Wolverhampton will stage a great family night out tonight with the prestigious British Under-18 Championship at Monmore Green.
The first such staging of the event took place last year, won by Ipswich's Daniel King, and Wolves were delighted to take the opportunity of putting the meeting on again. Added interest is the presence of two of the top Under-15s coming through the flourishing Academy League system, with Joshua Auty in particular attracting rave reviews.
Children will be admitted free of charge, although supporters are reminded that season tickets are not valid as the event is being staged on behalf of the BSPA.
Wolves promoter Chris Van Straaten said: "Last season's inaugural event proved to be a thoroughly entertaining and hard fought spectacle. "Many of us are looking forward seeing the progress made by Auty, who is still only 14.
"It should be a superb night of entertainment and the riders concerned can only benefit from the experience."
Wolves still have one Elite League match to fulfil this season after their consecutive defeats at Coventry and Ipswich over the weekend - although exactly when they will travel to Oxford is still open to debate.
The meeting, which has no bearing on the play-off positions, should have been staged last Thursday but was called off at lunchtime in unusual circumstances with communication from Silver Machine promoter Nigel Wagstaff citing an electrical failure at the Cowley stadium.
Wolves currently find themselves seven points adrift of the play-off places, and it is very easy to look back down their list of results and pinpoint any number of narrow defeats away from home which could have made such a difference.
Even allowing for a number of home slip ups, which are all the more difficult to fathom when on so many occasions they have looked dominant on their home track.
But there have still been plenty of highlights, and one of the Monmore club's best moments of the season came at Coventry on Friday as Fredrik Lindgren completed a brilliant full maximum.
Lindgren's heroics, along with a fine show from guest Jason Crump, could not dent Coventry's charge towards second place and a home play-off draw as the Brandon men recorded a 48-41 win - but it was still a special night for the young Swedish rider. Lindgren said: "I'm very happy to get my first clean 15-point maximum, and Coventry is a tough place to come to. My gating was really good, and that was the main thing.
"I don't usually have any problems with grippy tracks and I quite like it when it's like that. My form has been going well in the last four or five matches and I am delighted with it."
For Coventry it was a hard-fought win in a tough local derby at Brandon - a win achieved despite Wolves having the two outstanding riders on the night.
But there was little support for the brilliant Lindgren or guest Jason Crump who could have had his own full house but for mechanical failure at the start of Heat
15.
The Bees, however, secured victory in the match by taking their advantages in the races which did not involve Lindgren and Crump, with young German reserve Martin Smolinski particularly impressive and Chris Harris doing plenty of overtaking around the fourth bend in particular.
The win came a day after Coventry inflicted an emphatic 54-40 home defeat on Ipswich, with Seb Ulamek racking up 13 points. Coventry also claimed a bonus point.
On Saturday it was a lack of race winners which prevented Wolves from taking an away win at inconsistent Ipswich as the home side came through to triumph 50-42. Simon Stead took a late call-up as guest for Mikael Max, but the Witches' top two of Hans Andersen and Chris Louis were in excellent form.
And fast-gating Pole Krzysztof Puszakowski frustrated Wolves by winning two of the last four races.
Lindgren once again led the Wolves scorechart and deprived Louis of a maximum by winning the last race - and the visitors at least added a point to their Elite League total with the aggregate bonus point coming courtesy of their 59-34 win over the Witches in the reverse fixture.
