Redcar Bears v Newcastle Diamonds – Thursday 19th April – Championship Shield – 7:30pm
Redcar ‘ECCO Finishing Supplies’ Bears will be looking to finally get their home season underway on Thursday night, when they take on the Newcastle Diamonds in Championship Shield action (7:30pm start).
After a frustrating couple of rain-offs, the current forecast is looking much better for this week and we should see some speedway at the Media Prima Arena! The Bears fell to defeat on Sunday away at Peterborough, but co-promoter and team manager Jitendra Duffill thought it was definitely an improved performance:
Peterborough on Sunday was certainly a better showing from us than the previous weeks at Scunthorpe. We pushed them for most of the meeting but lacked vital heat wins. There were several positives to take away, the main one being the excellent performances from Tobias Busch and Theo Pijper. I keep telling our top 5 that their aim should be to at least score their average and the reserves will do the rest.
Another of the big plus points was the performance of the new boys to the league Jordan Stewart and Mikkel B Andersen. Whilst Mikkel notched his first heat win in England, Jordan also rode well before a very nasty tumble in his second ride:
Jordan Stewart was much better than his score suggested and I have seen enough in him already to know he will go places. He is focused, ambitious, determined, well equipped, brave and rides the bike very well. I’m hoping that he will be fit for Thursday as he took a pretty nasty tumble at Peterborough. He sustained very severe bruising to his back and bottom and was in a lot of discomfort after the meeting. It will be a shame if he doesn’t make his home debut this week as he is desperate to ride the MPA.
It was also good to see Mikkel B Andersen record his first race win for us. He looked very quick in his last ride and beat the impressive Paul Starke comfortably. Give him and Jordy time and they will score well.
Redcar will be without Jonas B Andersen for this meeting, as he is riding in a Danish Championship qualifier on Friday. Paul Starke will guest in his place. Its the start of a busy few days for the Bears, as they face Lakeside away on Friday night before making the journey up the A19 to take on Newcastle on Sunday. It does however give the team a great opportunity to get some good track time and hopefully some positive results.
Newcastle will be without Lewis Rose for this clash, as he is riding for Kings Lynn at Swindon in the Premiership. They will operate rider replacement to cover for him. It is a side that knows the Media Prima Arena well though, with Ludvig Lindgren having gone well here in the past and Stuart Robson being an ex-Redcar rider. Duffill though points to the two reserves as to where the danger may come from:
This week we welcome our closest rivals Newcastle and they have a very close Teesside connection now with the arrival of Martin Phillips to their promotional ranks. Newcastle look to have 2 strong reserves like ourselves so this could be a very interesting encounter. Carl Wilkinson has plenty of experience of the MPA and could be a real danger tonight.
Fingers crossed the weather stays fine, and we see as many of you trackside as possible!
Redcar: Ben Barker (captain), Jordan Stewart, Paul Starke, Mikkel B Andersen, Matej Kus, Tobias Busch, Theo Pijper
Newcastle: Ludvig Lindgren, r/r for Lewis Rose, Tero Aarnio, Matthew Wethers, Stuart Robson, Carl Wilkinson, Ashley Morris
