 defeat at local rivals Wolverhampton on Monday.Havelock said: “I’m disappointed we didn’t win really, because I think the chance was there to win, but unfortunately certain decisions went against us.“I was really pleased with both reserves and I said to James (Sarjeant) afterwards that it was the best I’ve seen him ride all season without a shadow of a doubt.”EASTBOURNE boss Trevor Geer has pinpointed the club’s forthcoming schedule of away matches as vital to their aspirations of reaching the Elite League play-offs.Geer said: “We are going to three tracks in the next couple of weeks where we are more than capable of picking up points and wins. We should do well at Birmingham, Coventry and on Bank Holiday Monday at Wolverhampton.“Everyone knows that we must get some away wins to make the play offs as well as staying unbeaten at Arlington.”KING’S LYNN stunned Lakeside with a dramatic win at Purfleet in a televised fixture on Monday with Danish star Niels-Kristian Iversen scoring a 21-point maximum.Iversen said: “It's good to win on this type of track, it is really difficult to come here. They have a really good team, especially at home. It was one of those meetings where it gives us confidence that we can win away and I know we can beat any team in the league.”The Stars have booked World Champion Tai Woffinden to stand in for collarbone injury victim Kenneth Bjerre as they look to maintain the momentum in Thursday’s home clash with Poole.LAKESIDE co-promoter Jon Cook says his side will learn from Monday’s home defeat to King’s Lynn, where the Stars came back from 11-points down aided by a tactical ride to pull off a remarkable 47-45 win.Cook said: “We weren't good enough as a team and it showed. We dropped points and not looking for partners cost us a win. “Neil Vatcher and I are going to be making changes ahead of Saturday in the riding order and will look at changing the team itself if it doesn't work.”LEICESTER have signed Danish star Lasse Bjerre for a second spell with the club as a replacement for Swedish rider Peter Ljung, who has quit British Speedway.Promoter David Hemsley said: “Throughout our team building process during the winter Lasse was always in our thoughts, but when you are juggling riders’ calculated match averages to keep within a points ceiling of 32 there are occasions when you have to revise your thinking as negotiations can alter the composition of the one to five that you had in mind. “However, (manager) Norrie Allan and I have kept a watch on Lasse’s performances in the Premier League this season and he is in good form.”POOLE will welcome back skipper Darcy Ward for a busy run of fixtures which features four Elite League meetings up to and including Bank Holiday Monday – along with Ward’s own crowded international schedule.Pirates boss Neil Middeditch said: “It’s a tough itinerary and I know it sounds like an old cliché, but he is going to have to take one meeting at a time and see how his knee stands up to racing.“It’s very frustrating because mentally he is sharp and wants to go racing. But we all know that ultimately he needs to have an op and get the knee sorted. He is just hoping to delay it and try and race through until the end of the season.”SWINDON boss Alun Rossiter is calling on his riders to maintain their form throughout meetings after seeing a possible away win at King’s Lynn last week slip away in the closing stages.Rossiter said: “I've got mixed feelings because we could and should have won the meeting, but I'd have taken a point before.“Simon Gustafsson has to take a long, hard look at himself because his performance wasn't good enough and we can't allow that to continue. We started well but some riders just faded away which was disappointing, we have to stop throwing points away.”WOLVERHAMPTON boss Peter Adams said conditions had been a leveller as his side were held to two points from their 47-43 win over Coventry, with heavy rain forcing a pre-match delay.Adams said: “We obviously arrived looking for all three points but I think the weather put paid to that because when the track is difficult early on it always favours the visitors. When the conditions got better later on so did we, and we managed to win in the end which was the plus point.“The disappointing thing is that we didn't take all three points, but we were close in the end and it was a good win overall.”
