SPEEDWAY: Travis - 'Now you'll see the best of me' (From Swindon Advertiser)

SPEEDWAY: Travis - 'Now you'll see the best of me'

9:51am Wednesday 21st May 2008 in Sport By Anthony Marshall

TRAVIS McGowan believes his miserable early season may soon be a thing of the past, after some bike tinkering last time out highlighted the sort of performances he is capable of.

While Troy Batchelor and skipper Leigh Adams are grabbing all the headlines, the Robins' third Aussie ace is working hard out of the spotlight to desperately try and improve his fortunes.

A paid 10 and paid nine in successive meetings last month showed the reasons why boss Alun Rossiter brought the 27-year-old to the Abbey Stadium, but those sort of scores have been too few and far between for most of the Robins fans' liking.

McGowan looked to be faltering again last Thursday against Lakeside, but after switching bikes he claimed victory in heat 14 to finish with a pleasing paid seven.

And he later admitted: "I'm happy because we had big problems with the bikes during the meeting with Lakeside.

"We rode both bikes and it turns out we put our finger on the problem and put it right for the last race.

"So it was good to finish the meeting on a good note.

"Seven is under where I want to be but we had big problems and worked through those.

"I'm feeling good as a rider and although the bike is a little bit under the pace, we can put that right. I'm heading in the right direction of where I want to be.

"It's been a slow start and it's been frustrating, but hopefully I can start to show people what I can do."

The Robins easily saw off the challenge of Lakeside last Thursday with a 53-39 victory, and are currently setting the pace at the top of the Elite League.

However McGowan insists it has been anything but easy going so far, and that the Robins have had to work hard for every one of their 19 points.

"The scorelines don't really suggest the whole meeting, especially against Lakeside," he said.

"There was a swinging point there in the middle of the meeting where perhaps if we didn't dig that little bit deeper and come up with the goods, then it could have been much closer.

"But we were there when it counted. We had to dig a little bit deeper but we did that and it just shows the character of the team and the ability we've got here."