The Elliott sponsored Lions face their biggest test so far at home in the Premier League with the visit of the Somerset Rebels to Beaumont Park on Saturday.
The visitors have been widely tipped by experts within speedway that this will be their year to win the league championship. So far the predictions have come true with seven wins out of eight in the League Cup competition, a record that guarantees the club a place in the semi-finals later this season.
Leicester are making one positional change to the side that beat Plymouth on Sunday with Jari Mäkinen and Simon Nielsen exchanging places in the line-up. The two reserves were the deciding factor in Leicester’s slender one point win against Plymouth, scoring fifteen points between them against their opposite numbers in the visiting team who could only muster a single point. Somerset are forced to make one change to their septet due to the non-availability of Tom Perry who is riding in the European Solo semi-final. His place is taken by Paul Starke who currently rides for the Isle of Wight club in the National League.
“The Rebels have a strong top four, possibly the most consistent in the league at this present time, and with the remaining three all clearly on the way up the visitors are riding high at the moment. Our three heat leaders have to be on the very top of their game and it is vital we pick up the majority of third places. They will miss Tom Perry at reserve who is a promising young British rider and so we must take advantage of any weakness that arises from his absence” commented the Lions Team Manager, Glyn Taylor.
Twenty-four hours later, Lasse Bjerre is representing Denmark in a World Under-21 Team semi-final meeting at Lakeside and Somerset have three riders of their own in the event. Kyle Newman will be riding for Team GB and in the same meeting, Sam Masters and Alex Davies have been selected for the Australian team.
Teams:
Leicester: 1. Magnus Karlsson, 2. Simon Lambert, 3. Kauko Nieminen, 4. Jan Graversen, 5. Lasse Bjerre, 6. Simon Nielsen and 7. Jari Mäkinen
Somerset: 1. Claus Vissing, 2. Alex Davies, 3. Sam Masters, 4. James Wright, 5. Jason Doyle, 6. Kyle Newman and 7. Paul Starke
