Peterborough Panthers gearing up for the start of the Premiership season

The Panthers’ new-look septet are set to come together for the first time at Press Day, just over 72 hours prior to their Premiership opener at Ipswich on March 23.

Riders will meet the media at the behind-closed-doors event prior to hopefully putting in laps of the Showground circuit, depending on the weather conditions in the build-up to the day.And it’s set to be a busy UK return for new No.1 Nicki Pedersen, who is back in British racing for the first time since 2011.

Pedersen will complete his duties at Alwalton and then head up north to take part in the Peter Craven Memorial Trophy at Belle Vue, an event firmly established as one of the top Individual meetings in the country.

The Dane believes the current set of Premiership circuits should suit him, and he admits the universally popular Manchester venue is one which he is looking forward to experiencing.Pedersen said: “I’ve been to Belle Vue once when it opened (in 2016) but didn’t do a full meeting, so I can’t wait to get back to that one.

“Mostly the tracks in the league now are good. King’s Lynn has always been good and Peterborough is a good track as well.

“There used to be some tough ones like Oxford, even though I rode for them, but there weren’t any tracks that I didn’t like.

“To become World Champion you have to be good everywhere, and if you’re consistent on all of them then you might be World Champion one day!

“I’ve been to Leicester a bit for testing, and that’s definitely one of the trickier ones, a bit like Arena-Essex used to be.

“You’re not going as fast there and it’s kind of like the indoor tracks, and I’ve been on them so I’ll figure it out.”

Pedersen, the new Danish team manager, feels being part of a contingent including fellow countrymen Niels-Kristian Iversen and Hans Andersen and exciting youngster Benjamin Basso is also a positive for the Panthers team overall.

He said: “I know Hans, I know Iversen and Basso, and that’s going to make it even better with the language, and I can drop straight onto the team.

“Basso texted me, he was excited because he could learn a lot of tricks with me, and I said yes, there are plenty, and it’s also good that I can help those kind of guys!”

Panthers’ opening home meeting is against Ipswich on March 27, with that meeting set to feature the Witches’ star duo of Jason Doyle and Emil Sayfutdinov – the Russian racer who is back in the sport after a year-long ban following his country’s invasion of Ukraine, and was this week cleared to race in Poland after securing his licence via an examination.