West Norfolk rider back with the Stars

West Norfolk racer Lewi Kerr is back at King’s Lynn for the remainder of the 2024 season.The PSH Environmental Stars have moved to sign the 34-year-old Norfolk star, who has spent the majority of his senior career with the club, as they look to ease what has been at times a crippling issue of rider shortage.Ironically Kerr guested against Lynn for Leicester earlier this week, scoring 7+1 at reserve in the Lions’ victory, and that is the position he will take in the team as from Monday’s trip to Belle Vue with Jan Kvech taking over at No.1.Kerr last rode for the Stars in 2022 when he switched to Sheffield in mid-season, and he has since had spells with Leicester and Oxford in the top-flight.And manager Rob Lyon is relieved to bring an end to the constant battle to secure guests at No.1, especially once the allowance dropped to 75 per cent.He said: “Over recent weeks we’ve tried to utilise the ‘no facility’ to our best advantage, to book the right guests at the right times where at all possible, to give us every chance of reaching the play-offs.“It’s worked on the odd occasion but it hasn’t been particularly successful, and we’re now in a position where mathematically yes we can still reach the play-offs, but realistically it’s unlikely now. “We have to make a team change because trying to find the right quality of guests to fill that No.1 position has proved very difficult, and we’ve got to the stage where we need to re-declare to get ourselves a more settled team. “When the likes of Nicolai (Klindt) have been out, although we’d much rather have him racing, we’ve at least been able to get guests up to an average, but with the No.1 thing it’s been a nightmare.“If we could have brought a No.1 in we would have done it a long time ago, but it’s the lack of available top riders which has caused the issue.“Lewi knows the place well, he showed on Monday night what he can do, he was keen to come, and there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be able to score some decent points for us. “I look at our team now on paper and although there are some personnel changes, it’s not that different in structure to how we started the season, for example with Kvech now taking over at No.1 in place of (Tobisaz) Musielak.“It makes us a lot more settled, and it was something we needed to do for the final month or so of the season.”Lynn will confirm their full line-up for the Belle Vue meeting this weekend, as they await further news on the injury situation regarding Klindt and Benjamin Basso.