Leicester travel to the Brandon Stadium on Friday to face their Midland rivals the Coventry Bees without two of their most influential riders. Patrick Hougaard and Paul Starke are both unavailable for the Elite League fixture due to a clash of dates.
Hougaard is fulfilling a commitment to his Polish club who have a home meeting against Rzeszow and Starke is required by his Premier League side the Somerset Rebels to race against Peterborough.
“Patrick and Paul will be missed there is no doubt about that as both riders have ridden extremely well all season. Nevertheless, we have booked in Lewis Kerr as a guest who rode exceptionally well on his last visit to Coventry” said the Lions Team Manager Norrie Allan.
Kerr, who rides for the King’s Lynn Stars, scored seven points for the visitors who won at Coventry last month. “I have opted to cover for Hougaard’s absence by sharing out his four rides. This will give me the choice to perm four from six as to who is riding the best on the night” added Allan.
The Bees reached the play-off semi-finals in 2015 but this season has been a real challenge for Coventry who are just one place above Leicester in the Elite League table and with both clubs out of the running for a top four place the fixture has nothing more at stake than pride.
The last time the clubs met at Brandon was in March and a close scoring match ensued. Leicester entered the final three heats level on points only for the Bees to stage a strong finish which ended with a eight points win for the home team.
Teams
Coventry: 1. Krzysztof Kasprzak, 2. Jason Garrity, 3. Danny King, 4. Josh Bates, 5. Chris Harris, 6. Kacper Woryna and 7. James Sarjeant
Leicester: 1. Rider Replacement for Patrick Hougaard, 2. Aaron Summers, 3. Nicolai Klindt, 4. Lewis Rose, 5. Szymon Wozniak, 6. Ludvig Lindgren and 7. Josh Auty
