SPEEDWAY: Ipswich Witches director of speedway Chris Louis has confirmed that there are more signings afoot after completing a deal to bring Ales Dryml to Foxhall Stadium.

The 30-year-old Czech Republic rider will take the place of Claus Vissing when Ipswich ride their next Elite League meeting – at Poole next Wednesday.

“We put together what we thought was a strong side, but overall they have under achieved,” said Louis.

“What has to be appreciated is that the new Foxhall Stadium track shape has not helped our cause.

“I know how differently it now rides and although entertainment and safety issues have improved we have temporarily lost much of our home track advantage.

“We are in line to make more changes and from July 1 we will be looking seriously into doing that once all our riders are on 2010 averages.

“We have not given up on a play-off place.”

Louis has welcomed the signing of Dryml, who he hopes will help lift the Suffolk-based club off the foot of the table.

“We need to find some consistency in the number four slot, which has been missing in recent weeks,” added Louis.

“Ales has been very interested in joining Ipswich for a number of years and his enthusiasm and keenness persuaded us to give him a run in the team.

“He had other options, but wanted to come to us and we have decided to give him a chance.

“It can be looked upon as a sideways move with Ales having roughly the same average as Claus Vissing.

“But if Ales rides to his average he will improve our scoring as Claus had been finding it tough to score consistently.”

Talking of Vissing, who had a string of disappointing meetings culminating in a disastrous performance at his former home track of Peterborough on Monday, Louis said:

“We were hoping for a good points return from Claus at Peterborough, a track he knows well, but we were very disappointed with his performance.”

Dryml is a team mate of Scott Nicholls at Hungarian club Miscolc in the Polish League and is set to make his Ipswich debut at Poole with the Witches at home to Wolverhampton next Thursday.

Lewis Bridger was expected to move to his parent club Eastbourne after signing for Coventry from Peterborough last week.

But the Bees have confirmed that Bridger is to stay with them long term with the rider saying: “It’s been difficult, but at the end of the day a rider rides where he wants to ride.”

Eastbourne co-promoter Mike Bellerby said: “We fully believed that we would be welcoming Lewis back into our team for the match against Swindon on Thursday and we are very upset that he and Coventry have seemingly chosen not to honour an agreement that had been reached.”