Riss: Edinburgh are vulnerable!
Redcar’s German ace believes the Bears have every chance of walking away from Armadale with the victory this Friday at Armadale, (19:30 start). The Ipswich man said, “We have seen that they are vulnerable around their home track so the aim is to go there and win!”
The 2019 Championship riders individual champion enjoyed riding for Edinburgh between 2015-2018 even if the tight Armadale track isn’t one of his favourites, “I enjoyed riding for them, I am more of a fan of the bigger, faster tracks but I did end up winning a lot of races there! Edinburgh is a good club, they looked after me well and I don’t have anything bad to say about the Monarchs.”
The German star also believes his 4 year stint with the Scottish side developed him as a rider, “Although I may not have enjoyed the tighter nature of the track I definitely improved as a rider by racing there for so long. If you look at me from when I started in 2015 in comparison to now, I have a completely different riding style as I have improved so much.”
Riss is now partnered with Kasper Andersen in 3 of his 4 programmed rides and the former Birmingham star is enjoying the newly formed Bears engine room, “I really enjoy riding with Kasper, we both look after each other on the track. We got a couple of 5-1’s against Berwick and we could be the difference on Friday as Kasper has scored well there previously and I should go well being a former Edinburgh man!”
Redcar are forced into a late change to their line up with Jordan Jenkins out. Jenkins has a knee injury and he is replaced by Plymouth’s new signing, Ben Morley. Jason Edwards makes a return to Edinburgh having spent the last few weeks of the season in the blue and gold colours. Additionally, the aforementioned Riss and Wright are former Monarchs with the latter spending a portion of 2012 at Edinburgh.
Edinburgh are forced into using rider replacement with Lasse Fredriksen travelling to a European Championship meeting in Hungary. The 2021 Play-Off semi-finalists will use rider replacement in his absence with Kye Thomsen and the reserves eligible to take the Norwegian’s rides. The rest of the Monarchs side includes the exciting Josh Pickering, the powerful Sam Masters and the likeable James Sarjeant who rode for Redcar in 2021.
Edinburgh Monarchs
1 Sam Masters 9.10 ©
2 Rider Replacement for Lasse Fredriksen
3 Kye Thomson 5.74
4 Paco Castagna 5.79
5 Josh Pickering 8.23
6 Jacob Hook 4.00
7 James Sarjeant 3.85
Team Manager John Campbell
Redcar Agilia Bears
1 Charles Wright 8.66 (C)
2 Adam Roynon 4.93
3 Erik Riss 7.91
4 Kasper Andersen 5.91
5 Lewis Kerr 8.05
6 Jason Edwards 2.35
7 Ben Morley 3.85 (G)
TM Jade Mudgway