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Lions add Harris to ‘23 team Lions add Harris to ‘23 team

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VOLUME 71 NUMBER 39

CHRIS Harris insists his hunger for team success remains as high as ever – as he prepares for a new Premiership challenge at Leicester. Harris says he’s impressed with the Lions’ early work in the transfer market, which has also seen them make a move for top Australian star Max Fricke who is set to take the No. 1 berth.

And having won a fifth top-flight title with Peterborough in 2021, Harris says he’s still fiercely ambitious to add to that total – an attitude shared by manager Stewart Dickson.

Harris said: “Stewart has always built teams to be in the play-offs, and especially in the last few years at Leicester they’ve always been there, either in the Finals or just missing out.

“You always know he’s going to put a competitive team together, and that’s what I always want to be in.

“I want to win trophies at the end of the day, and so you want to make sure you’ve got as good a chance as possible to do it.

“Obviously you’ve got to have Lady Luck on your side with injuries, so hopefully we won’t receive any serious ones, and we’ll see how it goes.

“I certainly feel I can get dialled in there and

Northside to join NDL

WORKINGTON are set to be confirmed as National Development League starters when the third-tier AGM takes place next Tuesday.

Last week’s senior AGM statement confirmed an initial application had been accepted for speedway to return to Cumbria for the first time since the closure at Derwent Park in the winter of 2018/19.

The relaunch of the club, now based at an impressively redeveloped Northside, will see them take on the famous Comets name with home matches set to be run on Saturday afternoons at 3 pm.

And with plans in place for the appointment of a team manager, and riders keen to join, owner Andrew Bain is delighted to see the hard work of the past 18 months now coming to fruition.

Fencing and banking are amongst the final matters to be completed, along with adding topsoil and seeding to the centregreen, with the pits currently being built along with changing rooms in the coming weeks. Workshops for the riders are also planned.

Bain said: “It’s a year-and-a-half we’ve been working on this and if it wasn’t for the volunteers coming out in rain, hail, snow and whatever, we wouldn’t be this far on with it.

“We have a really good bunch of people who all work hard together, and it’s exciting times. It’s all starting to get a bit real now.

“We had a huge reaction when the BSP made their announcement last week, it got 2,300 ‘likes’ and about 290 comments, so it went mad!

“Obviously we’ll find out the points limit when the AGM takes place, and then we can start signing riders.

“We know there are plenty who want to come here, and to be honest the ‘phone has never stopped – which is a good thing, it means I’m not chasing the riders!

“We can give them a lot of opportunities. The beauty of it is we can open up seven days a week for practice, so they can get plenty of track-time and that will be good for the team as well.”

The club expect the venue to be open for practice in January, and have an April date in mind for their opening meeting.

with the team Stewart is putting together, we can definitely be up there.”

Despite Peterborough’s struggles in 2022 when the reigning champions ended up at the bottom of the table, Harris enjoyed a stellar campaign personally as he finished clear at the top of the Panthers’ averages.

He comes into the Lions’ side on a figure of 7.59 (reduced to 7.40 for team building) and admits the success of this year gives him even more incentive to prolong his racing career.

Harris said: “I’ve had some great backing this year from the likes of Gary Smith at Sprint (Engineering and Lubricants Ltd) and Shaun Harvey at North East Demolition.

“When I’ve got people like that behind me, and the equipment that they’ve set up for me that I can ride and be at the top with my equipment, I just want to make sure my fitness is at the top level too.

“If that’s the case, I can’t see why I can’t last for a few more years yet, so I’ve not got any sights on retiring any time soon.

“I don’t want to be a rider that retires and then thinks he wants to come back because he misses it – when I step away, I want it to be because I’ve had enough of it, or because the body won’t take any more.

“But I feel good in myself, so I want to be around for a long time yet, winning races and winning trophies. That’s the main aim.”

Lindback jailed for a month

ANTONIO Lindback has been sentenced to one month in prison in Sweden for drinkdriving. The Masarna rider was stopped earlier this year and found to have 1.82 per cent of alcohol in his blood. The incident happened in February and Lindback has since confessed to the crime and decided to receive treatment at a treatment centre.

This is the fourth time that Lindback has been caught for drink driving. He has previously been sentenced in 2004, 2007 and most recently in 2015, when he also received a month’s imprisonment.

4 speedway star November 26, 2022