The gala night to salute Magnus Karlsson’s decade of service to British Speedway has been enhanced further by the addition of Bjarne Pedersen.
The inclusion of the rider, who has signed to ride for Birmingham this season, now brings the total of Grand Prix riders up to four. Along with Freddie Lindgren, Nicki Pedersen and Kenneth Bjerre the line-up is shaping up to become a top quality field of ‘A’ listed competitors.
Bjarne is the man Birmingham hope will solve what was a problem position for them last year at number one in the side. He says “Speedway’s one big family these days and although I have never actually ridden in the same team as Magnus, of course I meet him all the time in the airports. I have never ridden at Leicester but it’s always good to come to a new track. Even after riding speedway for more than 20 years I still get excited about that.”
The Dane has been a credit to the sport he so loves and became a legend at Poole where he featured in a golden era for the Pirates, winning ten major team titles whilst at the club. Last season Bjarne moved to south-coast rivals Eastbourne and in 2012 faces a fresh challenge to bring the glory days back to Birmingham.
So far the field for Karlsson’s Testimonial Meeting have been drawn from Denmark and Sweden but today’s announcement takes another direction with the news that Lee Richardson will be riding in the event. Lee is also a person of some standing who has operated at the very top of the tree with Team GB and is another rider who has graced the Speedway Grand Prix series.
It’s a big week for Magnus this week of course as he makes his debut at Telford in the last ever ice meeting. “I don’t know anything about what it’s like, I will be borrowing a bike, so I obviously don’t have big hopes about it, but I am certainly expecting it to be fun.”
Magnus will be at his Testimonial stall at Telford on Sunday to chat to supporters and sign autographs.
