One of the aristocrat clubs of British Speedway, the Coventry Bees make their first appearance at Leicester’s Jordan Road Surfacing Stadium in a seven-a-side fixture on Saturday when the two teams race for the East Midlands Bowl.
Since returning to the sport in 2011 the Harry Jordan Haulage sponsored Leicester Lions have been bereft of regular local derby meetings so Saturday’s fixture is one to savour and for the longer standing Leicester supporters it will conjure up those heady days when Leicester met Coventry.
The pre-season opener against Elite League opposition will pose a stern challenge for Leicester against Coventry who are three-times league champions. Last year was not the best of campaigns for the Bees by their own high standards, although they did reach the final of the Knock-out Cup only to lose against Poole.
The visitors are geared up to rectify the situation with the acquisition of Krzysztof Kasprzak to front the Bees scoring and the Grand Prix rider will be a big draw-card on Saturday. It is the Polish International’s second spell with the club having arrived at Brandon in May 2010 when Coventry was in the midst of a run of poor form. His presence helped the Bees to climb the table and into a play-off position from where they won the league title with Krzysztof heading the team’s averages. The Bees number one rider holds the distinction of being the first person to complete a few laps of the Leicester track in the days leading up to the stadium opening and alongside Kasprzak at the helm of the Coventry team is Scott Nicholls who last season became British Champion for a record seventh time and is a world class rider of some considerable standing.
“This is a meeting that fans have been asking us to arrange and whilst there are no league points at stake the mere fact that the two clubs are facing one another for the first time in a full fifteen heat team meeting has created much interest and excitement” commented the Lions Co-promoter Alan Jones. “Saturday will be the first time that four riders will compete against one another following the track alterations last month and we are grateful to Lafarge Tarmac who kindly supplied different materials which enabled us to carry out the work at very little cost to the club” added Jones.
With the track now measuring 317 metres a new track record will be created in the opening race which will feature Krzysztof Kasprzak and Leicester’s captain Kauko Nieminen who holds the record for the fastest four laps when the circuit measured 321 metres.
A large attendance is expected and the stadium ticket office will be open at 5.30pm.
