The Breedon Aggregates Lions have secured the signature of Kauko Nieminen this week in a deal that brings him to Leicester in a doubling up role with his present Elite League club side the Lakeside Hammers. John Cook Lakeside’s co-promoter explained: “Kauko has been in need of more meetings to get back to his very best and we felt this was the time to make this move possible”.
The signature of the twice National Champion of Finland concludes a week long search for a top class rider to lead the team out of a depressing run of reverses that saw the Lions last win a league match in April. Nieminen is in his third season at Lakeside and before stepping up into the Elite League with the Hammers the thirty-one year old spent five seasons with Workington where he helped them win three major competitions.
With Nieminen set to make his debut in Saturday’s Premier League meeting against the Ipswich Witches, Sergey Darkin is the rider to make way. The former double Russian Individual National Champion began the season in fine form but recently his scores have dipped to such a level that he failed to gain a point from three rides at Glasgow on Sunday and was withdrawn from his final heat.
Jason Attwood the Lions newly appointed team manager said: “I am pleased with the support David has given me during the negotiations regarding the signing of Kauko Nieminen who in my eyes is a proven Premier League number one and after several positive conversations with Kauko we are both looking forward to Saturday’s fixture against Ipswich”. Kauko comes into the side on a match average of 8.87 and he will be handed the number one race bib with Henning Bager moving to the fifth position in the line-up.
Ironically, with the news that Darkin had lost his place in the team came the announcement that he and Iliya Bondarenko have been called up to represent Russia in Event 2 of the Speedway World Cup at King’s Lynn on Monday against Great Britain, Poland and the Czech Republic.
