Lynn Stars elect to go with six-man squad for double-header
The Tru Plant Stars have elected to run with a six-man squad for Wednesday night's double-header against Wolverhampton at the Adrian Flux Arena.
Lynn will be missing Niels-Kristian Iversen as Esbjerg, his home team in Denmark, have pulled rank on his service.
With so much at stake, the promotion and all the riders have elected to keep their destiny in their own hands and compete with a six- man plus one reserve squad.
Back-to-back wins against Wolves will see the Stars go top of the SGB Premiership.
Owner and promoter Keith Chapman said: “For a number of reasons we would prefer to have the meetings on two separate evenings but this is now not possible due to the league cut-off date.
"The lessons from running previous double-headers have been carefully scrutinised and we have forward planned for as many eventualities as is possible.
"We have Josh Bailey at number 8 (a reserve rider who can be used in the event of injury) giving us options in both matches. We have also employed an additional rider to be on stand-by, at the stadium, for the second match.
"On the basis that 'the show must go on' we have even arranged for two ambulances to be on site, so in the unlikely event one is needed we still meet the health and safety requirements to continue with the evening."
Team manager and co-promoter Dale Allit said: “We have carefully considered our strategy for this critical double-header and whole team have bought-in to running rider replacement for Niels.
"To ask the riders to take extra rides on an already busy night is a big ask, but to the man they all immediately stepped up to the challenge.
"The decision was heavily influenced by the desire to keep our destiny in our own hands and we all know what is required on Wednesday night.
"Another key factor is that Belle Vue are a Premiership challenger to the Stars and we felt that it would be unreasonable to place such pressure to perform on an opponents rider."
Co-promoter Robin Brundle added: “The physical demands on the riders will be significant. There is a chance that some riders could be doing 14 races in circa three hours and we are expecting there to be no decline in their performance.
"To put this in to some perspective it would be similar to asking an Olympic 400m runner to run 14 races in 3 hours at world record pace.
"Given the challenge we have carefully considered the rider nutrition and hydration programmes and Paul Suggitt, Team GB physio and physical training coach, will once again be with us for the events along with all of our regular support teams and volunteers."
