Sheffield Tigers trio will benefit themselves and whole team in Top Gun Individual

Tigers’ trio Kasper Andersen, Drew Kemp and Zaine Kennedy will all gain extra track time in a competitive field including British Youth Champion Leon Flint.

And while Stead has been impressed by those three already, he is open to them testing different machinery options ahead of next weekend’s league clash with Birmingham.

“We wanted to make sure we got the riders from the lower end of the team a bit of extra track time and this is the ideal way to do just that,” Stead said. “They’ve all had good moments early on in the season and they’ve settled in pretty well - but they are keen to raise things again and this is a good opportunity to help them on their way to doing that.

“You can practice as much as you want but nothing beats competitive laps in a competitive meeting.

“This will also give the lads the chance to try a few different things whether that be to help them with their gating or to get a bit more speed under them - this is the perfect opportunity to try something new.

“Of course it would be great if we could see them on the rostrum at the end of it as well and it will be a good challenge for them.

“It’s another decent looking line-up with some riders who should come to Sheffield and score well so it should be a good meeting.”

Tigers reserve Broc Nicol was in the initial plans for tomorrow’s meeting - but a joint decision to rest him with a busy upcoming schedule was made earlier in the week.

“Broc took a bit of a hefty knock to his shoulder at Leicester last Saturday and he’s just a bit sore,” Stead said.

“He could’ve rode and it would’ve been good for him to be involved for the same reasons as the other boys, but there’s no point risking it if he doesn’t need to.

“He’d been taking some steps in the right direction before that crash at Leicester and it’s important we get him to remember those moments when he comes back to team racing.”

Sheffield youngster Drew Kemp competes in the British Under-21 Final at Berwick tonight (7pm).