SHEFFIELD will be without their top two riders for tonight’s (Monday, July 1, 7.30pm) ROWE Motor Oil Premiership trip to Oxford.
Both Jack Holder and Tai Woffinden were involved in high-speed collisions during Saturday’s FIM Speedway Grand Prix of Poland in Gorzow.
After winning his opening ride, Woffinden was unsettled by German racer Kai Huckenbeck whilst leading his second heat and was withdrawn from the remainder of the event after colliding with the fence whilst Holder was deemed to be the cause of the stoppage in Semi-Final 1 after a coming together with Denmark’s Leon Madsen.
Woffinden sustained concussion in his crash and X-Rays also confirmed a broken elbow which he underwent an operation on on Sunday. Polish doctors are due to discuss things with Woffinden later today and provide an estimated time frame that the triple World Champion is set to spend on the sidelines.
Meanwhile, Holder is feeling the effects of his tumble and has declared himself unfit to race against the Spires.
Club bosses have called on former Tiger Lewis Kerr, who will have a point to prove having being axed by Oxford last week, to guest at No.2 with rider replacement in operation at No.1 with all team members eligible to cover Jack Holder’s programmed outings.
Tigers team boss Simon Stead said: “It’s never ideal to go into any meeting missing two of your own riders, yet alone your top two.
“First and foremost we wish both Tai and Jack a speedy recovery and we hope to see them back on a bike whenever they feel ready.
“With six of the seven Premiership teams in action tonight, and only Birmingham not racing, our options were extremely limited.
“So we’ve had to shuffle our riding order around a little bit and in Lewi, having ridden for Sheffield previously, we all know what he is capable of on his day and he’ll have the bit between his teeth I’m sure.
“We just go there as a team and give it our best shot but we’re obviously going to need contributions from all departments.”
OXFORD: Rohan Tungate, Drew Kemp, Maciej Janowski, Charles Wright, Chris Harris, Erik Riss, Ashton Boughen. SHEFFIELD: Jack Holder R/R, Lewis Kerr, Josh Pickering, Kyle Howarth, Chris Holder, Jason Edwards, Dan Gilkes.
