SWINDON ROBINS have signed nineteen year old Croatian wonder kid Jurica Pavlic as a replacement for the injured Seb Alden.
Pavlic’s signature has been sought by an array of Elite league clubs but the current European Individual Champion has chosen Blunsdon as the place to start his British career.
The Croatian rider, who finished fourth in 2008 World U21 title behind Russian International Emil Saifutdinov, Poole number one Chris Holder and talented Polish youngster Pawel Hlib, will slot into the Swindon reserve berth after the completion of work permit formalities.
He begins his British career on a 4.00 average.
Pavlic rides for current Polish league champions Leszno Bulls and therefore already shares a good working relationship with Swindon riders Leigh Adams and Troy Batchelor; both of whom also compete for Leszno.
The four times Croatian Champion is considered one of the hottest prospects in World Speedway and has ridden as a wild card at World Championship level in the 2007 Slovenian Grand Prix.
Pavlic’s European performances have been extremely impressive and he now feels the time is right to embrace the challenge of Elite league speedway.
The youngster comes from a family steeped in speedway history and his father, Zvonko, was a three times Yugoslavian Champion. He famously founded the 6,000 capacity Gorican speedway stadium in 2004 to allow Jurica to pursue his ambition to become a professional speedway rider.
Swindon manager Alun Rossiter is delighted by Pavlic’s signature:
‘It’s superb news for Swindon Speedway that Jurica has decided to join the club. Plenty of British teams have been chasing his services so the fact that we’ve managed to secure his signature once again demonstrates we are an attractive club for riders to join.
Jurica is clearly a very special talent and his performances in the Polish league with Leszno demonstrate that he is more than capable of mixing it with some of the most successful riders in the World.
Leigh Adams is full of praise for Jurica and they already share a productive working relationship through their time at Leszno. We are all very excited about welcoming Jurica to Blunsdon and are hopeful he will perform well.’
