KING’S Lynn make a quick return to Sheffield as their ROWE Motor Oil Premiership campaign gets back underway on Thursday.
The PSH Environmental Stars are on the road to Owlerton again just three weeks after their KO Cup hopes came to an end at the South Yorkshire venue.
Stars battled hard in that meeting and kept the aggregate position within range for most of the meeting, although the Sheffield top order were in dominant form as the Tigers eventually prevailed.
And it’s in the heat leader berths where the Stars again are forced to mix and match given the continued absences of long-term injury victim Nicolai Klindt and the fact that their facility for the absent Tobiasz Musielak has now expired.
Under the regulations the Stars cannot now operate rider replacement for Musielak and must book a guest up to a maximum of 75 per cent of the Pole’s average, ruling out several riders who have stepped in over recent weeks.
Birmingham’s Justin Sedgmen, a former Sheffield rider, comes in at No.1 and the Stars will operate rider replacement for Klindt with options limited due to two other Premiership matches taking place on Thursday.
Meanwhile skipper Niels-Kristian Iversen goes into the meeting in good form after a 15-point maximum in Poland for Gdansk on Sunday in their home win over Rzeszow.
Stars operations manager Dale Allitt said: “It’s not ideal of course with the facility having expired at No.1 and so few options with only one Premiership team not racing.
“What we can say is that a lot of work is going on behind the scenes, although as other teams have found out recently, it’s not easy!
“But we are hopeful of moving towards having a new rider coming in within the next couple of weeks, that is very much what we are working to achieve, and we should know more in the near future.”
Sheffield have had their own problems to contend with over the past few weeks, with their top two of Tai Woffinden and Jack Holder both picking up injuries in the Gorzow GP at the end of June.
Whilst Holder is now back in action, Woffinden is out on a more long-term basis with a broken elbow, and the Tigers bring in Tom Brennan to guest.
SHEFFIELD: Jack Holder, Tom Brennan, Josh Pickering, Kyle Howarth, Chris Holder, Jason Edwards, Dan Gilkes. KING’S LYNN: Justin Sedgmen, Niels-Kristian Iversen, Jan Kvech, Benjamin Basso, Nicolai Klindt R/R, Patryk Wojdylo, Anders Rowe.