Speedway: GP star to guest for Sheffield in vital Northampton clash for play-off place
Both sides will have guests riding at number one
Sheffield have drafted in a big-name GP star to guest for injured Jack Holder in tomorrow’s vital clash with Northampton (Wednesday September 16. 7.30pm).
Australian Max Fricke will ride at number one for the Tigers in the clash at Owlerton, in a Rowe Motor Oils Speedway Premiership meeting which Sheffield need to win to secure third place, or to draw to secure fourth place, to reach in the play-offs.
Fricke previously guested for Tigers in their home victory over Belle Vue on August 31.
Northampton will be fielding two guests, with Sam Masters, who made the final of the Championship League Riders’ Championship at Owlerton on Saturday, and Jason Edwards, set to step in for Niels-Kristian Iversen and Nicolai Klindt, who both have Danish League commitments.
The Foxes will operate rider replacement for Kye Thomson, who is involved in Championship play-off action for Edinburgh, as Wednesday is a designated Championship night in the UK.
Whilst they may be facing the league’s bottom club though, Tigers’ team boss Simon Stead says nobody can afford to rest on their laurels.
“It’s a massive fixture for us,” Stead said.
“We’ve been saying for a while now about the importance of the remaining fixtures; the fact that we’ve picked up important points when we’ve needed to has got us to this point, and now we need to finish the job at home against Northampton.
“It’s not a given, it’s not a free hit, we will need to be focused and we’ll need to be at our best - but it’s a good opportunity for us to continue our good vein of form at Sheffield.
“It’s so unpredictable though and we would be silly to take our foot off the gas right now.
“I know it’s an off-racenight but I just hope we get a big crowd in and I’d just urge everyone to get there support in, let’s get stuck in, let’s have a great night of racing and hopefully get the result we need!”
Northampton co-promoter Paul Hunsdon said: “We were instructed that we had to take this meeting, but obviously it’s not ideal that we are without our two top Danes, and Kye is racing in the Championship play-offs.
“This meeting has to be run before September 17, and with us already running at home on that night, this was the only date that Sheffield could stage the meeting.
“Our apologies to the Northampton fans that we aren’t tracking as strong a team as we had hoped, but there’s nothing else we can do. The options were hugely limited due to meetings and commitments elsewhere, and we’d like to thank Sam and Jason for agreeing to come in and help us out.”
Sheffield: Max Fricke, Anders Rowe, Chris Holder, Leon Flint, Josh Pickering, Jye Etheridge, Luke Killeen.
Northampton: Sam Masters, Kye Thomson R/R, Jason Edwards, Adam Ellis, Jaimon Lidsey, Mitch McDiarmid, Luke Harrison.