PREVIEW: BIRMINGHAM v IPSWICH (ROWE MOTOR OIL PREM)

ROWE Motor Oil Premiership leaders Ipswich will be without two riders for their trip to Birmingham tonight (Monday).

The Witches, who suffered an injury crisis last summer to derail their title hopes, saw both Jason Doyle and Dan Thompson involved in crashes over the weekend.

Doyle suffered a dislocated hip when he came to grief in the FIM Grand Prix of Poland in Warsaw, and it was put back in on Saturday night. He escaped with no broken bones and has pledged to be back “very soon.”

Ipswich will use rider replacement for Doyle at Perry Barr whilst Danyon Hume guests for Dan Thompson who broke his scaphoid at Glasgow on Sunday.

The Brummies welcome Matej Zagar back into the side but have rider replacement for Michael Jepsen Jensen who has relinquished his team place.

Promoter Nigel Tolley said: “Losing MJJ is a massive shame but we thank him for all he’s done in the opening months of the season and we wish him the best.

“We know Ipswich are a very strong team, even without their No.1, and we know outsiders will expect nothing but an away win.

“So that takes the pressure off a meeting like this one and it means our six riders can go out there and express themselves knowing they’ve got little to lose in a sense and everything to gain.”

Ipswich boss Ritchie Hawkins said: “We didn’t perform that well there earlier in the year and they ran us close, so we will need to improve on that performance, but we will go there with great confidence.

“I still believe on paper they are a good team, Zagar is back which is a massive bonus for them, and I think it will be a tight, tough test.”

BIRMINGHAM: Tobiasz Musielak, Paco Castagna, Michael Jepsen Jensen R/R, Keynan Rew, Matej Zagar, Jonas Jeppesen, Jason Edwards.
IPSWICH: Jason Doyle R/R, Adam Ellis, Emil Sayfutdinov, Danny King, Tom Brennan, Danyon Hume, Jordan Jenkins.

SCB Referee: Chris Durno