It’s been another disappointing month for us unfortunately. Going out of the Knockout Cup was the biggest disappointment that we’ve had followed closely by the second performance at Peterborough. Obviously we’ve seen two riders leave during the month as well and it was really hard to let Lewi (Kerr) go. It wasn’t a case of Lewi ‘had to go’, it was more of a case that we had to bring in someone who was capable and reliable but we wish him the best and I’m sure he will be signed up soon and will continue his progress.
The results have not been good enough so we have had to make changes and as a team. I include myself in that, we’ve let two of our teammates down as we have not performed well enough and someone has had to go. It’s a collective performance that has cost them their spots and the team have been told that. I don’t want to be having to make any more changes this season because I want everyone to perform and hopefully there won’t be any more.
Ollie (Greenwood) has done alright since he signed, he’s had a couple of up and down meetings really but we are getting somewhere with his set-up at Ipswich and it will take a few weeks. He’s come in on a three point average but his attitude and commitment is spot on.
It’s been a big learning curve for me and it’s been tough because the performances have been bad. I’m learning all the time but I think it will make me a better manger going forwards.
We need a big month now and we need to push on and get some away wins and some solid home form going if we want to start getting up the league and looking at the top six. It’s a minimum requirement the top six and it’s a big month. With Ben (Barker) coming in hopefully he will have an impact on the boys and we can build our confidence up and we will be away then.
Danny (King) has the British Final at Belle Vue’s National Stadium this month. He finished third last season and he went well at Belle Vue when he went there last week with Coventry and he said he enjoyed it. I’ll be going along with Danny and hopefully he can go one or two spots better than he did last year.
Nico (Covatti) has got his Grand Prix semi-final too at the start of July and if he can get through it will be another big confidence boost for him and you can only gain confidence riding in those sort of meetings; coming back to England it gives you a big boost.
See you all soon,
Ritchie