Workington Comets will leave home comforts behind this weekend when they tackle for back-to-back away meetings.
Comets have Scunthorpe tonight and Plymouth on Saturday.
They had recent home wins against the pair although they go into the two return clashes on the back of a poor home result against Redcar Bears on Saturday.
But their last meeting on opposition shale was their best effort of the season so far, becoming the first team 10 days ago to win the aggregate point against champions Poole.
For tonight they travel to Scunthorpe with a healthy 26-point advantage following the sides’ opening Cab Direct Championship encounter in West Cumbria.
Both teams were due to have been at full strength this weekend but Workington’s teenage reserve Vinnie Foord misses out.
Although Foord lined up against Redcar last weekend, he is still feeling the effects of a facial injury sustained in an awkward tumble at his former Poole stomping ground.
Foord is replaced by 30-year-old Connor Coles, who is currently riding for Edinburgh Monarchs’ Academy team and has Championship experience under his belt at Berwick Bandits and then the Monarchs’ main team during the past two seasons.
Otherwise Comets are unchanged for their trip to the Eddie Wright Raceway where they are aiming for a return to winning ways. However, Scorpions are also seeking to bounce back having lost their last three Championship fixtures.
Comets’ flying Finn, Antti Vuolas, has already impressed at the North Lincolnshire track this season, just missing out on a semi-final berth when it hosted the Championship League Riders’ Championship in early April.
Fellow heat leader Tate Zischke will hope to continue a week of celebrations having turned 20 on Wednesday.
From Scunthorpe, the Comets then make the long journey to Plymouth where Ben Trigger will guest for the visitors at reserve in Foord’s absence.
Trigger makes a swift return to Devon, where he started the season before being shown the door amid a rider reshuffle.
As they try to defend a 12-point advantage gained when they hosted Gladiators in West Cumbria, the Comets will use rider replacement in the absence of Fraser Bowes, who has been in sparkling form for the team in recent weeks.
Bowes has a commitment on the continent for his Polish club, Unia Tarnow.
Gladiators are boosted by the recent signing for former multiple British champion Scott Nicholls, and go into Saturday’s meeting on the back of a 52-37 victory over Oxford Cheetahs last weekend.
However, they are without influential number one Nicolai Klindt, who bagged a classy 18-point maximum on the team’s visit to Workington in June. Edinburgh Monarchs’ Kye Thomson guests for the unavailable Klindt.
The Comets’ trip to Plymouth sits in the middle of three away fixtures in eight days for James Denham’s men, who visit Glasgow Tigers next Friday and will have clocked up 1,164 miles by the time they return to West Cumbria from Ashfield, and Denham is hoping the trip will be worthwhile.
He said: “We need to bounce back from last Saturday at home and we are in good position for both meetings to do so, but as always we’re taking nothing for granted.
“Scunthorpe will also want to bounce back at home after some bad results, and Plymouth will want to carry on their momentum after their big win against Oxford last weekend.
“The aggregate point is up for grabs, but we really need to be winning these meetings as well if we want to push for those all important play-off positions.
“The lads are really fired up and do not want a similar result to the one at Scunthorpe last time, but I believe we are a different team all together and they know they need to be on form for both meetings and we know what we need to do!
“It’s a shame we don’t have Vinnie for both meetings, but he has a badly swollen face from last week’s awful crash at Poole and just needs some rest for the time being. I think we do have some handy guests in place for him in Connor Coles and Ben Trigger.
“Ben was recently released by Plymouth in their recent team shake up and will want to prove a point in front of his old team.”
