PIRATES number one Chris Holder believes more of speedway’s top stars would be encouraged to ride in Britain if track quality was improved.

A string of Grand Prix riders have elected to sit out the Elite League with the 2015 top three – Tai Woffinden, Nicki Pedersen and Greg Hancock – among them.

Holder feels GP chargers would be more inclined to ply their trade on British shores if some of the circuits provided smoother racing.

The 28-year-old, who also rides for Polish club Torun and Swedish outfit Lejonen, told the Daily Echo: “A few tracks in Britain need the once-over.

“Belle Vue have put some work and money in and when their new place is up and running, it will be up there with the best tracks – like Torun.

“It will provide some really good racing and it’s going to be awesome. I understand not all tracks can be like that but that is exactly what you need.

“If tracks are nice to ride then the Grand Prix guys will be encouraged to race here.

“We are probably a bit spoiled in Poland and Sweden. We are racing good competition on good race tracks. Of course there are some bad ones but the majority are really nice.”

Coventry are the visitors to Wimborne Road tonight (7.30pm) and Holder admits he is keen to swiftly bounce back from his disappointing showing in the defeat at Lakeside 12 days ago.

The Sydneysider experienced his first off-day of the campaign in Poole colours with a modest three paid four at Purfleet.

He said: “Lakeside was a bad meeting and, hopefully, I won’t have too many of them. I normally don’t mind Lakeside but it wasn’t happening for me. For some reason, I was terrible.

“I’m looking forward to putting that behind me, getting some points on the board and, hopefully, having a good win.

“We have been pretty successful at home so far so we would like to keep that going. When we are on it at home, we are really hard to beat.”

Coventry look set to operate rider replacement in the expected absence of Kacper Woryna, who suffered severe hand lacerations at King's Lynn last week.

Holder is unavailable for Friday’s return clash with the Bees due to racing commitments with Torun, with Wolves' Freddie Lindgren his replacement.

The world champion in 2012, Holder also missed the visit to Brandon in the Elite Shield in March due to illness – but Poole triumphed 47-43 in his absence.

He joked: “The boys had a good win there last time so maybe it’s better if I don’t go!”

Pirates: (from) Chris Holder, Brady Kurtz, Hans Andersen, Davey Watt, Krzysztof Buczkowski, Adam Ellis, Kyle Newman.

Bees: (from) Krzysztof Kasprzak, Jason Garrity, Danny King, Chris Harris, Kacper Woryna r/r, Josh Bates, James Sarjeant.