PREVIEW: Rory out to seal glory for city racers

Panthers take on Redcar for the sixth time in 2017 when the Bears visit Alwalton.

And the city side stand proudly unbeaten so far with four victories ahead of a thrilling 45-45 draw in the North-East on Thursday night.

And Panthers manager Carl Johnson is predicting two ultra-determined teams will lay on another terrific spectacle as they go in search of valuable points in their quests for a play-off place.

Johnson said: “It’s turned into quite a rivalry between ourselves and Redcar this season – and our intention is to end it with another three league points.

“It should be a cracking meeting as they will do everything they can to grab a win against us today.

“We have to be mindful of that, but I’m confident we have enough strength to get the job done at our place again.

“We can’t afford to drop any more points at home. We need victories to get ourselves closer to the play-off places and put pressure on the teams currently in the top four.”

Peterborough welcome back Great Britain star Chris Harris and New Zealand champion Bradley Wilson-Dean today. They both missed the Media Prima Arena deadlock last week due to commitments in the SGB Premiership.

But Panthers are not quite at full strength today due to number one Jack Holder racing in the first round of the World Under 21 Championship final in Poland.

Club chiefs have turned to Ipswich ace Rory Schlein to step in as a guest for the second time this season. He filled in with great effect in a June victory against Berwick when racking up a paid 13-point haul.

But Johnson insists points from Simon Lambert and Tom Bacon at the bottom end of the team will also be vital today.

He added: “It’s obviously never ideal to have a number one rider missing, but Rory proved he can fill that void when helping us out last month and I’m sure he will do so again.

“We’ve got a lot of strength in the main body of the team and Tom has been picking up his fair share of points down at reserve lately.

“Hopefully Simon can kick on as well now that he has had a couple of meetings to get back into the swing of things after his injury.”

Redcar are unchanged from Thursday which means German rider Tobias Busch returns to Alwalton for the first time since being injured in an April crash at the venue.

TEAMS

PETERBOROUGH: Tom Bacon, Chris Harris, Simon Lambert, Ulrich Ostergaard, Rory Schlein (guest), Paul Starke, Bradley Wilson-Dean.

REDCAR: Jonas B. Andersen, Danny Ayres, Ben Barker, Tobias Busch, Jason Garrity, Ellis Perks, Charles Wright.