Comets’ big night
Last updated 09:41, Friday, 25 July 2008
THOUSANDS of speedway fans from around the country will be at Workington’s Derwent Park tomorrow night as Comets host one of the big Premier League events of the season.
The fourth event of the 2008 Superseven series is the PL Four-Team Championship with Workington Comets hoping to repeat their win of two years ago.
Eight sides will do battle for the prestigious title and Workington are hot favourites to land top prize having already won the PL Pairs crown and been on their home track.
A late change means Scunthorpe taking the place of Berwick.
The meeting is backed by Moss Bay Metals and the action gets underway at 7pm. The gates will open at 5pm and there will also be an autograph session with the riders.
Unfortunately one or two teams have had to change their original line-ups because of injury.
Ex-Comet Ulrich Ostergaard misses the meeting for Reading Racers as he is still recuperating from the hand injury he picked up in the home league match against Edinburgh on July 13.
Czech ace Tomas Suchanek steps in to fill the Dane’s place, as he is the next rider in line in the Reading averages.
Emil Kramer, who was in the Best Pairs for Somerset, reaching the final against winners Kauko Nieminen and Daniel Nermark, is out with injury so Stephen Katt will represent the Rebels.
But Edinburgh are still hoping that William Lawson will be fit to ride after a spell on the sidelines.
Workington team manager Ian Thomas, who devised the formula in the 70s for Fours competitions, expects it to be one of the best meetings staged at Derwent Park.
He said: “It has all the right ingredients with some of the top riders in the league involved.
“We are hot favourites to win it but there is enough good competition out there to make sure it is going to be close.”
And there’ll be a touch of glamour to the night with Miss Cumbria Natasha Cooper meeting the riders and presenting the trophy to the winners.
And for Cooper, 19, of Eskdale, it has proved a timely invitation, too, because the Miss England finalist has told Thomas she had been contemplating a visit.
Cooper and her 21-year-old boyfriend of three years, Adam Kelly, had been talking about a night out to watch the speedway.
Thomas said: “We were looking for someone local who has been in the news recently and Natasha fits the bill perfectly.
“I hadn’t spoken to her before but she seemed a very nice and friendly young lady and I am sure she will enjoy the experience on Saturday.”
Workington last staged the competition in 2006 when the Comets won in a fairytale finish. Alan Mogridge clinched the trophy for the home quartet by winning his last-ever race in British speedway.
Thomas said: “It was one of the great moments in Workington sport - one of those magic times when you just want to bottle it and keep it for ever.”
Comets owner Keith Denham wants to make sure that the track and surroundings are perfect and Workington, as they have in the past, can show they know how to put on a major event.
Denham said: “We are going to burn the midnight oil if need be to get the place just right. I want this to be a night to remember for all the right reasons.
“This time we are going to have the pits at the town end of our existing pits and we are busy constructing the temporary pits there. I thought it was a shambles when the pits were moved to the opposite end of the grandstand last time so I was determined to do it right this time.
“With 40 riders and their bikes to cover quite a bit of work is involved but it will be ready for the big night.”
Scunthorpe ride in the Fours because Berwick have been hit by injuries and unavailability of riders and have been forced to pull out.
In-form Adrian Rymel is contesting the Czech final and Tero Aarnio also has a foreign commitment so had to drop-out of the team.
Tony Atkin and Paul Clews were brought in as replacements but there were also fitness doubts over Atkin and Hungarian star Norbert Magosi, who missed early week meetings for the Bandits.
Meanwhile Newcastle’s Christian Henry faces a race against time to make it for the championship. Henry is suffering from damaged tendons in his shoulder and is in a sling and is likely to have a fitness test today.
Manager George English said: “We need Christian for the Fours and the return meeting with Sheffield at our place on Sunday, he’s an important rider.”
Group A
Somerset - Jason Doyle, Stephan Katt, Jordan Frampton, Simon Walker; Workington - Daniel Nermark, Kauko Nieminen, Carl Stonehewer, Joe Haines; Sheffield - Andre Compton, Ricky Ashworth, Ben Wilson, Joel Parsons; Edinburgh - William Lawson, Andrew Tully, Matthew Wethers, Ryan Fisher.
Group B
King’s Lynn - Kevin Doolan , Tomas Topinka, Shaun Tacey, Rusty Harrison; Newcastle - George Stancl, Josef Franc, Jason King, Christian Henry; Scunthorpe - Magnus Karlsson, Richard Hall, Carl Wilkinson, Viktor Bergstrom; Reading - Tomas Suchanek, Mark Lemon, Tom P Madsen, Chris Mills.
