There was no silverware but lots of valuable track time for the 3 trainees from the ‘My First Skid’ speedway school, who competed in Rounds 1 and 2 of the British Youth Speedway Championships.
Jack Scully-Syer took part in the 1st round at Belle Vue, Manchester on Friday evening and recorded a very creditable 11 points from his 4 rides.
Tia Brant also rode at Belle Vue, as well as the round 2 meeting at Glasgow this afternoon, scoring 5 points on both occasions with 1 race win.
Charlie Southwick also did both meetings and recorded 4 wins across the 2 days and that could have been more had it not been for 2 unfortunate falls whilst leading separate races.
All in all, a very satisfactory weekend for those junior riders who will now be looking ahead excitedly to the next round at Birmingham on 31st May.
In other speedway news, the Nora 92 No Brakes Racing League – a brand-new speedway competition – starts on Sunday, with the 4 pioneering teams representing Cradley, Isle of Wight, Plymouth and Sittingbourne locking horns for the 1st time at the Old Gun Site in Iwade near Sittingbourne.
The league will run over 4 rounds, with aggregate points deciding the League Champions. Each league meeting will take the form of a 4-team tournament with the sides consisting of 4 riders and run over the traditional 16-heat format. The provisional line-ups (in alphabetical order) for the opener on 21st May (12:00 start) are:
Cradley: Alfie Bowtell, Tom Spencer, Chris Watts, Chris Widman
Isle of Wight: Arran Butcher, George Congreve, Ben Morley, Rhys Naylor
Plymouth: Patryk Daniszewski, Alex Spooner, Ben Trigger, Jake Turner (subject to fitness)
Sittingbourne: Henry Atkins, Connor King, Sam Woolley, Tom Woolley.
In addition to the league encounter, plans are well advanced to incorporate competitive track action for both youth and up-and-coming riders into each meeting.
League Official Barry Bishop has said:
“I’m really excited. An awful lot of effort has gone into getting us to where we are now, just a few days away from race day 1. We will be setting out to inaugurate a brand-new league competition for teams who want to offer competitive track time and development opportunities for riders keen to improve and progress into professional racers.
We also want to encourage more teams to join us and adopt our model, and I know several sides will be seriously monitoring how our league unfolds. Running a racetrack can be a complicated, time-consuming and costly business; however, we will attempt to offer a blueprint to others who would wish to offer a fan focussed and viable operation in the belief that we can grow our league and welcome new names to the group.
“We hope fans of shale track action will come along and give our brand of entertainment a try. I look forward to meeting them on the day and having a chat”.
