Ipswich Witches skipper Danny King has said he and his team-mates need 'to step up that little bit more' in their support of No.1 Jason Doyle.

Doyle has dropped just six points from his last six Premiership meetings, scoring 84 (including bonus points) out of a possible 90. He has reeled off three maximums, full and paid, as well as winning three last-heat deciders.

The Witches sit second in the table and have already racked up victories at Wolverhampton and King's Lynn. It's been a super turnaround from the Foxhall side after losing their four League Cup clashes at the start of the campaign.

“I think if you speak to any of the team other than Jason (Doyle), everyone feels like they can do a bit more, they are not hitting 100%," King said.

"We are near the top of the league which is a good sign so we can’t be disappointed with where we are.

“We are all not quite firing yet and we keep going to these last-heat deciders which isn’t fun for Jason or anyone but to have someone like him leading the team is fantastic and he is doing a great job.

"But we all need to step up that little bit more and support him. It would be nice to seal a meeting before the last heat!”

King himself has been struggling of late with his machinery and he revealed that club sponsor Tru7.com and Guy Nicholls have helped with sponsorship for a new engine.

“It’s been machinery issues, I’m not sure why but I didn’t seem to be going very fast and I wasn’t very sure why,” said King.

“I’ve been having a few engine problems and it started spit balling and it got to a stage where I wasn’t sure what to ride and what I was riding. This is where this has come from, and I want to say a huge thank you to Guy for what he has done for me, and I think you can already see that my results have changed in the last week or so.

"Everything Guy does for the club speaks volumes and to see that I’m struggling and to do this is absolutely huge. I can’t thank him enough.”

King won't be racing at Foxhall tomorrow night, however, as the Witches stage event two of the Premiership Pairs, a meeting where all six Premiership clubs take part in the meeting, the Witches pairing will be Doyle and Troy Batchelor.

It should provide some close racing with every heat containing top riders, as well as team's No.8s to have one race each.

Doyle and King represented Ipswich in the opening Pairs meeting at Peterborough last month where they finished fifth out of six, King's Lynn winning.

There are 15 heats, the top pairing going straight through to the final. The second and third pairings will race off to see who also reaches the final. The scoring system is 4-3-2-0 throughout.

TEAMS

BELLE VUE: Matej Zagar, Brady Kurtz, Tom Brennan (Rising Star).

IPSWICH: Jason Doyle, Troy Batchelor, Danyon Hume (RS).

KING’S LYNN: Richard Lawson, Josh Pickering, Jake Mulford (RS).

PETERBOROUGH: Hans Andersen, Chris Harris, Jordan Jenkins (RS).

SHEFFIELD: Tobiasz Musielak, Adam Ellis, Connor Mountain (RS).

WOLVES: Sam Masters, Ryan Douglas, Leon Flint (RS).


If you can't get to Foxhall on Thursday, MIKE BACON will be bringing you RACE NIGHT LIVE! On the Ipswich Star website, from 6.30pm. Heat by heat action and comment.