Danish ace raring to go for Lynn Stars

Benjamin Basso can’t wait to get going on his favourite track in the Premiership.The exciting Danish youngster makes the move to the Stars after two years along the A47 at Peterborough, and he is delighted to now call the Adrian Flux Arena home.That is the case for several of his former Panthers team-mates with Vadim Tarasenko, Niels-Kristian Iversen and Patryk Wojdylo also signed up – along with team manager Rob Lyon – following the sad closure of Alwalton due to land tenure issues.Basso said: “I’m really happy to be here. To be dead honest, King’s Lynn is my favourite track in the Premiership and I definitely think we have the team this year to reach the play-offs in the end.“I’ve practiced here and I feel really comfortable on the bike, and I think it’s going to be a good season for us.“It feels like most of the Peterborough team has moved to King’s Lynn, and the reason why is probably because we made a statement at the end of last year.“It was unfortunate that it was too late to reach the play-offs, but we did really well towards the end of the season and I think we can bring that on to King’s Lynn now.”Basso is regarded as one of his country’s hottest prospects and he admits that 2024 is a big year for him – having cut out racing in the UK’s second tier in order to focus more on his own readiness for meetings at a higher level.He said: “Last year I felt it was too much with riding for Glasgow as well.“It was more about myself, I enjoyed every minute with them, but I was driving from Glasgow to Stansted after the meeting, then getting up and racing in Poland at 2pm, and it was just too much.“I didn’t sleep, I didn’t eat, and I certainly didn’t exercise as much as I wanted to, so I just took the decision this year to focus more on myself, my health and my sleeping, and I think that will give me something in the long run.”The Stars take their place in a seven-team Premiership, with newcomers Oxford and Birmingham joining the fray in place of Peterborough and Wolverhampton.And the standard is only set to improve with more and more top riders returning to this country, including ex-Stars rider and former World No.3 Maciej Janowski, who is with Oxford, whilst three-time World Champion Tai Woffinden is back full-time with Sheffield.Basso said: “It isn’t going to be a piece of cake this season, that’s for sure, but I think it’s great for British Speedway, and it will attract more fans so hopefully that will do a favour to the sport in the UK.”