Stars stalwart insists gating has to improve

King’s Lynn’s Danish racer Thomas Jorgensen says the team’s gating simply has to improve – in order to avoid “embarrassing” results such as last Monday.

The Stars were humiliated 56-34 on their own track in the KO Cup by a Sheffield side who simply love the Adrian Flux Arena, but the hosts did not make life easy for themselves.

With tricky track conditions, making fast starts was of paramount importance, and it was the Tigers riders who repeatedly took control of races.

Stars bosses held discussions with their side both during and after the meeting, and were desperate to see a reaction in last night’s (Thursday) trip to Leicester.

The irony was that Polish star Krzysztof Kasprzak suddenly hit form in the second half of the meeting with two wins – and there were no mechanical changes to cause the upturn.

Jorgensen said: “We did have the team talk and we tried to get ourselves back on track, but for some reason it didn’t work.

“The whole situation was a bit embarrassing, and it’s difficult to put into words what we could have done better, other than making good starts.

“Obviously the Sheffield boys managed to do it, that’s how they won, and it’s just not good enough from our side.

“I did speak to KK and he didn’t change one thing all night, he literally just got his gating gloves on.

“When you’re in front it’s easier, you have the track to yourself, you can pick your own lines and you don’t get the roost from somebody in front of you.

“I wanted to get out of the starts, but it was just so difficult and we were all in the same boat.”

Next up for the Stars are back-to-back clashes with local rivals Ipswich, starting with a Bank Holiday Monday trip to Foxhall which gets underway at 2.30pm.

Recent encounters between the clubs in Suffolk have all gone right down to the wire, and although the Witches have a powerhouse spearhead of Jason Doyle and Emil Sayfutdinov, the Stars simply have to make their strength in depth count.

Ipswich boss Ritchie Hawkins has already engaged in some psychological warfare heading into the meeting, and he spoke to his riders after their last meeting ahead of ten days off.

He said: “I wanted to talk to them a little bit about King’s Lynn, and emphasise how important that will be.

“They know we can’t lose to King’s Lynn, and we’ve already spoken to them about that even before the season started!

“It was also a little bit about what to expect from the track conditions because I know from my experience of racing in the Bank Holiday meetings that they can be a bit different.”