Vadim Tarasenko has signed for Peterborough and the struggling Panthers are confident that he will be joined by Australian returnee Rohan Tungate.
Boss Carl Johnson, who has been working round the clock to seal the double deal, revealed: “I am 85-90% sure that we will get them both.”
Tarasenko, 29, is lined up to make his British debut at Wolverhampton on Monday night and Johnson is hoping the deal to bring Tungate back to the East of England Arena could go through in time for the visit to Monmore Green.
He added: “We are in the process of signing one, possibly two, riders and we are just waiting for confirmation.
“Tarasenko, he’s done. We will re-declare the team with him in it and we are hoping he can come in for Monday.”
Tarasenko, who lives in Poland and has a Polish licence, is the nephew of 2021 world champion Artem Laguta who made his first appearance for King’s Lynn last week.
Talks with Tungate, who used social media to confirm that he wants to return to race in the Premiership, have been going on for several weeks as the Panthers widened their search to replace Nicki Pedersen who quit after failing to complete a lap on his seasonal debut at the end of March.
They thought they had agreed terms with Matej Zagar but the deal fell through at the last minute and it looked like being a similar story with Tungate.
But Johnson said: “We are looking to get personal sponsorship to bridge the gap.
“Hopefully, if we can get the deal done with Tungate, he can be in the side as well, but it [Monday] might be too early for that.
“It’s probably paying slightly over the odds for him, but we know what he is capable of and, to be fair, at the minute we have got no other options, he’s probably the best of the rest that’s available.
“We have spoken to so many riders, it would probably be easier to say how many we haven’t tried.
“It’s been a very testing time. Of course, I understand the fans getting riled, I totally understand, we get a lot of grief on social media but there’s not a lot I can do personally. I want the best for Peterborough speedway so I understand the fans getting upset when things are not happening but I can’t control that, I want it as much as they do.
“This has 100% been the worst season I have had since I have been involved because of the uncertainty around the club’s future, with the Showground [the Panthers’ lease ends this year] and riders’ unavailability.”
Peterborough have won only one of their first eight matches – a Premiership win against second bottom King’s Lynn – and are already eight points behind fourth-placed Leicester in the race for the play-offs.
Tarasenko won a bronze medal in the 2017 Speedway World Cup Final at Leszno, Poland, and was the wild card at the 2021 Speedway Grand Prix at Togliatti, scoring four points.
Tungate, made his Peterborough in 2019 and finished the season second in their averages but as highest points scorer. He agreed to return in 2020 before the season was scrapped because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Words by Holeshot Media.
Image courtesy of Vadim Tarasenko Facebook.