Holder ‘incredible’ for one so young says team boss

Jack Holder leads the way against Ipswich. Team boss Carl Johnson believes Panthers sensation Jack Holder is riding at a level way beyond his years.

The 21 year-old continued a stunning run of form with another masterful performance to help the city side to East Anglian derby glory last Sunday.

Holder piled up a 14+1-point paid maximum in a 48-42 success against Ipswich at the East of England Arena - the third time in his last six home meetings that he has gone unbeaten by an opponent.

The Australian talent has scored a staggering 80+1 points during that time with 24 of his 28 rides resulting in victories.

He finished second in the other four, including when following home guest number one Josh Grajczonek for a 5-1 in the finale last Sunday.

Johnson admitted: “I’m fast running out of things to say about Jack!

“It is incredible for such a young rider to be riding at such a consistently high level.

“We knew we were signing a rider with a hell of a lot of potential, but his current form is out of this world.

“He is beating some very good riders by very big margins and doing the business in the big races as we saw again on Sunday to seal a vital win.

“He was already riding well at number one earlier in the season, but bringing Chris Harris in took a bit of pressure of him and he has taken his performances to a whole new level since then.”

Despite Holder’s heroics, Panthers remain 11 points off the SGB Championship playoff spots – the final one of which is currently occupied by their opponents tonight (Thursday), Redcar.

The city side also boast two meetings in hand on the Bears so a victory at the Media Prima Arena (7.30pm) could seriously boost their prospects of climbing into the top four.

Another crucial away clash follows on Saturday (7pm) when Panthers go to secondplaced Glasgow – a team they blew away in the reverse fixture under a fortnight ago.

“The beauty of racing in such a competitive league is that every race in every meeting is important,” added Johnson.

“Three home wins in a row have lifted us a couple of places up the table but we know we still have lots of work to do to make it into the play-offs.

“Positive results at Redcar or Glasgow would be hugely beneficial in closing the gap further. We’ll go into both meetings believing we can get something.

“We’ve had success at Redcar in the past – including earlier this season in the KO Cup – and while Glasgow are very strong at home, they will be very wary of us after the way we thumped them at our place recently.

“We’ve got good guests at number one for both meetings.”

They are Richie Worrall, who steps in at Redcar before riding against Panthers for his regular Glasgow side 48 hours later, and Ben Barker, an exGlasgow man who was a popular Panthers rider towards the end of the 2015 season. Josh Grajczonek wins heat six against Ipswich. Ulrich Ostergaard leads the way in heat two.