DON'T PANIC IS CAPTAIN JOSH'S MESSAGE

Volvo Cars Poole Pirates captain Josh Grajczonek insists all the struggling Poole septet need is time and has backed his team-mates to turn around the club’s early season form.

Grajczonek lines up alongside Poole team-mate Brady Kurtz at the SGB Premiership Riders’ Championship at Wimborne Road tomorrow night and is aiming to give the Pirates support something to shout about.

After five straight defeats, the Pirates are propping up the Premiership table, but Grajczonek told speedway reporter Ryan Guest, nobody in the Poole camp was panicking.

“We’ve had a very slow start to the season and none of us can deny that,” he said.

“We started off okay with the win over Belle Vue but since then things haven’t gone too well at all.

“The Swindon loss at home was probably the big shock for everyone but we were just unlucky that they came on a real mission to try and beat us and they’ve got a solid team and too many of us just weren’t hitting form that night.

“A few of the boys like Linus (Sundstrom), Kacper (Woryna) and Mateusz (Szczepaniak) haven’t ridden in this league for a long time though and it does take some getting used to if you’ve been away a while.

“I think the more meetings the boys get under their belts though, the stronger we’ll get.

“Those boys are giving it 100 per cent, they can’t be knocked for that, but they do know they need to find their feet pretty soon.

“We’re not panicking too much though and all it needs for all of us to click again on the same night and when that does happen, I think we’ll be pretty sweet.”

Despite having 11 major team honours to his name, Grajczonek is yet to win a major individual meeting in the UK. But the Aussie believes home advantage could pay dividends when the Premiership’s best riders line up in Poole tomorrow.

“I rode in the Premiership Riders’ Championship last year and finished fifth,” he said.

PRC field:

1 Chris Harris (Rye House), 2 Craig Cook (Belle Vue), 3 Troy Batchelor (Swindon), 4 Hans Andersen (Leicester), 5 Ty Proctor (King’s Lynn), 6 Sam Masters (Wolverhampton), 7 Scott Nicholls (Rye House), 8 Jason Doyle (Somerset), 9 Josh Grajczonek (Poole), 10 Nick Morris (Swindon), 11 Kyle Newman (Leicester), 12 Charles Wright (Somerset), 13 Niels-Kristian Iversen (King’s Lynn), 14 Jacob Thorssell (Wolverhampton), 15 Brady Kurtz (Poole), 16 Max Fricke (Belle Vue).

Admission prices are: £22 adults, £20 concessions, £10 12-16, 11 and under free.