Kauko Nieminen, the Leicester Lions captain, celebrates eleven full seasons in British Speedway with a Testimonial meeting at the Jordan Road Surfacing Stadium on Sunday.
Nieminen signed for Leicester in July 2011 and his presence soon helped to improve Leicester’s results as the Lions ended the season on a winning note and second place in the Premier League Fours’ Final.
The three times Finnish National Champion will take his place in a Leicester team to face a Kauko Select seven which includes one of Team GB’s rising stars in Craig Cook. The Edinburgh rider is a Leicester track specialist; having broken Nieminen’s track record for the circuit during the first heat of last week’s meeting and has been chosen as a reserve at the British Grand Prix at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on Saturday.
Cook’s teammates will include Adam Roynon who returns to the sport after picking up an injury on the first day of the season. Roynon, who was a winter signing, made his debut in the afternoon meeting for Leicester at Scunthorpe but later that evening he was involved in a crash whilst riding for his parent club the Coventry Bees. Now given the all-clear to race again, the Testimonial at Leicester will be Adam’s first meeting back on the track.
Kim Nilsson who was a teammate of Nieminen’s in the Elite League at Lakeside will be making his first appearance at Leicester and leading out the side is one of Nieminen’s closest friends Rusty Harrison. The Australian befriended Nieminen when he first came to the UK in 2002 and helped him settle into the British way of life. Both were riding for the Comets at the time and were in the same team that won the Premier League Fours’ Final.
Joe Haines, a double British Under-21 Champion and Sheffield Tiger has also accepted an invitation to ride and so too has one of last season’s favourites at Leicester, Jari Mäkinen. Completing the ‘Select’ team is Henric Lindqvist, a nineteen year old who is making his British track debut and has impressed Nieminen during their time racing together in the Swedish Allsvenskan League for Rospiggarna.
“When Kauko Nieminen first came to Leicester in 2011 we were in the midst of a poor run of form but his arrival heralded the start of a new beginning really for the club as our results began to pick up. Since then our stature has steadily grown and we will be forever grateful for Kauko’s leadership as captain of the Lions. People who have met Kauko talk warmly about the man, not just from a riding perspective but about him as a person. He has given eleven full seasons to British Speedway and we sincerely hope that fans turn out in large numbers on Sunday in support of a truly nice guy” commented the Lions co-promoter, Alan Jones.
There will be an element of nostalgia to savour as well on the day as Les Collins, the last captain of the first era of the Lions and a former World number 2 will open the proceedings with a number of demonstration laps of the track.
Why not have a pre-meeting drink in Yulia’s Bar which will be open from 1.00pm.
Tickets for the Testimonial are on sale on the day of the meeting at the stadium ticket office from 1.45pm and normal Leicester Speedway admission prices apply. The parade of riders will take place at 3.45pm with the first race at 4.00pm.
