BELLE Vue star Richie Worrall has backed his brother Steve to make major strides in his career during 2014 after rediscovering his hunger for the sport.

The twins have both been riding motorbikes since the age of three but it was Richie who made the quicker strides once they switched their attention from motocross to speedway – making it into the Elite League and earning Great Britain recognition while Steve was still racing in both the National and Premier leagues.

The two meet tonight when the Aces travel to Blunsdon to take on the Robins, with Richie certain his brother will make big advances after sorting issues both with his mentality and with his equipment.

“There’s not an awful lot of rivalry there to be honest and in the past, when we’ve been racing for opposite teams, we’ve felt the need to go and help each other when we’ve not been going very well.

“We have a rivalry in a fun way but nothing like with other riders because we want to see each other do well. It’s a family thing.

“He had poor bikes and poor engines last season and it showed because I put a lot of money into my gear and stepped on a bit quicker because of it. I think I had more drive last year than him but we’ve worked hard together this winter and I’m sure he’s going to have a really good year.

“Last year I leant him one of my engines which didn’t really suit me because we ride completely different styles, although it was a really good engine. He tried it and he turned his season round and he went from hardly scoring anything to a bit of a hot property who was scoring loads and teams wanted him to guest.

“He’s hungrier for it after a bad year and his bikes are better now, but maybe he does feel like he’s a bit in my shadow. He thought it was all going to happen for him just like that but you need to make it happen for yourself.”

Richie, the older of the two brothers, has yet to ride for the Aces this year but suggested Swindon was not the ideal venue for him to start his season.

“We’ve not race yet for Belle Vue and I need to be racing because, if I’m not, I’m not earning any money,” he said.

“I’ve done a couple of meetings in the Premier League for Ipswich and I’ve been out to Poland a couple of times, but I can’t wait for Thursday.

“Swindon’s not one of my best tracks and I need to work on Swindon because I’ve not done very well the two times I’ve been there before.”