Last updated at 06:51, Friday, 05 March 2010

WORKINGTON Comets legend Lou Sansom will travel thousands of miles to be a special guest at the Comets’ 40th anniversary meeting.

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Sansom, 63, will have a leisurely spin round the Derwent Park track to see how it compares to the 1970s at the meeting on March 27.

The Australian rode in Workington’s very first meeting at Derwent Park in 1970 and will be one of three riders who faced Berwick that night who will be attending the celebrations.

Sansom will be joined by Sheffield team manager Reg Wilson and Ian Armstrong.

Of the other riders that were involved in the first meeting Vic Lonsdale and Maurice Wilson are both dead while Mal McKay and Dave Kumeta are in Australia.

Team manager Ian Thomas, who signed Sansom for the Comets, said he was thrilled that he was coming back to West Cumbria.

He said: “I think it is true to say that there have been two legends as far as Workington speedway is concerned.

“Carl Stonehewer certainly from the second era and definitely Lou from when we first launched in 1970.

“It would have been great to get them both here but unfortunately Stoney had a prior engagement. We want to make this night as special as possible and having Lou makes it that.

“To think he left all those years ago and I don’t think many people expected him to come back, especially with him living in Australia.”

Sansom made an inauspicious start to his Comets career when he fell at the very first corner on his first two rides before winning on his next two.

When he returned in 1975 after a year’s absence he also fell at the first bend.

However, despite that he is the all-time top Comet with 1,960 points and 109 bonus points in 213 official matches.

While at the Comets he scored 36 full and 11 paid maximums and topped the Comets averages in three of the six years he rode for the club, achieving his best of 10.51 in 1973 – a year in which he also topped the second division averages after scoring 20 full and two paid maximums from 42 matches and finished third in the division two riders’ championship.

During his career Sansom also rode division one matches for Hull and Birmingham before returning home to Australia with his wife Linda, who is from Workington.

Speaking from his Adelaide home this week, Sansom said: “It will be absolutely fantastic to come over to Workington to see everybody again.

“I am really looking forward to seeing all the fans again, and to meet up with a lot of my team-mates will be really special.

“I regularly get updated as to how the Comets are doing and I am keen to see how the track has changed since my day.

“This special meeting is the perfect time to come over to see it for myself. I am all sorted, I have my ticket and am raring to go.”

The returning Workington hero will be available for commercial engagements during his trip and on the Friday night before the anniversary meeting will be answering questions at An Evening with Lou Sansom.

Tickets for that event are £5 and can be obtained from Tony Jackson on 01900 65963 or at the Comets’ press and practice day on March 13 or during the meet-the-riders night in the Derwent Lounge.

First published at 19:30, Thursday, 04 March 2010
Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk