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FORMER Cradley and Birmingham promoter Dan McCormick passed away on Wednesday at the age of 85.McCormick is credited by many as the catalyst who transformed the fortunes of the Heathens when arriving in 1977. As one of the sport’s greatest promoters, he was the man who first brought the likes of Bruce Penhall, Erik Gundersen and Bobby Schwartz to England as Cradley riders.He departed Dudley Wood in 1980 to take charge at Birmingham, although the bulk of his Heathens team formed their British League winning side of 1981.Following his retirement, McCormick spent many hours on the golf course and always loved to talk about his time in speedway, and he fought liver cancer with courage before leaving two children and five grandchildren.

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SCUNTHORPE have named Finnish Under-21 Champion Nike Lunna as their first signing for the 2015 Premier League season.Lunna, who turned 18 in September, has been a target of the Scorpions for the last year and was recommended by top Finnish rider Joonas Kylmakorpi.Scunthorpe promoter Rob Godfrey said: “We’ve followed Nike’s progress over the last year, and we got him over to Scunthorpe during the summer. He was so fast around the outside line.“I also saw him at action in the World Under-21 championship round at Leicester and was impressed with him that night as well. He really went for it. He’s a raw talent, but definitely a talent. I think he’s going to be absolutely awesome.”

(SPEEDWAY 3)PETERBOROUGH’S Ged Rathbone has called for ‘one last push’ as Peterborough bid to hit their survival target.Rathbone and co-promoter Trevor Swales report the club have raised around three-quarters of the £40,000 required to bring the Panthers to the tapes in 2015, and they will be represented at this weekend’s BSPA AGM.Rathbone said: “The response so far has been terrific. It has told myself and Trevor that speedway is definitely still wanted in Peterborough. But we are not there yet and one last push ahead of the AGM could make all the difference. “We have to stress that we cannot consider racing on in 2015 unless we have the right amount of money in place. We will not fall into the trap of letting our hearts rule our heads because we have to make sure it can work both next year and beyond.”