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BERWICK overcame a strong challenge from Ipswich to take maximum points from their home clash with the Witches, the visitors being hampered by the loss of two riders to injuries during the meeting.Bandits boss Ian Rae said: “That wasn’t a bad match at all with good racing to entertain the fans. Our guys were a little off guard early on but got back into the groove and scored well when they needed to although it was unfortunate the Witches lost two of their side through injury and we wish Gino (Manzares) and Cameron (Heeps) all the best for a speedy return to the track.”EDINBURGH are hoping for good news from reserve Aaron Fox, who crashed out of the Monarchs’ victory over Ipswich last Friday – a result which made it eleven successive wins for the record-breaking Armadale side.Boss John Campbell said: “I think Aaron might be OK, and I really hope so because he was excellent and would be so hard to replace if we have to ride without him.”GLASGOW’S experienced Australian star Mark Lemon says there is much more to come from him with work to improve his form already paying dividends.Lemon said: “I've been working really hard behind the scenes, trying to improve my game. The last couple of meetings, there's been a noticeable impact on my results, so that's quite pleasing that I've had some just rewards. I've still got more improvement to come, but at least I know where it's coming from now and what I can work with.”IPSWICH have named a full-strength team for their clash with Redcar as they switch to a rare Wednesday race-night as the Bears host the return fixture on Thursday.Gino Manzares and Cameron Heeps both crashed out of the Witches’ weekend defeat at Berwick but both have been named in the line-up as the home side look to repeat their form from last week’s win over Peterborough.NEWCASTLE suffered a 39-50 home defeat at the hands of local rivals Redcar to dent the progress made by the Diamonds with recent encouraging away results.Manager George English said: “I honestly thought we were back on track with our three league points from our recent travels, but we again hit the skids and lost points although with injury problems and new youngsters coming in at reserve we seem to be lacking in lower end power badly. But we know more than anyone this rot has to be stopped in its tracks with immediate effect!”PETERBOROUGH co-boss Trevor Swales admits recent away form is a concern as the Panthers look to establish themselves amongst the Premier League’s play-off contenders.Swales said: “We need to take a long, hard look at what has been going wrong on the road in the league – and try to come up with something to put it right. We knew we were going to face a tough task at Ipswich with Ulrich (Ostergaard) missing and we were down to five riders after losing Ales (Dryml) early in the meeting.”PLYMOUTH co-promoter Ashley Taylor is expecting another tough home fixture on Friday with Scunthorpe having just one alteration from the team which won 46-44 at the St Boniface Arena last season.Taylor said: “We can take some encouragement from the fact that we lost by only nine points in our match at Scunthorpe at the end of April. But we will have to be on our guard because they have a strong looking team with riders who are capable of doing well at the St Boniface Arena.”REDCAR experienced remarkable mixed emotions over the weekend with a 24-68 thrashing at Somerset on Friday followed up by a 50-39 local derby win at Newcastle just 48 hours later.No.1 Richard Lawson led a powerful all-round display at Brough Park with 14 points from five rides, whilst reserve Jan Graversen was also paid for double figures.RYE HOUSE reserve Jason Garrity piled up an impressive 15+2 score as the Rockets pulled clear of Sheffield in the second half of their Premier League clash for a 52-38 win.Garrity said: “It was a real team effort that got us home. Everyone was battling for every point, and it finally came good in the second half of the meeting. We just got our heads down and got the starts we needed. Now we just need to keep it going to build up a run.”SCUNTHORPE enjoyed a perfect week with four league points gained from a local derby win at Sheffield followed up by a 57-36 home success over Glasgow – including David Howe’s first maximum for over two years.Manager Dave Peet said: “David has come back with a different attitude to last season, when all the injuries were getting to him. This year, he’s fully fit and getting back to how he used to be. His biggest battle was in his head. He’s now got his self-belief back and he’s putting