DANNY Ford insisted he was “happy with the way things are progressing” regarding his team-building mission for Pirates’ class of 2022.

The Poole promoter admitted the club faced a rebuilding job for next season, with all but one of the 2021 septet improving their averages in winning the SGB Championship and Knockout Cup.

At the time of writing, Pirates, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Redcar are yet to officially confirm any of their racers who will line up at the tapes next year.

Plymouth have named all seven of their team for next season, while Berwick and Newcastle possess just one spot remaining.

But despite keeping rider announcements under wraps for now, Ford was pleased with the Wimborne Road side’s preparations ahead of next campaign.

He told the Daily Echo: “We already had an idea where we were going with the team, even before the rules and regulations were absolutely finalised.

“It’s always tough having to rebuild a team. Obviously, you are kind of a victim of your own success.

“We know that we wouldn’t be able to retain the full team we had last year because of them all improving their averages bar Rory (Schlein) – but he finished phenomenally.

“We knew there was going to be changes. Unfortunately, that’s the nature of speedway.

“That’s where my dad (owner Matt) and I have put our heads together to try to put together another championship winning team.

“It’s going to be hard to surpass what we did last year but I am very happy with the way things are progressing. I am sure that come March or April, our supporters will be too.

“Obviously we were looking at our team from last year, there’s riders who you are guaranteed to want to retain regardless of the points limits.”

Ford has already confirmed the team management structure of Neil Middleditch and Gary Havelock will continue in 2022.

Asked what it was like to negotiate with riders, he replied: “It’s quite an interesting thing. Riders know what to expect coming to Poole.

“There are never any problems with them being paid and you know it’s a good, well-run club with great supporters and sponsors involved.

“There are no problems in that regard and that’s always an attractive aspect to come to Poole.

“Obviously, it can be difficult with travelling because we are right down on the coast.

“For a lot of riders based Midlands-way, they have still got to do four or five hours to get down for each home meeting so that works against us, but there are benefits.

“It all comes down to the rider’s preferences. Sometimes they prefer to be closer to home because of their travel.

“But it works for us. People always know we put together a strong team and we will always be there or thereabouts when it comes to the end of the season in the play-offs.”