Workington Comets are preparing for their first gruelling double header since reforming and joining the National Development League.
The Comets make the 230-mile trip to Leicester on Saturday and then travel a further 157 miles to the south-east coast at Kent on Sunday.
The combined 387-mile trip is the longest journey the GT Tyres-sponsored Comets will make this season, and the Comets septet will be hoping to turn around recent results which have rather off-set the promising start to the campaign.
August will be the busiest month of the season for the Comets and team boss, James Denham is hoping for a revival in fortunes from the up-coming meetings after a recent gap in fixtures:
He said: “It’s been nearly a month since our last fixture away at Edinburgh, but this might be just what’s needed and the refresh the lads need to kick start our season.
“Our play off hopes will be won or lost in August, but I’m confident all of the lads can pull it out of the bag.”
Since the last fixture Connor Bailey, Ace Pijper and Luke Harrison have been seeing plenty of action in the Championship, Indeed 16-year-old Harrison recently signed for Redcar and also picked-up his first Championship heat win along the way.
Pijper is also another man who has been riding regularly for Glasgow in the Championship and also on the continent, so hopefully, there will be no race rustiness for the weekend.
Sam and Harry McGurk, along with Elliot Kelly and Luke Crang also rode in the Susan Roper Memorial GP at Northside last Saturday. Sam McGurk narrowly missed out on the Final.
Skipper Crang feels that after five week out through injury his return on Saturday was largely successful and good progress was made ahead of this weekend’s two clashes.
The first sees the Comets clash with the Leicester Lion Cubs on Saturday in the second leg of the Knockout Cup Semi-Final. The Comets need to overturn a tough, but not impossible 16-point deficit to make the KOC final after the shock home defeat in the first leg at the start of July.
The strong Leicester side features last weekend’s Susan Roper Memorial GP winner, Ashton Boughen as well as Max Perry who came third on the day. Not to mention one of the strongest number ones in the league, Dan Thompson.
However, the Comets will be hoping to take advantage of the depleted Leicester side with Tom Spencer, a 50/50 doubt, and Joe Thompson out with injury.
The second away fixture in as many days sees the GT Tyres Comets head to Iwade, to take on the Kent Royals in the National Development League with a 12.00pm start on Sunday. Kent sit one place below the Comets in the NDL table in seventh place.
The Royals have one match in hand over the Comets but are four-points behind. A big win at Iwade would ensure the Comets stretch that lead out to six points.
Nevertheless, as is so often the case in the NDL this season – there are no easy fixtures and Kent also have a strong lineup to field against the Comets. Three strong riders feature in a vastly experienced side, Ben Morley, Tom Woolley and Nathan Ablitt.
The Comets team manager has stressed the importance of the two fixtures ahead of the long trip.
He said: “The Leicester match will be tough no doubt, but if we’re on form we definitely have the capability to go there and pull that deficit back. Also with the amount of riding the lads have had since our last fixture I’m confident we can.
“Kent haven’t had results go their way this season either. We are going there to win and that’s it and hopefully with a result against Leicester the day before, that will be the belief the lads need to revitalize our season.”
