The Lakeside Hammers captain, Australian Adam Shields, is looking forward to Friday’s top of the table Sky Sports Elite League clash against the Poole Pirates, which takes place at the Hammer Arena-Essex Raceway.
Shields, who started his UK career in the Premier League with the Isle of Wight Islanders, will be up against fellow Australians Davey Watt and Chris Holder, who also were first seen in this County in the Islanders colours. He will also face Pole Krzysztof Kasprzak, who rode as the Hammers No1 last season. The Pole is due to end a short return to racing with the Pirates after Friday’s match having come into their side as a temporary replacement for their injured captain, Bjarne Pedersen.
Shields commented on this meeting saying: “I didn’t have a good meeting in our last home match, which was against Eastbourne, but the lads really rallied around and got us the valuable win in the end. My form had been good and I am looking forward to facing the Pirates, especially as they have two fellow Aussies in their side. The confidence of the team is high and we all know that we cannot afford any hiccups against the Pirates, who have a strong looking team this year. We will be determined to keep our home League record intact. I don’t have any problems with the shoulder I dislocated a few weeks ago and the rest has done me good although I don’t like these long gaps between fixtures. I just want to get out there and race.”
The Hammers captain also commented on the big crash that Andreas Jonsson had in last weekend’s Swedish Grand Prix saying: “It looked a nasty one but the whole team was relieved to see that he came away from it without any serious injury. AJ is a vital member of the Hammers team and he certainly gives us all added confidence when he is around. It’s great that he will be racing with us on Friday.”
The encounter against Poole not only sees the three Australians in action but there will be six Swedes with three on each side. It will see the Davidsson brothers competing against each other with Jonas, who has started his Hammers career in fine style, and Daniel, who has recently been brought into the Pirates team. Andreas Jonsson and Ricky Kling are the two other Swedes in the Hammers line-up with Freddie Eriksson and Magnus Zetterstrom appearing for Poole.
The Hammers will go into the meeting minus their Czech Republic rider, Lubos Tomicek, as he has a GP qualifier in Croatia this weekend. The Hammers will use the ‘Rider Replacement’ facility to cover his rides and this will allow Leigh Lanham to have an additional ride along with the reserves Joonas Kylmakorpi and Ricky Kling. Since dropping down to reserve Kylmakorpi has been scoring well and he will need to continue with his rich vein of form to assist the Hammers in keeping their unbeaten home League record intact.
The Elite League action against Poole gets underway at 8pm, although the junior Academy sides from the two clubs will meet over a four a side, six heat match commencing at 6.45pm.
