The Henderson Insurance Scunthorpe Scorpions take on the Workington Comets on Friday night (9) at the Eddie Wright Raceway and skipper Richard Hall has set his sights on beating the league's strongest heat leader trio. "Workington are going to be another tough opponent. Daniel Nermark is not slow but he can be beaten and I'll be giving it a good go. I've finally got a setup that's working around here and I'm starting to make good starts."
Nermark is just one third of a powerhouse top three that the Comets possess with the former King’s Lynn rider joined by two Workington legends Carl Stonehewer and Kauko Nieminen. Stonehewer, who spent 2000 to 2002 in the Grand Prix series, hasn’t qu
ite matched his form of previous seasons but still averages over eight whilst Nieminen, who is in his sixth season with the Comets has pushed his to around the nine-mark. The trio have formed the backbone of the club’s three away wins so far this season but with former-Scorpion Joe Haines set to start at reserve the Comets have someone who is already used to scoring well around the Eddie Wright Raceway.
The Scorpions team is set to remain unchanged for the meeting after Monday’s impressive win against Somerset. The rapidly improving Viktor Bergström will continue to ride at reserve and is set to stay there until the end of the month. Commenting after Monday’s impressive win against Somerset Bergström said “Everything is coming together now. The engine is going really well but the footrest just came off in one race. I couldn’t control the bike and we were on for a 5-1 in that one”. Monday’s meeting proved the Scorpions can compete with the best sides in the Premier League, despite it only being their first season in the higher league, whilst at the same time the track is producing fantastic racing.
Promoter Rob Godfrey said after Monday’s double-header meeting “That was one of the best adverts for the sport you could ever see. We had a big crowd, great weather, two tense matches that produced home wins and some of the most incredible racing. Hopefully, now the weather is a bit warmer, plenty of new fans are going to give us a try. The football season is finished and the racing this year is even putting that from previous seasons in the shade. The atmosphere was superb today and to see the delight on everyone’s faces when we scored those 5-1s was fantastic”.
The racing starts at 7.30pm on Friday and is followed by a six-heat second-half meeting between two teams representing Crosby and Ashby.
The two sides for Friday’s clash are:
Scunthorpe – 1. Andy Moore, 2. Carl Wilkinson, 3. Magnus Karlsson (Sweden), 4. Benji Compton, 5. Richard Hall, 6. Byron Bekker (South Africa), 7. Viktor Bergström (Sweden)
Workington – 1. Daniel Nermark (Sweden), 2. Barry Burchatt, 3. Kauko Nieminen (Finland), 4. Charles Wright, 5. Carl Stonehewer, 6. Joe Haines, 7. John Branney
The full article contains 521 words and appears in Market Rasen Mail newspaper.
