The Lakeside Hammers bounced back from the doom and gloom of their first home League defeat of the season by Swindon last Friday with a great victory at Wolverhampton on Monday night now aim to reach a second Cup Final when Eastbourne visit the Arena-Essex Raceway this Wednesday.
The Hammers performance at Wolverhampton was a good team effort led by Jonas Davidsson and Adam Shields. Without Andreas Jonsson and Joonas Kylmakorpi many believed the side might have struggled to claim the win but they all fought for every point. The Wolves were ahead by eight points after the first five heats, which had seen the Hammers guest Edward Kennett fail to score in his two rides, but after the next three heats the Hammers had drawn level before finally pulling away and made the three League points safe in heat 14 when Davidsson’s victory gave him his first five ride paid maximum in British Speedway.
Both Davidsson and Shields were undefeated by an opponent although Shields was excluded from the final heat when he failed to make the two minute time allowance.?The team already face Coventry in October in the Craven Shield and have all but qualified for the end of season League Play Offs and are now closing in on an all important home leg and will aim to cap off a remarkable turn round in the Club's fortune by reaching the Elite League Knockout Cup Final.?Team news sees Rory Schlein deputise for the injured Andreas Jonsson and Kauko Nieminen, who made a superb debut for the Club last week, added to the five regular Hammers who starred in Monday’s win.?
Riding order of the Hammers for Wednesday: 1. Rory Schlein,
2. Leigh Lanham,
3. Adam Shields,
4. Jonas Davidsson,
5. Kauko Nieminen,
6. Ricky Kling,
7. Lubos Tomicek?
Hammers Team Manager Jon Cook: "Rory was superb on his last appearance on the Raceway and I think he will do an excellent job for us whilst with Joonas Kylmakorpi now likely to be out for the rest of the year I want to give his fellow countryman Kauko the chance to fill the gap left and Wednesday is a great chance for him to earn more meetings with the Hammers. He really impressed everyone with his attitude and personality and I believe the team benefits from having seven riders even if ‘Rider Replacement’ may look slightly stronger on paper. Kauko will ride at the tough number five position but partnered with the ever improving Ricky Kling I will be looking for them to share race scores at the very least as I feel the pairing of Davidsson and Shields has become our sledgehammer to take other teams apart with and I don't want to split them up for the time being at least".?
Start time for the meeting this
Wednesday is
7.45pm and if it were to fall victim to the British summer weather the meeting would be restaged this Friday, 15th August, at 8pm.
