GLASGOW ace Dan Thompson hopes his luck changes in Under-21 events.
The Allied Vehicles Tigers ace is red-hot favourite to land the British Championship at Ashfield on Sunday.
Thompson, 21, had to pull out of last year’s meeting after going down with Covid. Two months later, in the Speedway of Nations 2 for Great Britain, he dislocated his shoulder during the event in Manchester.
He said: “The Under-21 meetings haven’t been kind to me. I had a tough time last year. But that’s gone now. I'm only focusing on what is ahead of me.
“Things are going really well right now. But I also have enough experience to know things can change.
“I’m really enjoying riding for my clubs Glasgow and Ipswich. That makes a big difference and I’m learning in every meeting.
“There’s a lot of good riders in the British Under-21 at Glasgow. It all comes down to a final. So I only have to concentrate on reaching the final first. Then it’s one race so anything can happen.
“It would be cool to add the British Under-21 to the British Under-19 I won two years ago. That’s the target obviously but I’ll take one race at a time.”
Ironically one of Dan’s big rivals at Ashfield will be his twin brother Joe.
He revealed: “To be honest, Dan makes me ride harder. It’s always nice to pressure Dan hard in racing and if I get one over him, then it’s always nice as well.
“But I do want to still see him at home, I don’t want to kill him at all on the track!
“Obviously, I’ve grown up with Dan for the past 21 years and he’s still my best friend. I always want to see him do well, even if he’s against my teams. I’d still love him to win his five races out of five, because it’s a bit more than that.
“I want to see him do well and I know he wants the same for me.
“I’ve looked to him for a lot of advice this year because he is obviously flying and something’s just clicked for him.
“I do ask him for a lot of advice and he’ll just come back to me in the middle of a meeting with a message just saying ‘you’re so slow’ or something like that.
“But then he’ll give me the changes that I should make and it does help out a lot.”
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Words by Holeshot Media.
Images by Taylor Lanning.