BELLE Vue star Simon Stead had a perfect warm-up for the World Cup showdown at Coventry tonight when Great Britain aim to take the direct route into the final.

He had the boost of an unexpected preview of the Brandon circuit on Friday when he guested for Peterborough against Coventry and won three races, top-scoring with 13 points as the visitors lost 45-30 in a rain-reduced match.

Stead's impressive display, plus the inclusion of Coventry riders Scott Nicholls, Chris Harris and Olly Allen, gives GB a great chance of victory and the automatic place in Saturday's final in Leszno, Poland.

Sweden, who include Belle Vue's recent signing Antonio Lindback, have been hit by an injury to star man Andreas Jonsson and may have to battle with America and Russia for the second and third places which will put them into Thursday's race-off, also at Leszno.

Holders Denmark had an easy win in the round at Vojens, Denmark while Poland and Australia qualified for the keenly-contested race-off round.

DENMARK 60 (N. Pedersen 13, B. Pedersen 13, H. Andersen 12, N. Iversen 11,K.Bjerre 11.) POLAND 44. G Walasek 15, K.Kasprzak 9, R. Holta 8, T. Gollob 6,J. Hampel 6.)
AUSTRALIA 39 (L. Adams 13, J. Crump 10, R. Sullivan 7, C. Holder 5,R. Schlein 4.) FINLAND 11 (J. Kylmakorpi 6, K. Laukkanen 3, K. Nieminen 1, J. Hautamaki 1, T. Aarnio 0.)

THERE is no Elite League racing this week because of the World Cup so Belle Vue are staging their annual Greggs North West Junior championship at Kirkmanshulme Lane on Wednesday (7.30pm).