SPEEDWAY: BRITISH Champion Danny King will return to Brandon next season to take over the captaincy of Coventry Bees for the new 2017 SGB Premiership season, reports Robin Allen.
The 30-year-old is one of four signings confirmed by the Bees this week and returns to Brandon for a third year to replace Chris Harris as captain following his recent departure.
King will be joined by British Under-21 Champion Josh Bates, who also returns to the club after an impressive debut season, which resulted in the Barnsley-born rider being voted ‘Most Improved Rider’ by the Bees’ management and sponsors at the end of last term.
“Danny is honoured to be given the club captaincy for next season,” said Bees owner Mick Horton. “He loves the club and made it perfectly clear that he wanted to come back to us.
“We know what we’re going to get from him, and I fully expect him to continue in the kind of form he showed for much of this year.
“Seven of the nine clubs came in for Josh, so I feel very good about myself that he wanted to stay with us.
“He came on in leaps and bounds this year and I think he’s only going to get better still.”
Meanwhile, there will be at least two new faces at Coventry next year with Kenneth and Lasse Bjerre joining the club.
Former Grand Prix rider Kenneth returns to British speedway after a short stint with Peterborough in the second tier at the end of last season, having spent the previous two years at King’s Lynn.
While Lasse has been ever present in British racing since 2010, having spent the last two seasons with Redcar in the second tier.
But the 23 year-old has made the move to Sheffield in the rebranded SGB Championship for 2017, becoming team-mates with Bates at that level too.
The Bjerre brothers have previous raced together at King’s Lynn and Peterborough where they established a powerful partnership and it is hoped they can now do the same with the Bees.
“Kenneth is very determined to come back into British racing and be one of the top riders in the Premiership,” Horton added. “He expects that to be the case and his set-up is absolutely superb.
“He expects to be number-one before long although I’m sure Danny will also have something to say about that, which is all healthy competition.
“I know Lasse wasn’t happy at Redcar last season, but he’s going to be totally committed here and I think having Kenneth around him in the same team is going to help greatly.
“It went well for them the last time they rode together in the same side, and you know that with the family investment and all that goes with it they’re going to be on top equipment.”
Bees will complete their lineup with three more rider announcements in the near future.
