Pedersen leaves Hammers.

Arena-Essex Danish speedway rider Ronni Pedersen was decided not to return to this country to race for the A F Stocktaking Hammers. In a long telephone conversation with Pedersen over the weekend the Hammers promoter, Ronnie Russell, was told that the Dane would not continue riding for the Hammers as he felt that he was letting both himself and the Arena-Essex down. He will not, therefore, return to race in this Country for the foreseeable future.

Pedersen had originally agreed to come over to this Country to assist the Hammers for a spell while Paul Hurry recovered from injury. It was known that the Dane was unable to put in a full season of racing due to his involvement with the family business back in Denmark but he felt that he could no longer continue commuting between the two Countries to ride for the Purfleet based Club.

This decision has come as a shock to the Hammers Promoter who now has the problem of finding suitable cover for the Dane until Hurry is fit enough to start riding for the team. Ronnie Russell has successfully applied to the B.S.P.A. for permission to have a facility to cove the absence and he has been granted the facility for a period of 14 days.

The rider replacement facility was used at Wolverhampton on Monday evening when they lost by eleven points in a rain-curtailed fixture and it will again be used at Purfleet this Wednesday, when the Wolves are the visitors. At this time it is still uncertain as to when Kent based Paul Hurry will be declared fit enough to start riding for the Hammers following the surgery on the arm he injured towards the end of last season.