It is a red letter day for the Leicester Lions on Saturday who take on the Wolverhampton Wolves in their first ever Elite League fixture at the Jordan Road Surfacing Stadium.
The visitors reached the semi-final play-off stage in 2013 but were outpointed by Birmingham who went on to lose in the final to the Poole Pirates. The Wolves avenged their end of season disappointment on Monday by beating the Brummies’ by 58 points to 35 at Monmore Green and the chief architect of their victory was the British World Champion Tai Woffinden, who raced to a perfect score of fifteen points. Joining Woffinden at the top of the score-chart was their new Polish signing Piotr Pawlicki who on his home debut was also unbeaten by an opponent.
Pawlicki though will be missing from the Wolverhampton team for the visit to Leicester as he is competing in the Polish Under-21 Championship qualifier and so they have engaged the Coventry rider Chris Harris as a guest replacement. Meanwhile, the Rapid Solicitors Lions are strengthened by the presence of Jason Doyle who received clearance on Monday to work in the UK when his Tier 5 (Temporary Worker – Creative and Sporting) Sponsorship application was approved. Doyle, missed the Inter-League Challenge fixture against Peterborough last weekend but he will take his place at number one in the Leicester team alongside Peter Ljung who himself will be flying in for the fixture after representing Sweden in Round 1 of the Speedway Best Pairs competition at the Torun track in Poland the night before.
“It will be an historic night as we are now involved at the highest level of racing in this country again. To think that it is just over three years ago that we came of age as a club and are now on the brink of a new chapter in the story of Leicester Speedway. It is a special moment to savour for fans and everyone who worked so hard to bring the sport back to the City” commented the Lions Press Officer, Alan Jones.
Leicester were previously a First Division club having spent sixteen years in the top flight of British Speedway during the earlier era of the Lions when the team were considered one of the most fashionable sides in the country with their colour co-ordinated red and yellow racing leathers. The team came close to winning the British League Championship in 1971 and were cup finalists four years later. On the individual front, Ray Wilson was crowned British Champion in 1973 and he steered Great Britain to their first success at Wembley Stadium in the World Cup Final. Much later, Les Collins, who was the last captain of the Lions, delighted his legion of fans with second place in the World Championship Final.
Teams
Leicester: 1. Jason Doyle, 2. Peter Ljung, 3. Mads Korneliussen, 4. Simon Stead, 5. Patrick Hougaard, 6. Tom Perry and 7. Max Clegg.
Wolverhampton: 1. Tai Woffinden, 2. Jacob Thorssell, 3.Ty Proctor, 4. Ricky Wells, 5. Chris Harris, 6. Joe Jacobs and 7. Ashley Morris.
