After what has been a frustrating start for the “Western Commercial” Tigers the management have moved to make a couple of changes which will hopefully kick start the season ahead of the trip to Plymouth on Friday in the first leg of the KO Cup.
In comes Czech rider FILIP ŠITERA and Englishman CHRIS MILLS. Šitera has been a target for a couple of weeks and a deal was concluded over the weekend while Mills has been keen to get back into racing after a reasonable season with Ipswich last year. Both riders will debut at Plymouth and then make their home bows on Sunday against Redcar. The riders making way are Jade Mudgway and Robert Ksiezak. Co-Promoter Alan Dick explained the reasoning:
“There is no doubt that telling a rider he is being released from the side is an unpleasant experience not one we had to do last season at all, but the bottom line is that we are not winning and as such we need to change things for the sake of our supporters and our business. Filip is a rider we all admire and hopefully this move will see him prosper given that he will have a long term place in the team. Chris is slightly different in that he is looking for an avenue back into the sport after missing out at the start of the season. He is a wholehearted competitor who perhaps has not made quitge the strides that we all expected, but again, he has a chance to settle in and get back into the groove for a bit. Given that he is based in the deep south it is someting that we will keep an eye on over the course of the season to make sure that the travelling is manageable for him an agreement that we are both very comfortable with.
As I said earlier if the team were winning then there would be no need to change things about and as we all know in speedway it becomes something of a numbers game. We are sure that both Jade and Robert will get fixed up somewhere and get their careers back on track. On thte positive side this move allows Mason Campton to drop to reserve while Jayden O’malley now knows that this is his chance to get going and take advantage of a spell at reserve. I am sure that he has come to realise that this game is a lot of hard work and it is essential he focusses solely on his speedway if he wants to make a career out of it.
The riding order for Friday and Sunday will be 1. Joe Screen. 2. Chris Mills 3. Josh Grajczonek. 4. Filip Šitera. 5. James Grieves. 6. Jayden O’malley 7. Mason Campton.”