Last updated 19:42, Thursday, 26 June 2008

WORKINGTON Comets riders Daniel Nermark and Kauko Nieminen will represent the outfit in the Premier League Best Pairs at Somerset tonight.

In group two alongside the Comets are: Newcastle - Josef Franc and Christian Henry; Somerset - Jason Doyle and Emil Kramer; Redcar - Gary Havelock and James Grieves; Isle of Wight - Glen Phillips and Jason Bunyan.

The other group is: Reading - Ulrich Ostergaard and Mark Lemon; Rye House - Chris Neath and Stefan Ekberg; Sheffield - Andre Compton and Ricky Ashworth; Birmingham: Jason Lyons and Craig Watson; Edinburgh: William Lawson and Matthew Wethers.

Because of the Pairs and and British Grand Prix tomorrow Comets don’t have a meeting this weekend.

And with last Saturday’s home meeting against Glasgow Tigers being rained off - re-arranged for August 9 - it means quite a long break for the riders.

Recent signing Tomi Reima has had to return to Finland because of a family health problem.

Workington team manager Ian Thomas is hopeful the popular Finn will return. Thomas said that when Tomi came he had to make arrangements for health care for his six-year-old daughter.

Thomas said: “He had been assisting his wife which meant they had to get in somebody else to do that.

“That person has now had to give back word so he has gone home to help until someone can be found.

“We are very hopeful that Tomi can return to Workington. He had been doing an excellent job for us at number two.”

Meanwhile Barry Burchatt, the Workington rider seriously injured in a grass-tracking crash, is bidding to make history at the specialist Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

The 20-year-old was transferred there on June 3 for rehabilitation on spinal injuries suffered in grass track crash on May 11.

He was told that no-one had ever gone home from Stoke Mandeville in less than 12 weeks - but he is on course to beat that.

His father David said: “When Barry heard that he wasn’t happy but he’s said that he is going to beat it. Even the physios at Stoke Mandeville say that, apart from running, he couldn’t be progressing any faster.”

Burchatt suffered life-threatening injuries in the crash at the Astra Champion of Champion meetings in Kent.