Redcar SG Petch Bears v Sheffield Tigers – Friday 8th September – 7:30pm
Redcar SG Petch Bears will be looking to make it 4 home wins on the bounce, as they look for revenge against the Sheffield Tigers at the Media Prima Arena on Friday (7:30pm start).
The Bears were comfortable winners over Ipswich last Thursday, and co-promoter Jitendra Duffill is pleased to see his side begin to dominate at home:
I’m starting to see us stamp our authority on the Media Prima Arena for the first time in years. We asked Terry the Track to make a couple of changes to our racing surface before the Glasgow meeting a few weeks ago and it seems to be paying dividends. The racing has been superb too. The atmosphere around the place last week was electric and it was fantastic to be a part of that. We made a good Ipswich side look average. We managed to run them close at their place but didn’t have an answer to King and Schlein in the big heats. It has to give us confidence that we would have beaten them convincingly over 2 legs if that was a play off fixture!
This weeks meeting will be another tough one for the Bears, coming up against an in-form Sheffield side who won at the Media Prima Arena a couple of weeks ago. It is a side packed full of riders who go well around the Teesside circuit, but Duffill is confident his side can get the 3 points to keep the pressure on Edinburgh for the final play-off spot:
We made it 3 out of 3 home wins last week, all against teams above us in the league. This week we aim to make it 4 but I believe this will be the toughest one yet. Sheffield have been the stand out team of the season and they were very impressive here a few weeks ago. Having said that, I have watched our performances become stronger by the week since then and it gives me confidence that we can take another 3 points and keep the pressure on Edinburgh for that 4th play off spot.
The Bears are currently at full strength for the meeting, however Tobias Busch is still a bit of a doubt after his fall in Denmark last week. We will update you if this changes. Sheffield are using rider replacement for the injured Todd Kurtz, but are otherwise at full strength.
Redcar: Ben Barker, Ellis Perks, Jason Garrity, Jonas B Andersen, Charles Wright, Tobias Busch, Danny Ayres
Sheffield: Josh Grajczonek, r/r for Todd Kurtz, Lasse Bjerre, Josh Bates, Kyle Howarth, Jan Graversen, Georgie Wood