The Leicester Breedon Aggregates promoter David Hemsley has made his third new signing within a fortnight with the acquisition of Magnus Karlsson who joins the Lions on loan from Scunthorpe.
The twenty-nine year old is set to make his debut on Saturday at Beaumont Park against the high flying Sheffield Tigers who are currently second in the Premier League table and are now at full strength side following the return of Josh Auty from injury.
Karlsson has spent nine seasons in British Speedway during which time he has represented Edinburgh, Hull and Scunthorpe in the Premier League and Wolverhampton at Elite League level. One of his most prosperous periods of his career came during his spell at Hull where he helped the Vikings win the league, cup and Young Shield competitions.
The Swedish Under-21 international has so far resisted a return to British Speedway and instead he has confined his racing commitments to his homeland where he rides for Solkatterna in the Swedish Division One League and Ornarna in the Alsvenskan League. Magnus rode for Scunthorpe last season and finished second in the team’s averages behind the Sileby born rider David Howe. Magnus spent three seasons at the Eddie Wright Raceway stadium and appeared in 129 meetings for the South Humberside club during which time he amassed 1300 points in all competitions, making him the third highest scorer of all-time at the club.
Karlsson comes into the side at number four to partner Iliya Bondarenko and the rider to make way is Leicester’s captain Richard Hall who has been released by the club and is set to join Scunthorpe, one of his former teams. Hall, who makes his final appearance for Leicester on Thursday at Ipswich has missed three league fixtures this season already due to his World Long-track commitments and is likely to be absent for a further two and possibly three home meetings.
The Lions promoter David Hemsley had this to say: “Richard has upped his game since coming to Leicester but we are in the same situation as we found ourselves with Mathieu Trésarrieu and need to have a captain who is not elsewhere when he should be leading the side. It is not a good advert for the sport or the people of Leicester to pay to see a six man team operating the rider replacement facility. With Kauko Nieminen, Henning Bager and now Magnus joining us we have the foundations of a strong heat leader partnership. In Iliya Bondarenko and Jan Graversen we have two riders who are both capable of winning races and our young British reserves, Charles Wright and Ashley Morris are pushing for a full team place, so we are optimistic of seeing an upturn in form during the remainder of the season”.
Nieminen has been handed the captaincy of the team when the Lions face Sheffield on Saturday. “Kauko agreed to act as stand-in for Richard Hall on Saturday against Ipswich and having observed him at close quarters I could see that he has a natural ability and commanded respect from the other riders. Therefore I had no hesitation in asking kauko to accept the armband on a permanent basis” said Jason Attwood, Leicester’s team manager.
Morris, the seventeen year old who has replaced the injured John Oliver in the side has been named captain of the Young Lions who face Sweden, Germany and Denmark next month in the semi-final of the European Under-19 Team Championship at Eskilstuna.
