LEICESTER Lion Cubs make a welcome return home on Saturday when they face Kent at the Pidcock Motorcycles Arena, Beaumont Park (7pm).
The Lion Cubs have only raced once on their own circuit so far in 2023, but the meeting against the Royals is the beginning of a far more regular run of fixtures to get their league title defence very much into gear.
Manager Dave Howard names a full-strength team on what is a busy weekend for several riders as the qualifying round of the British Under-21 Championship also takes place at Workington on Sunday.
Max Perry, Ashton Boughen, Vinnie Foord and Max James are all in the line-up at Northside which will also give them good experience of the NDL’s newest venue ahead of at least two trips back there with the Cubs this year.
But defeating the Royals on Saturday is the first target, with the visitors having been boosted by a big home win over Berwick last time out, which also saw them secure the aggregate point.
The Iwade club recently made a team change with Jack Kingston coming in to replace Joe Alcock, whilst their heat-leader strength includes a well-established No.1 in Ben Morley, and teenager Nathan Ablitt who won the Championship title with Poole last season.
Howard said: “With it being a home meeting we’ll be looking to get a good win and move forward, as now we have matches every week rather than having had just two in the last couple of months.
“It’s really important for us to get a good win on Saturday and put us in a good position to get the aggregate point when we go to Kent.
“Everybody has been riding at various tracks over the last couple of weeks, so they’re all in good spirits and we’ll be looking for a strong performance on Saturday to start off this period of regular meetings.”
Meanwhile, a change to the Cubs’ upcoming fixture schedule sees the KO Cup trip to Workington brought forward by a week, and it will now take place on Saturday July 8 (3pm) rather than July 15.
LEICESTER: Dan Thompson, Ashton Boughen, Max Perry, Tom Spencer, Joe Thompson, Vinnie Foord, Max James.
KENT: Ben Morley, Connor King, Jack Kingston, Tom Woolley, Nathan Ablitt, Sam Woolley, Rhys Naylor.
