Following a resounding 56-37 point victory at their Arena-Essex Raceway on Wednesday evening over last season’s treble winners, the Coventry Bees, Jon Cook, the Hammers Co-promoter and Team Manager announced a new signing for the Club.

Finnish International Kauko Nieminen has been drafted into the squad to replace the Hammers present No.8 Chris Mills. 29 year old Nieminen, who rides for the Workington Comets in the Premier League, is delighted to have the opportunity of competing at the top level in this Country as and when required but he will continue to race for the Comets, where he is currently second in their averages.

The Multi Finnish National Champion was a member of the Comets duo that lifted the Premier League Pairs Championship at Somerset in June and, more recently, last weekend won a race off against King’s Lynn rider Tomas Topinka to win the Premier League Fours for his Club.

Jon Cook stated: “With the August averages coming into use at the end of this week it was an ideal time to make this change. Our reserves Ricky Kling and Lubos Tomicek have increased their averages and that has allowed me to bring in Kauko Nieminen, who is established as a leading rider in the Premier League. I would personally like to thank Ian Thomas of Workington for all his help in making this signing possible. I decided to introduce Kauko as our new No.8 as Chris Mills, who had held that position since the start of the season, would have been unable to cover on some dates where we may have possibly needed him. In bringing in Kauko I would like to thank Chris for his efforts for the Club and, as a local Essex lad, I would welcome the opportunity of having him back involved with us again in the future.”

Nieminen is expected to make his debut for the Club on Friday 8th August when they are at home to Swindon in an important Sky Sports Elite League match.  Ricky Kling will miss that fixture as he will be competing in the Swedish Under-21 Final that evening.

The Hammers supporters are reminded that there will be no meeting this coming Friday, 1st August, at the Arena-Essex Raceway, but  the team will be in action in a vital Sky Sports Elite League match on Monday 4th August when the Eastbourne Eagles will be the visitors. That meeting is scheduled to start at 7.30pm and will be sponsored by The Royal Air Force.