NEWS ARCHIVE

Stars make changes to riding order 21.04.08

The King’s Lynn ‘Money Centre’ Stars go into Wednesday’s home league match against the Newcastle Diamonds with a change to their riding order in a bid to get back to winning ways. Shaun Tacey will now ride at number 4 with Kozza Smith moving to number 2, Rob Lyon explains the reason behind his move, ‘in the last few meetings we have proved be particularly vulnerable towards the end of a meeting, in particular in Heat 14 when Kozza and one of the reserves have been out there, we just need a bit more experience in that particular race and at the moment Shaun is the right man for that, we will also try Rusty in there for a few of the away meetings over the next week’.

The Diamonds were one of the highly fancied pre season teams by Stars co-promoter Jonathan Chapman, does he still feel they have what it takes to come and get a result at King’s Lynn, ‘anything is possible at the moment, speedway results around the country are all over the place with shocks happening all the time, Josef Franc has been sensational at King’s Lynn over the past few seasons, beating Daniel Nermark and Tom on numerous occasions, I do feel they have been weakened with the loss of George Stancl to injury but just as Birmingham have proved, it can spur the rest of the team on to achieve greater things!’.

The Stars are currently sitting in 2nd place in the league and a home win will bring them level with Berwick at the top on 7 points. Buster Chapman is optimistic the team can still bring the town some glory even though they have struggled at home in the past few meetings ‘on Thursday the new interim averages will see Kozza move down to reserve and Simon move up to the main body of the team, this will help both riders and could well be the turning point for Kozza who has lots of potential. If we can also get the riding order right then we should come into our own and it will take a good team to stop us, the real plus side is that we are getting the results away from home already and this year that is more important than anything as we get three points for a win rather than just the two for a home one’.

This Wednesdays meeting is also the start of a busy period for the team with 5 meetings in 7 days. The Stars head to Mildenhall on Saturday and Birmingham on Sunday for their final 2 Premier Trophy meetings, qualification is still possible but for a grand stand finish and to top their group they need to win both meetings and gain an extra 13 points for points difference along the way. Then on Monday night they face Reading in the 1st leg of the KO Cup first round with the return on the Wednesday night. The Stars will be aiming to defend the trophy for a 4th successive season, these 2 meetings will see ex Lynn favourite Chris Mills, come up against his old club.

Stars Team

1. Tomas Topinka ©

2. Kozza Smith

3. Kevin Doolan

4. Shaun Tacey

5. Rusty Harrison

6. John Oliver

7. Simon Lambert

Newcastle Team

1. Josef Franc

2. R/R

3. Christian Henry