Woodward revs up for season (From The Argus)

Woodward revs up for season

6:00am Saturday 9th March 2013 in Sport By Brian Owen

Cameron Woodward reckons he might just have made his most important signing of the season.

The Eastbourne Eagles captain gets 2013 under way by racing in the Ben Fund Bonanza at Berwick today (6.30pm).

Woodward, has teamed up with mechanic Chris Geer, who previously worked for Edward Kennett and Joonas Kylmakorpi during their time at Arlington.

Geer will prepare and maintain the Aussie’s bikes both for speedway and the longtrack GP series, a discipline in which he helped Kylmakorpi complete a hat-trick of world titles.

Woodward tuned up for the new season by practising with Bjarne Pedersen in the Arlington sunshine on Monday.

He will be up against, among others, international stars Chris Harris and Hans Andersen in the traditional season-opener in aid of the Speedway Riders Benevolent Fund.

Woodward admits it is a leap of faith to entrust his bikes solely to someone else, even though he knows Geer well.

He said: “I’ve worked with him briefly but he didn’t have full control for everything which he does now.

“It’s new territory for me, allowing someone else to do everything.

“For the majority of my career it has been me and Ashley Wooller working together.

“At the end of 2010 and start of 2011, I had a Swedish kid helping me but he got the sack in mid-year because he was making mistakes.”

Woodward was delighted to ride about 40 laps of the Arlington circuit, where Eagles will start their Elite League campaign against Belle Vue on Saturday, March 23.

He added: “The track was really good and the weather was perfect so we didn’t want to waste that chance.

“The bikes are coming together good. I tried out some new chassis. I’ve got sponsorship this year from a Czech firm and I’m really pleased with them.

“I’ve got some old engines freshened up and feeling nice and new. They felt really good.”

Pedersen is racing in Poland this weekend with his top-flight Enea Ekstraliga track Start Gniezno, who have home and away pre-season fixtures against his old club Wybrzeze Gdansk.