Speedway: How Sheffield Tigers new Aussie star surprised himself

Zaine Kennedy says he couldn’t have asked for a better start to his Sheffield career - but insists there’s plenty more to come.

The Aussie newcomer scored paid double figures on his Tigers debut in Sunday’s win over Scunthorpe.

But Kennedy feels better starts could improve his scores even further.

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“I couldn’t really ask for a better first meeting I guess,” he said.

“After my last ride, I asked my mechanic how I’d done and when he told me I’d got paid double figures I was quite surprised to be honest.

“It did give me a bit of a boost - but at the same time there’s still more to come.

“I did tick a lot of boxes on Sunday and of course I’m happy with my first score for the team. But it could’ve been a bit higher perhaps because there were one or two things that I wasn’t happy about.

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“My gating needs to improve I feel; there were a few times on Sunday where I felt I was fast enough to be in front but my starts meant I’d got too much ground to make up.

“So if I could make life a bit easier in the first few turns and get out in front, I reckon my scores could be even bigger in the meetings to come.”

And Kennedy is hoping to contribute to another positive performance when they travel to Redcar on Friday - as he celebrates his 21st birthday.

“If we could add to our points in the group that would be a good present,” he said.

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“Sunday against Scunthorpe was a good first meeting for us because even though we had a few setbacks and even though they came back at us a little towards the end, we were still able to do enough to not only win the meeting ourselves but to also make sure they didn’t get anything out of it either which is pretty important.

“Redcar have got a pretty decent team and they should give us a good couple of meetings. But we’re focussing on the away one on Friday first and it’s going to be another big learning curve for me.

“It will be my first away meeting for the team and Redcar is a track I haven’t seen before but I always look forward to a challenge.”

Tigers also face Redcar at Owlerton on Sunday 4pm).