ALUN Rossiter’s Great Britain side will have to overcome fierce rivals Australia as well as both Denmark and the USA in order to reach the Speedway of Nations Finals this summer.

Britain will host the second of two Race Off events, which act as qualifiers for the competition’s finals, at the National Speedway Stadium in Manchester on Saturday, May 11.

Rossiter, who is also team manager of Swindon Robins in the SGB Premiership, led Team GB to a silver medal in the event last year and sees his side start their campaign for another podium finish on home shale against France, Finland and Latvia as well as the Aussie, Danish and American teams.

A week earlier on Saturday, May 4, Germany will host the first Race Off at Landshut against teams from Poland, Sweden, Slovenia, Ukraine, Czech Republic and Italy.

The top two teams from both Race Offs are guaranteed a place at the Speedway of Nations Finals in Togliatti alongside host nation and defending champions Russia on July 20 and 21.

The teams who finish between third and fifth places at each of the Race Off events will then compete in two knockout heats to decide the final qualifier from both meetings.

Great Britain topped the points scoring at last year’s Speedway of Nations Finals in Wrocław, Poland, with team captain and reigning world champion Tai Woffinden scoring 35 of his side’s total of 46.

However, Rossiter’s troops would have to settle for a runners-up finish when it came to the medal deciding races as Russia took the spoils in the grand final to claim gold.

Poland rounded off the podium positions in third place.