The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Roynon ready to roar for Panthers in play-off chase
Fixture picture
Adam Roynon hopes the long wait to pull on a Panthers race jacket will prove worthwhile. The British talent was blocked from being part of the Panthers team for the Elite League campaign of 2010 by the authorities as he didn’t possess the necessary Premier League average required to doubleup.
He had actually missed the previous season due to sustaining life-threatening injuries in a pre-season practice smash.
But the 25 year-old eventually got his wish to race for Panthers after being drafted in as part of a triple team change along with Richard Hall and Max Dilger last week and displayed plenty of potential on his debut.
Roynon weighed in with two race wins during a sevenpoint shift in an East Anglian derby defeat at the hands of Ipswich on Tuesday. It left the city club 10 points off the playoff places, but they possess as many as 10 meetings in hand on sides currently above them in the standings.
Roynon, who has suffered a catalogue of bad injuries during his career, including a broken vertebra when racing for Plymouth earlier this year, said: “I love the Showground and I’ve wanted to race for Peterborough for a long time.
“I get on well with the promotion, have good friends in the team and also know a few fans, so hopefully everything will fit into place.
“I can’t help but think what a difference to my career it could have made if the powers above had let me ride here back in 2010, but unfortunately I was blocked from doing that.
“It’s also a shame I wasn’t here from the start of this year, but the way I look at it my season started on Tuesday night. I was rusty but it was nice to come up with a couple of wins.
“It was disappointing to lose on the night, but we have to take the positives forward into a very busy run for the rest of the season. We’ve got a lot of home meetings to come and providing we can get ourselves fully dialled in, we can quickly climb the table.”
Panthers’ play- off challenge can certainly change quickly as they have 13 league points up for grabs in the next few days.
A trip to Plymouth tomorrow night is followed by three home outings in 48 hours.
Panthers team boss Carl Johnson said: “Adam quickly got to grips with the Showground but Richard and Max found things much tougher.
“I’m sure they will quickly get it right and I’m confident we will make the play-offs.”
Number one Lasse Bjerre and recent recruit Hall both miss the trip to Plymouth due to big international racing commitments on Saturday.
Bjerre is in the Danish team who host the World Under 21 Team Cup final at Slangerup while Hall rides for Great Britian in the World Long-Track Team Championship Final in Finland.