THIS year’s Elite League Rider’s Championship will have a new home as Leicester Lions will play host to the showcase event.

The top men from the top flight will fight for the crown at the Jordan Road Surfacing Stadium on Saturday, March 21, ahead of the start of regular league competition the following week.

Swindon skipper Troy Batchelor took the honours when the meeting was staged at King’s Lynn last autumn, with Maciej Janowski and Jason Doyle completing the top three.

The race for the British Championship, won in the last two years by Tai Woffinden, begins with the semi-finals at Sheffield on Thursday, May 7, and King’s Lynn on Wednesday, May 20.

Competitors will be looking to book their places in the British final, which has regularly produced high drama in recent years and will once again be staged at Wolverhampton, on Monday June 15.

An announcement has also been made for the opening event at the Abbey Stadium this year, the Ben Fund Bonanza.

The seventh running of the event will take place on Sunday, March 8, at 3pm and will take the form of an International Four Team Tournament, with an additional individual element for the annual Ben Fund Trophy.

England will certainly be one of the competing nations but the visa row which affects work permit riders has held up the identification of the other sides.

One rider whose name can always be marked down is Berwick’s new signing Ben Barker, the only rider to have competed in all six of the Ben Fund Bonanza meetings so far, winning at Birmingham in 2012.

Admission prices have also been announced for what will be the opening meeting of the new British season - £16 (adults), £14 (concessions), £10 for children aged 10-15 and free entry for younger children.

There are Hospitality sponsorship packages available. Contact sponsorship manager Julie Reading on 07931 318401 for details.

A good turnout is expected, including a number of paraplegic riders, with Garry Stead, Pip Lamb, Lawrence Hare, Graham Miles and Steve Weatherly amongst those like to be in attendance.