his bike about, as everyone could see when he flew around Rusty Harrison in Heat 6.”SHEFFIELD skipper Simon Stead admits the Tigers’ display in their home defeat to rivals Scunthorpe was not of the level expected – despite his own 14-point haul at the top of the scorechart.Stead said: “There's no excuse for this and we know it's simply not good enough as a team. We've made a change and tried to strengthen things but it didn't happen, so we need to put it right quickly.”SOMERSET have gone through the 60-point barrier in each of their last four home matches and are looking to extend that impressive record when Sheffield visit the Oaktree Arena on Friday.Manager Garry May said: “The boys have really been on fire in the past four home matches, with some of those matches being against some well fancied opposition. On paper Sheffield have a team that could really push us, and with Ty (Proctor) now in their side I am sure that he will be coming to the Oaktree Arena wanting to prove a point, but I think our greater all-round strength should see us through to what we hope will be another maximum three league points.”WORKINGTON achieved their target of taking all four league points from their visit to Glasgow on Sunday by claiming a 50-40 victory at Ashfield to book their place in the League Cup semi-finals as best-placed group runner-up on race points ahead of Redcar.Manager Tony Jackson said: “We went there knowing what we had to do and despite a couple of hiccups along the way we achieved our target, which was great for the riders, the supporters and the club. It was a good overall team performance and gives us a semi-final to look forward to and maybe even more, but now we must turn our attention back to the Premier League starting with home and away fixtures against our oldest rivals Berwick this Bank Holiday weekend.“We travel over to Berwick on Saturday evening but before that we entertain the Bandits at Derwent Park at 7.30pm for a rare Friday night fixture as the Bandits have priority over us for the Saturday race-night and the stadium is unavailable to us on Sunday. Back in the Comets first era of racing, in the 1970’s, Friday night was our regular race-night and the Bandits were our first-ever visitors.”FIXTURE PICTURE…
TUESDAY MAY 20:PREMIER LEAGUE KO CUP 1st round 1st leg: Peterborough v Scunthorpe 7.30
WEDNESDAY MAY 21:ELITE LEAGUE: Birmingham v Eastbourne 7.30, Poole v Coventry 7.30PREMIER LEAGUE: Ipswich v Redcar 7.30
THURSDAY MAY 22:ELITE LEAGUE: King’s Lynn v Poole 7.30, Swindon v Leicester 7.30PREMIER LEAGUE: Redcar v Ipswich 7.30PREMIER LEAGUE KO CUP 1st round 2nd leg: Sheffield v Berwick 7.45
FRIDAY MAY 23:ELITE LEAGUE: Coventry v Eastbourne 7.30PREMIER LEAGUE: Edinburgh v Newcastle 7.30, Plymouth v Scunthorpe 7.15, Somerset v Sheffield 7.30, Workington v Berwick 7.30
SATURDAY MAY 24:ELITE LEAGUE: Eastbourne v Swindon 7.30, Lakeside v Poole 8pm, Leicester v Birmingham 7.30PREMIER LEAGUE: Berwick v Workington 7pmNATIONAL LEAGUE: Stoke v Scunthorpe 7pm
SUNDAY MAY 25:PREMIER LEAGUE: Glasgow v Edinburgh 3pm, Newcastle v Ipswich 6.30, Rye House v Plymouth 2pmNATIONAL LEAGUE: Mildenhall v Buxton 3.30
MONDAY MAY 26:ELITE LEAGUE: Coventry v Birmingham 7.30, Leicester v Poole 3pm, Swindon v Belle Vue 7.30, Wolverhampton v Eastbourne 7.30PREMIER LEAGUE KO CUP 1st round 2nd leg: Scunthorpe v Peterborough 3pmNATIONAL LEAGUE: Scunthorpe v Coventry (follows PL KOC fixture)CHALLENGE: Kent v Wimbledon 3pm
TUESDAY MAY 27:PREMIER LEAGUE: Peterborough v Glasgow 7.30NATIONAL LEAGUE: Cradley v Kent 7.30
WEDNESDAY MAY 28:ELITE LEAGUE: Birmingham v Belle Vue 7.30, Poole v King’s Lynn 7.30
THURSDAY MAY 29:ELITE LEAGUE: King’s Lynn v Coventry 7.30PREMIER LEAGUE: Ipswich v Edinburgh 7.30, Redcar v Berwick 7.30, Sheffield v Workington 7.45
FRIDAY MAY 30:PREMIER LEAGUE: Edinburgh v Glasgow 7.30, Plymouth v Berwick 7.15, Somerset v Scunthorpe 7.30NATIONAL LEAGUE KO CUP Q/F 2nd leg: Coventry v Buxton 7.30
SATURDAY MAY 31:ELITE LEAGUE: Eastbourne v Leicester 7.30PREMIER LEAGUE: Rye House v Ipswich 7pm, Workington v Redcar 7pmNATIONAL TROPHY: Stoke v Mildenhall
SUNDAY JUNE 1:PREMIER LEAGUE: Glasgow v Scunthorpe 3pm, Newcastle v Edinburgh 6.30NATIONAL LEAGUE: Mildenhall v Kent 3.30NATIONAL TROPHY: Leicester v Stoke 4pm
MONDAY JUNE 2:ELITE LEAGUE: Belle Vue v Eastbourne 7.30, Birmingham v Swindon 7.30, Wolverhampton v Leicester 7.30NATIONAL LEAGUE: Kent v Coventry 6.30
TUESDAY JUNE 3:NATIONAL LEAGUE KO CUP 1st round 2nd leg: Cradley v Mildenhall 7.15NATIONAL LEAGUE: Cradley v Scunthorpe (follows KOC fixture)
WEDNESDAY JUNE 4:ELITE LEAGUE: Poole v Wolverhampton 7.30
