Eastbourne have asked Mikkel Michelsen to make an early impact against the champions tonight.

Eagles have switched their riding order to send out the young Dane, who has top scored in both meetings to date, in heat one at Poole.

He will be partnered by skipper Cameron Woodward as Eastbourne tackle their first serious test of the season following home wins over Birmingham and Leicester.

Bjarne Pedersen switches to No.3 as Eagles make the most of new riding-order rules this season.

Previously the rider with the top average in the team, which is Pedersen in Eastbourne’s case, had to go out first.

But the only restriction now regarding a team’s top three averaging riders is they must fill spots one, three and five on the racecard in any order.

Second strings – Timo Lahti and Michelsen for Eagles – fill places two and four.

Michelsen has gone out at No.4 so far but now moves to No.2.

Eagles boss Trevor Geer said: “I want to see him go out in the first race on the inside and we might put the wind up Poole.

“They might wonder who they’ve got down there.

“We have been looking at the order and talking with the boys and we feel it is time to do something different.

“Cam will go at one. He is quite keen to do that anyway.

“And Bjarne wanted to go at three so it has worked out quite well.”

Eagles need to improve dramatically on last season’s haul of just two losing bonus points away from home.

Geer said the current team had been built to bring in more points on the road.

He added: “That’s part of the reason Lukas Dryml is not with us this year.

“He was fantastic at home, where he had something like a ten-point average, but he just couldn’t score points away.”

Poole have booked Craig Cook of Belle Vue to replace injured Darcy Ward.

Poole: Cook, Grajczonek, Pawlicki, Milik, Janowski, Newman, Smart.

Eagles: Woodward, Michelsen, Pedersen, Lahti, Kylmakorpi, Blackbird, Halsey.