SHELBY Rutherford hopes to put his mechanical woes behind him when the Potters take on the Plymouth Gladiators in the National League at Loomer Road on Saturday night.

Rutherford said “Last Saturday the bike warmed up alright and everything was good then I went into the first race and the bike just wasn’t running right. I got back to the pits and Jon Armstrong and I changed spark plugs and several other different things, and we thought we were good to go for my second ride and the same thing happened once again after half a lap. I then swapped to my other bike and had a good half a lap in heat eight and then unfortunately racing happens and I’m really disappointed especially to come away with a zero in a meeting as it was last Saturday against the Isle of Wight where it ended up 45-45.

“It doesn’t help when the bike fails in the first heat and even though I then swapped to the second bike I felt I had some good speed, but in your head with what’s gone wrong with your first bike you try and put it out of your mind but it’s still there and you get really frustrated and I’m still angry with how last week went as I also made a few mistakes as well.

“After the meeting last week, I went out onto the track and we are pretty sure that we have resolved the issue and the bike went well so I feel we are good to go for the meeting against Plymouth.

“We’ve worked hard all season to get the bikes to where I want them to be and comfortable and it’s been working well, and we need to keep moving forward and finish the season off with a good few meetings and get amongst the points.”