PREVIEW: PIRATES READY FOR RESURGENT REDCAR

Poole Speedway will welcome home the newly crowned 2024 British U21 Champion, Sam Hagon on Wednesday night (5th June) when the Pirates host the visit of the Redcar Bears.

Hagon, winner of the title with an excellent performance at Glasgow on Sunday will resume his Poole duties back at reserve, after having been promoted to the main body of the team for one night only last Saturday and he will link up with another rider who impressed in the competition, recent signing Vinnie Foord.

Promoter Dan Ford commented, "winning the U21 title is a great reward for all the hard effort Sam has put into his racing. Always willing to go out there and learn and with great equipment behind him, we believed in him being a winner and he proved that on Sunday. He will link up with our new reserve, Vinnie on Wednesday as we look to keep our solid start to the season going."

"It is fair to say that Redcar have not had the easiest of starts to the season, having lost all four of their BSN Series Northern Group meetings, and only registered their first league win, in six, on Saturday with a defeat over Glasgow, but it injuries have very much played their part with them this season, particularly the on-going loss of Danny King." 

"We know from experience just what a reliable points contributor Danny is, and having missed the last seven matches for them has meant a big reliability on guests. But they too have young British riders that have such great potential - Jason Edwards, Jake Mulford, Connor Bailey and recently acquired, Dan Gilkes, all capable of supporting former British Champion Charles Wright who heads their side, so we can ill afford to let up on the gas. We have made the semi-final stages of two competitions already this year so the treble remains our target but to do that we have to keep picking up league points, which means not just winning but winning by a decent margin when we are hosting the first leg of a tie. So whilst we wish Danny a speedy recovery we are determined not to show the Bears any further benevolence than that."

"By now, people will have heard about the introduction of Vinnie Foord to our side and he joins us tonight for the first time. Of course, it is always difficult to let riders know that they are being stood down, and it is no different with young Max (Perry) but I believe that if he can build up his confidence and improve his gating,  the two going hand in hand, then he can certainly be a future star.

Other than the change at number seven, Poole revert to the line-up that gained the double over Berwick last week, with the Poole management opting to move Zach (Cook) and Tom (Brennan) back after switching them around for Saturday's trip to Plymouth. Redcar cover King's absence with a guest appearance from Justin Sedgmen, who started the meeting strongly when racing for his 2024 Cab Direct Championship club, Edinburgh, in the knockout cup first leg six weeks ago.

Teams
Poole (TM Neil Middleditch) 1 Richard Lawson, 2 Tobias Thomsen, 3 Tom Brennan, 4 Zach Cook, 5 Ben Cook (Capt), 6 Sam Hagon, 7 Vinnie Foord.
Redcar (TM Gavin Parr) 1 Charles Wright (Capt), 2 Connor Bailey, 3 Dan Gilkes, 4 Jason Edwards, 5 (Guest) Justin Sedgmen, 6 Ben Trigger, 7 Jake Mulford