Berwick Bandits’ new signing, Victor Palovaara, feared being left out in the speedway wilderness after his telephone failed to ring, but, finally the Borders club made the call.
The Swede made a return to British speedway after a six-year hiatus, joining Edinburgh in 2025 when his tally of 148 points from the opening nine meetings included two 20-point hauls.
He rocketed from reserve to No 1 where his scoring levelled off and a bout of pneumonia just after signing for Oxford Spires in the Premiership saw a slow end to the season.
Even so, the former Glasgow Tigers and Newcastle Diamonds racer ended the year on a healthy 7.35 average but that seemed to leave him off the radar.
The Swedish racer (pictured by Keith Hamblin) said: “I thought I was not going to get a team at all, the phone just didn’t ring. Perhaps people were a bit worried about how I finished the season.
“Looking back, it was probably a mistake to return when I wasn’t anywhere near recovered from the pneumonia. That definitely affected me badly, but I just wanted to get back on a bike and race.”
Berwick boss Jamie Courtney – who secured Palovaara for the Spires – admitted that the opportunity to sign the Swede for Berwick’s 2026 campaign came as a shock.
He confirmed: “Victor never figured in the discussions I had with (team manager) Stewart Dickson. We assumed that he would be back at Edinburgh and, when they announced their team and he wasn’t in it, we couldn’t believe our luck and were straight on the phone. The deal was done very quickly.”
Now Palovaara is preparing for the weekend’s BSN Series clashes between his new and former teams with relish.
As a Monarch he scored 19 points in their BSN victory at Armadale and was among the points again as Edinburgh beat their rivals in the Championship on an evening when Nick Morris made his Berwick debut just 72 hours after stepping off a flight from Australia.
Both will be in the Bandits side which travels to Edinburgh on Friday (tapes-up 7.30pm) before the sides meet again at Shielfield Park on Saturday (7pm).
The Swede admitted: “Berwick is not a track I’ve ridden a lot – or been successful around for that matter – before, but that’s part of the challenge and one I am really excited about.
“It is a very different track to Edinburgh but similar in that there is a big home advantage once you get dialled into it.
“Friday sees me and Lasse Fredriksen returning to where we both did well as Monarchs while Peter Kildemand, Nick Morris and Jye Etheridge all know their way around there. I still think we might have one or two tips we can pass on to them.”
Finally, Friday will see the British debut of Reid Battye, the former Australian Superbike champion who switched to shale only three years ago and tickets for Saturday’s meeting at Shielfield Park are available from the club website berwickspeedway.com/tickets
