Craig Cook, the reigning Premier League Riders’ Champion has accepted an invitation from Kauko Nieminen to ride in his Testimonial Meeting next month and joins Rusty Harrison and Joe Haines in the Select team to face the Harry Jordan Haulage Lions.
The Edinburgh rider has been chosen as a reserve for the British Grand Prix meeting at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff the day before and rides in the Elite League with Kauko at Belle Vue.
Cook will be joined in the team to face Leicester by Henric Lindqvist who will be making his debut in British Speedway. “Craig is one of this country’s best prospects for future honours in the sport and is such a skilful rider to have in a team. I am pleased he has said he can do it” stated Nieminen. Cook rides the Leicester track as well as any visiting rider and has scored twenty-seven points out of a possible thirty on his two previous appearances at the Jordan Road Surfacing Stadium.
Lindqvist, who is nineteen, was in great demand last year and a busy man having secured a team place in each of his country’s three league tier structure. “I have only ridden with Henric for one season but I rate him very highly. We are team mates at Rospiggarna and what impressed me was that he had talent, has well looked after equipment and the support of his parents. I think that it is only a matter of time before he picks up a team place with a British club and my Testimonial Meeting is an ideal occasion to show off his undoubted potential” added the Lions captain Kauko Nieminen.
