Redcar v Edinburgh Preview – Thursday 12th July – 7:30pm start
Redcar ‘Ecco Finishing Supplies’ Bears will look to make it 2 home wins on the bounce, as they take on the Edinburgh Monarchs at the Media Prima Arena on Thursday night (7:30pm start).
New team boss Jade Mudgway kept up his 100% record of victories as team manager last week, and will hoping to keep that going against a strong Edinburgh side who finished second in the recent Championship Fours at Redcar. Mudgway admits management was never something he would end up doing:
I hope Jitendra gets well very soon, but until then, I will be doing everything that I can to help our Bears to entertain and win for our fans. Being team manager is not something that I ever thought I would get the chance to do, but I intend to do the best possible job for our club. I feel that being a recent rider gives me a bit of an edge, as it will help me to understand and do my best to get the best out of them. I am a regular in the pits at Redcar, so I know all of the riders well already.
It was a strong performance from the Bears last week, in particular down at reserve. Mudgway says the whole team is buzzing, and had special praise for his reserve duo:
Team spirit is high at the moment and I want to build on that. Every rider in our pits will give us 100% and that’s all I can ask of them. We have two trump cards in our team, as I believe that our reserves are the best in the league. Mikkel was brilliant last week and when we needed him to pull out big races he did it with fast starts and speed. Jordan also had a brilliant night, reading the track perfectly and switching back to the inside in heat 12, pulling out a big win to make sure Scunthorpe didn’t get back into the match.
The Bears will go into the meeting without German Tobias Busch, who is still feeling the effects of his crash last week. The Bears will operate rider replacement to cover for him. Edinburgh come into the meeting at full strength, with new signing Victor Palovaara coming in to replace Coty Garcia. They are led by American star Ricky Wells, with Erik Riss at number 5 who was superb in the Championship Fours and was unbeaten all day. Josh Pickering and Joel Andersson also both showed their liking of the Teesside track at the Fours meeting so it should prove to be an exciting clash!
Redcar: Barker, r/r for Busch, Berge, Jonas B Andersen, Jorgensen, Mikkel B Andersen, Stewart
Edinburgh: Wells, Palovaara, Mark Riss, Pickering, Erik Riss, Ruml, Andersson
