Motorsport: Monarchs hoping to bounce back

Aug 13 2009 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

THE West Lothian-based Scotwaste Monarchs are having a troubled spell but hope to push up the league by defeating the Stoke Potters at Armadale Stadium tomorrow (Friday) at 7.30pm.

The Monarchs are still looking for a rider to replace the injured Andrew Tully, but they now know that Thomas H Jonasson won’t be filling the gap.

Bathgate rider Tully broke his pelvis while taking part in Wolverhampton’s Gary Petersen Memorial Trophy.

His machine failed on the first turn and threw him off.

Tully admitted: “I don’t think I was fit to ride anyway. You never really know if you are fit to ride a bike – until you try to ride one!

“I didn’t feel comfortable on the parade and after I had made a great start in my first heat I found I could not easily make the movements you need for balance.

“The bike stopped anyway and threw me off, and of course I landed on the hip again.”

He is now on crutches and has been quoted a 12-week recovery period. He hopes to shorten that but realistically there will be nothing of the season left.

It is a major blow to a rider who in his last completed meeting smashed the track record in a match-winning display at Newport.

The depleted Monarchs did offer his place to Thomas H Jonasson whose average is 0.01 below Andrew’s, but after consideration Thomas will not be accepting the place.

Thomas’ position is well known. He had some fine matches early in the season but after the sad loss of his father he found that he had neither the stamina nor the organisation to cope with riding in three different leagues plus individual competitions.

His fixtures should be easing off shortly but he still feels that he needs a quiet period at the end of the season to recover from what has been a traumatic year for him. He rides in the World Under-21 Championship as one of the favourites in early October and Monarchs fans will be hoping he can pull that one off in what will be his final outing at that level.

It remains to be seen whether Thomas’ commitments will allow him to return to Monarchs’ colours in future.

This leaves Monarchs still looking for a new rider rather than the continual use of rider replacement. The team can be proud of their efforts so far this season after they were forced to lose two riders from last year’s triple champions – they are finalists in the Premier Trophy, semi-finalists in the KO Cup, unbeaten at home and have gained four away points including a win.

However with now just three riders left from the 2008 side, clearly the rest of the season will be more of an unknown quantity with the likelihood of another experimental signing alongside German Max Dilger, who made his debut at the weekend with moderate results.

He is just feeling his way in UK speedway and the club doesn’t expect miracles at an early stage and another signing may follow.

For now the team has to soldier on but it will be very hard to continue the superb run of successes which have been the norm over the past year and a half.

They did well to come through with a 51-39 win against second-placed Sheffield at the stadium last Friday, Ryan Fisher being in superb form with 17 points.

However visiting Berwick on Saturday, where they had not lost for more than two years, they went down 51-41, and at Glasgow where they had won on five of their last six visits, they lost more heavily by 55-38.

In the Glasgow match, Ryan Fisher crashed heavily but apparently suffered only concussion.

Stoke do not have a great record at Armadale but as with all visiting teams they will be hoping to take advantage of Monarchs’ problems. Jason Bunyan and Lee Complin are two fine riders who will lead the Potters’ challenge.

Teams for Friday:

Scotwaste Monarchs: Ryan Fisher, Michal Rajkowski, Max Dilger, Matthew Wethers (captain), rider replacement for Andrew Tully, Aaron Summers, Byron Bekker.

Stoke Easy Rider Potters: Jason Bunyan, Jesper Kristiansen, Klaus Jakobsen, Lee Complin (captain), Robert Ksiezak, Craig Branney, Tom P Madsen.