PREVIEW: PREMIERSHIP PAIRS ROUND 2

IPSWICH host the second round of the Premiership Pairs with a big night of racing expected at Foxhall tonight (Thursday).

King’s Lynn lead the series after last month’s opener at Peterborough, and the Stars are again represented by Richard Lawson and Josh Pickering who secured victory over Sheffield in the Final when the Tigers’ Adam Ellis crashed out.

Ellis is joined by Tobiasz Musielak on this occasion whilst Matej Zagar also makes his first appearance in the series for Belle Vue, and Hans Andersen comes in for Peterborough.

Lawson said: “I think we were the bookies’ worst odds (at Peterborough), 18/1 or something like that, so hopefully somebody made a packet on that, and I think our odds will probably change for the next round!”

Sheffield boss Simon Stead said: “Adam is really riding well at the moment and so is Tobi, and after a solid opening round, it would be good if we could back that up with something very similar.”

Wolverhampton promoter Chris Van Straaten said: “The boys were a shade unlucky at Peterborough in Round 1, but I think they can go there feeling good about themselves and looking to at least make the semi-finals.”

Peterborough manager Rob Lyon said: “We had a bad one at home, so it would be nice to go to Ipswich and mix it up a bit. We’d like to get ourselves in the Final if we can, that’s the aim, and both Bomber (Chris Harris) and Hans are decent around there.”

Ipswich manager Ritchie Hawkins said: “I think it’s good that the gates are not allocated so we have to decide between ourselves about the gates.

“The programme and the scores can be quite difficult to follow in this type of meeting, so we need to make sure we are up on that and improve a lot from the first meeting and give ourselves a shot of at least getting into the semi-final.”

The full series is live streamed by the British Speedway Network – details available from https://watch.britishspeedway.co.uk

BELLE VUE: Matej Zagar, Brady Kurtz, Tom Brennan (RS).
IPSWICH: Jason Doyle, Troy Batchelor, Danyon Hume (RS).
KING’S LYNN: Richard Lawson, Josh Pickering, Jake Mulford (RS).
PETERBOROUGH: Chris Harris, Hans Andersen, Jordan Jenkins (RS).
SHEFFIELD: Adam Ellis, Tobiasz Musielak, Connor Mountain (RS).
WOLVERHAMPTON: Sam Masters, Ryan Douglas, Leon Flint (RS).