James Sarjeant will make his Glasgow comeback tomorrow against a Sheffield side he knows well – but insists he’ll be friends with no-one when he meets them on the track.
The 21-year-old will take on his hometown club in the first leg of the League Cup semi-final.
Sarjeant has spent the last 12 days recovering from bruised ribs and some damage to his arm following a heavy spill at Poole while racing for his Elite League side Coventry.
He’s due to line up for the Bees at Wolverhampton tonight before taking to the Peugeot Ashfield Stadium track for the first time since mid-June.
The Sheffield team includes Sarjeant’s good friend and Coventry team-mate Jason Garrity, along with others he knows from spending time at their Owlerton track.
However, he says his only desire is to beat them on the shale.
He said: “I live in Sheffield and you always like getting one over your hometown team.
“I get along with a lot of them at Sheffield so it would be nice to win – but I just want to win every match at Glasgow.
“We can definitely win over two legs. We were close the last time at Sheffield so I think we can definitely do it this time. I go to Sheffield most weeks and watch, and sometimes help some of their lads if they need a mechanic. It’s not an easy place to go to, it’s a big, fast track and it can take a couple of rides to get a set-up sometimes.
“It’s always good racing with Jason and it’s good to have people you can trust riding with. Some people will just stick you straight through the fence when they get the chance but Jason isn’t one of those to me.
“There are no friends on the track really, but we’ll ride hard but fair.”
Sarjeant will be racing for the first time since a change in his average meant he was promoted from reserve to the main 1-5 of the team.
He said: “I’ll be at No 2 for the first time. I can’t wait, I’m looking forward to it.
“I’ll still try go out and do it in every race, but I won’t be able to have up to seven races. I’ll be looking to make sure my four rides count.
“That was my plan for this year, to move into the main body of the team. Now I’m here, I don’t want to move out of it.”
Sarjeant is still feeling the effects of his crash but insists he has given himself sufficient time to recover.
He added: “I had a meeting with my physio last week and had a practice after the meeting at Coventry on Friday. I was still a bit sore so I’ve got physio again today and I’ll see how the meeting goes.
“It was just bruised ribs and I had muscle damage to my arm. Certain movements were limited and it just locked up the arm. I’ve been doing everything the physio has told me and I could see over the last week it was getting better, but I didn’t want to come back too early.
“It was still hurting during my practice ride but I think it should be all right.
“You expect some injuries in the Premier League because it’s a hard league to ride in. You’ve just got to hit back.”
Tuesday’s match starts at 7.30pm.