SPIRES: Riss primed for Spires debut away to Ipswich

Two-times World Longtrack Champion Erik Riss will make his Oxford Spires debut on Thursday night at Ipswich in the club’s latest ROWE Motor Oil Premiership fixture.

The 28-year-old is one of two new faces in the Spires camp following last week’s home reverse to the Suffolk outfit with Lewis Kerr sitting the meeting out with an ankle injury.

Seven-times British Champion and Cheetahs fans’ favourite Scott Nicholls will guest in place of Kerr, while the remainder of the squad is unchanged – although Charles Wright moves into the #3 role.

Spires’ journey east marks Oxford Speedway’s first visit to Foxhall in the club’s new era, and Team Manager Peter Schroeck is looking forward to the challenge.

“Ipswich showed they’re a powerful squad last week with quality throughout,” said Schroeck. “We had our misfortune on the night with Lewi (Kerr) crashing out, but the result was fair in my opinion.

“Now we’ve got to bounce back and having Erik and Scott in the squad puts us in a good position to deliver a positive performance.

“Ipswich is a technical track and presents a challenge unique to the league, but most of the boys have plenty of experience riding it so there are no excuses and we’re looking forward to the challenge.”

Tapes-up at Foxhall Stadium is at 7.30pm with the meeting being streaming online via the British Speedway Network. Streaming passes can be purchased by clicking here.

Oxford Spires: Maciej Janowski, Scott Nicholls, Charles Wright, Rohan Tungate, Chris Harris, Erik Riss, Ashton Boughen.

Ipswich Witches: Emil Sayfutdinov, Jordan Jenkins, Danny King, Adam Ellis, Jason Doyle, Keynan Rew, Dan Thompson.

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