The Lakeside Hammers, who started the month of May with an important League victory over the Ipswich Witches, are now looking ahead to the rest of this month’s racing.

They have the Craven Shield Final, against Coventry, to arrange and three League matches in the month plus three of their riders are going to be involved in the Grand Prix Series.

The win over the Witches last Friday at the Arena Essex Raceway was comprehensive, despite the final margin of victory being only by nine points. The Hammers pulled away in the early part of the match and at one stage were 15 points ahead but thanks to maximum heat advantages by the Witches in heats 11 and 15 the eventual scoreline did not truly reflect the Hammers domination.

Jon Cook, the Hammers Co Promoter and Team Manager commented at the conclusion of racing saying: “The result, though only 9 points which does not reflect how we comfortably we controlled the meeting, shows that the team is progressing very nicely. Ipswich are a very handy side, particularly around our track, and I thought all our boys, led by captain Adam Shields and number 1 Andreas Jonsson, showed good track craft.”

After the meeting the result finally came through from Coventry confirming that the Hammers would meet the Bees in the Craven Shield Final. The Bees had defeated Poole on aggregate thanks to the final three heats all being 5-1’s in their favour.

The Hammers owner, Stuart Douglas stated: "We were celebrating a good home win against a team that had given us a wake up call earlier in the season, but we had one ear on developments up at Coventry where we knew the Bees were mounting a strong fight back against Poole. I must admit that I thought Poole had done enough but it just shows that the Craven Shield has significant importance this year, because Coventry fought bravely to battle through to face us in the final. The two legs are going to see an epic battle at Brandon and back here at the Arena Essex Raceway. I know both teams really want this trophy."

At the moment the two clubs are attempting to arrange the dates for the two legs of the Final but as both are Friday tracks this is taking a little time to arrange. Ideally it would be preferable to have them on consecutive days, which would give the fans of both sides a real feast of Speedway.

Jon Cook takes up the story: “I believe that the Craven Shield is as important as the League or the Cup and we need to ensure that it is given the appropriate priority. The Shield is named after Peter Craven, who was one of the greatest ever British riders, if not the greatest, and the Final of this competition must be staged in a manner that is a fitting tribute to his name.”

Despite there being no action at the Arena Essex Raceway this Friday (9th May) two of the Hammers team will have an important date in Poland. Andreas Jonsson and Lubos Tomicek will be racing in the European Grand Prix, which will be staged in Leszno on Saturday.
The Hammers will be in action next Monday (12th May) at Coventry and then on Thursday (15th May) at Swindon before they return to their Raceway on Friday (16th May) for the visit of Eastbourne. All three of these fixtures are in the Sky Sports Elite League.

Looking further ahead three of the Hammers riders are expected to be involved in the Gothenburg, Sweden Grand Prix on Saturday 24th May. In addition to Grand Prix regular Andreas Jonsson fellow Swede Jonas Davidsson has been given the ‘Wild Card’ entry to the meeting plus Lubos Tomicek is expected to be in the line-up deputising again for Poole’s injured Dane Bjarne Pedersen.

Stuart Douglas was delighted to hear that the Hammers will be well represented in May’s GP’s stating: “The Grand Prix series is the pinnacle of World Speedway. To have two Lakeside Hammers riding in Poland this weekend, and three riding in the Swedish GP, is testament as to how far this Club has progressed. I'm thrilled for Lubos and Jonas to be joining Andreas Jonsson and I know AJ will share his considerable experience with his team mates.”

Behind the scenes the Hammers management have increased their efforts in making people in the area more aware of what is happening at the Club and it is hoped that these efforts will result in even more people turning up at each meeting to support their local team.