LEICESTER hit the road for the first time in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership this season when they visit King’s Lynn on Monday (7.30pm).
The Watling JCB Lions made a winning start to their league campaign with a dramatic home victory against Belle Vue last Thursday, and now they look for points on their travels.
They face a King’s Lynn side who were highly rated pre-season and who made a good start to the campaign with home and away wins over Oxford in the KO Cup.
But they then suffered a difficult week on the road with heavy back-to-back 57-33 defeats at Belle Vue and Sheffield, following on from a narrow home loss to the Aces where they were somewhat unfortunate with mechanical breakdowns.
The Stars include former Leicester rider Richard Lawson, who spent 2023 and 2024 with the Lions, and he lines up at No.5 for a home side who have real depth if they all fire.
And probably the most notable aspect of their team is the presence of ex-Lions skipper Chris Harris at reserve, a position he has already done plenty of damage from this year.
Whilst King’s Lynn have tended to rotate the order of their top five for home and away matches, Lions boss Stewart Dickson names an unchanged line-up at a venue where they recorded one win and one defeat last season.
They were emphatic 52-38 winners in early August with skipper Max Fricke scoring a 12-point maximum whilst Luke Becker also won four races; whilst in September they went down 48-42 in a last heat decider, a result which ended their chances of finishing top of the regular league table.
Becker goes into the meeting on a high from a 15-point maximum in Poland on Sunday, going through the card in Ostrow’s narrow home defeat to Krosno.
And there was also success for Sam Masters in the Polish National Speedway League as he also scored the full 15 for Gniezno in a 46-44 win at Opole.
Fricke said: “We’ve shown some good form, they have too especially at home, so we need to make sure we’re ready to go when we get there.
“Everyone is working well together, and hopefully we can keep that up and kick on from last year. Kyle (Howarth) has just slotted straight in, so everything is working really well.”
Supporters not attending the meeting should note it is being live streamed by BSN. Passes available from https://watch.britishspeedway.co.uk .
KING’S LYNN: Ben Cook, Nicolai Klindt, Jan Kvech, Niels-Kristian Iversen, Richard Lawson, Chris Harris, Ashton Boughen.
LEICESTER: Max Fricke, Luke Becker, Ryan Douglas, Kyle Howarth, Sam Masters, Drew Kemp, Sam Hagon.
