KING’S Lynn are set to welcome back Australian racer Ben Cook for their ROWE Motor Oil Premiership trip to his former club Belle Vue on Monday (7.30pm).

Cook has missed the PSH Environmental Stars’ last eight league matches after suffering a broken wrist in a heavy crash during the narrow win over Leicester on April 14.

But he has recently returned to racing in Poland and now he will make his UK comeback at National Speedway Stadium, which was his home circuit last season as he was part of the title-winning Aces team.

Cook’s return should hopefully be part of a full one-to-seven for the Stars, who are hoping Czech racer Jan Kvech is fit to take his place.

Kvech has been the star performer in his last two meetings for Lynn, scoring 18+2 in last week’s win over Ipswich and then 16 in the narrow defeat at Sheffield on Thursday.

He has two more meetings scheduled at reserve before moving back into the top five, but he came to grief during Saturday’s Grand Prix of Poland in Gorzow when he was brought down by Jason Doyle in Heat 18, landing heavily on his elbow.

Kvech still had enough points to reach the Last Chance Qualifier, but he was clearly struggling when he took the start and quickly retired from the race.

Luke Harrison continues in the other reserve berth for the trip to Manchester, whilst the Stars have again juggled their top five with captain Nicolai Klindt, who scored an 18-point maximum for Plymouth at Workington on Saturday, taking the No.5 berth.

Belle Vue are racing at home for the first time in a month, and they go into the meeting following successive defeats in the Midlands.

The Aces were beaten 47-43 at Birmingham three weeks ago but were then hammered 60-30 at Leicester on Thursday, although they were without captain Brady Kurtz on that occasion.

Kurtz returned from injury in Poland the following day, before securing his first-ever GP victory in Gorzow, and his Aces team-mate Dan Bewley was in third place.

The home side therefore expect to be at full-strength, and so far this season they have a perfect record of five home league wins out of five, with Sheffield the only visiting team to run them close.

Stars manager Rob Lyon said: “We had a much better performance at Sheffield than the last time we were there, and the matches there and at Belle Vue are in close succession again as they were earlier in the season.

“Hopefully we can take the confidence from Sheffield into Monday and push Belle Vue to get a good result there. You never know what will happen in speedway, but we will certainly be going for it.”

BELLE VUE: Dan Bewley, Norick Blodorn, Jaimon Lidsey, Zach Cook, Brady Kurtz, Tate Zischke, Jake Mulford.
KING’S LYNN: Richard Lawson, Niels-Kristian Iversen, Chris Harris, Ben Cook, Nicolai Klindt, Jan Kvech, Luke Harrison