PIRATES reserve Kyle Newman revealed his surprise after he had been selected to represent Great Britain in Saturday's Grand Prix qualifier in Gorican.

The field for the Croatia event includes the likes of home favourite Jurica Pavlic. Piotr Pawlicki, Leon Madsen and Peter Ljung.

Newman told his official website: “When I took the call from Alun Rossiter (Team GB boss) I was delighted to be asked to race in the event.

"It had been something I had been thinking about for a while but I wasn’t sure if I would have been in Alun’s thoughts.

“It’s a very strong field. This is the Grand Prix qualifiers and there won’t be any easy rides in any of the meetings.

“My aim would be to make it through into the next round but I realise how tough that is going to be so I will go there, enjoy it, and hopefully learn from the experience.

"I have now ridden a fair bit in Eastern Europe since the start of the season and I feel that I am improving on the big fast circuits all the time.

“I have ridden at Gorican before in a world under-21 meeting and I loved the place - it's a brilliant facility and an awesome track.

"I will go and have a go and fingers crossed by the end of the night it will be enough to reach the next round."

Gorican line-up: Peter Ljung, Aleksander Conda, Przemyslaw Pawlicki, Matej Kus, Leon Madsen, Kyle Newman, Justin Sedgmen, Sergy Logachev, Ziga Kovacic, Andrei Kudriashov, Josef Franc, Jurica Pavlic, Andzejs Lebedevs, Linus Sundstrom, Piotr Pawlicki, Andriy Karpov, Nick Skorja (reserve), Jernej Pecnik (reserve).