Redcar v Peterborough – Thursday 21st June – 7:30pm – Championship
Redcar ‘ECCO Finishing Supplies’ Bears welcome the Peterborough Panthers to the Media Prima Arena this Thursday, with a 7:30pm start.
The Panthers have an excellent recent record on Teesside, and are in some good form at the moment, and Bears co-promoter Jitendra Duffill is expecting a tough meeting:
This week we face Peterborough who have been a bit of a bogey team for us over the last couple of years. They are in very good form this year and beat Scunthorpe convincingly on Friday, so they will pose a big threat here today. However, we are a much different team to the one that was struggling at the beginning of the year and we will go into this fixture with confidence. Every one of our riders is now capable of scoring well around the MPA and I want to see each of them fighting hard for every point. We battled well against Berwick 2 weeks ago and although it will be a tough task around our circuit, I don’t want to be losing any more meetings at home.
The Bears now have a stronger look to the team after the recent changes, and Duffill reserved some praise for stand-in captain Jonas B Andersen after his excellent performance at home to Berwick:
It’s great to see Jonas B Andersen return to form. I made him captain after Ben got hurt at Sheffield in the hope it would boost his morale and he has responded superbly. Mikkel continues to impress me every week and he will benefit hugely from his experience with us this year. Jordy is now dialled in at home and is proving to be vital to us at reserve, but he must focus on trying to improve his performances away from home as ultimately, it is adapting to unfamiliar circuits that will make him a better rider and push his career further. Dimitri, Thomas and Nathan made encouraging debuts and we are definitely a better side with them on board. Dimitri and Thomas were impressively fast here 2 weeks ago whereas Nathan deserved a lot more points for his efforts. I love his never say die attitude and he is somebody I will be taking serious interest in for the 2019 season. There is a lot more to come from him and he is a pleasure to work with.
The Bears are missing a couple of riders for this weeks meeting. Ben Barker is still missing with his collarbone injury, with ex-Bear Aaron Summers guesting in his place. Thomas Jorgensen will also be missing as he is riding for Kings Lynn at Swindon, Josh Auty will guest in his place. Duffill is pleased to have got two good guests:
I have brought in Aaron Summers as a guest for Ben Barker who is still struggling with broken ribs and a broken collarbone. He is confident that he will be fit for the 4TT a week on Sunday. Aaron was impressive here a couple of weeks ago and always rides out track well. Unfortunately, we are also missing Thomas Jorgensen who is riding for Kings Lynn at Swindon but I am confident that Josh Auty will do a great job for us. He is in great form at present and is enjoying his best season for years. He always gives 100% and I’m very grateful to him and Scunthorpe for helping us out. Finding guests is not easy when we have so many teams racing on the same night so we are fortunate to have 2 good guests available to us.
Peterborough include seven-times British Scott Nicholls in their ranks, as well as one of last years standout riders for the Bears in Ellis Perks. Ulrich Ostergaard looks like he will unfortunately miss the meeting after crashing in the Panthers win over Ipswich at the weekend.
Redcar: Aaron Summers, Mikkel B Andersen, Dimitri Berge, Jonas B Andersen, Josh Auty, Nathan Greaves, Jordan Stewart
Peterborough: Scott Nicholls, Ellis Perks, Bradley Wilson-Dean, Michael Palm Toft, tbc, Simon Lambert, Tom Bacon