The Isle of Wight’s Wightlink Warriors speedway team won an exciting meeting against the Kent Kings in a dramatic night both on and off the track on Thursday.
The Warriors’ win means that their hopes of taking the National Trophy remain alive and to achieve that success they must go to Kent on Monday and win by 7 points or more. Any other result hands the Trophy to the Kings.
Fans would have got an inkling that things were happening behind the scenes when Warriors number one rider Georgie Wood did not appear for the pre-match introductions. That was because he was being whisked to Smallbrook from Ryde having missed the car ferry to the Island. He made it the track with just enough time to pull on his race suit and hop on one of Chad Wirtzfeld’s bikes and remarkably blasted away to win heat 1 in a time just 0.1 of a second slower than his best.
With Chris Widman bagging a valuable third place in heat 1 the Warriors had made the positive start asked for by team manager Jackie Vatcher and the recent improved performances and enthusiasm rubbed off on the whole team as they led the much fancied Kings 28-14 after 7 races.
Wise heads on the terraces waited for the Kings to respond and over the next 8 races they did just that outscoring the Warriors by 8 race points 20-28. Fortunately that big early advantage laid the foundation for the Warriors most complete performance for some time and a Warrior win was generally felt to be the right result on the night.
Indeed there could have been even more movement is the score line as lady luck deserted both sides. Kent had 3 fallers whilst in good scoring positions whilst the Warriors suffered mechanical misfortune on at least 4 occasions – 2 of which went to that man Wood who produced the ride of the night in heat 10 to catch and pass Kent’s Anders Rowe.
After the meeting Warriors co-promoter Barry Bishop was ecstatic as he said:
“What a great meeting and what a great win against a very good Kent team who always do well here. I really thought we were in trouble when I heard about Georgie. He had been to Swindon during the day to sort out a motor problem with his tuner but getting that done took longer than expected meaning that he missed the carry ferry so had to leave his van in Portsmouth with his bikes on board. His quickest way to get here was to catch the Hovercraft so we arranged to pick him up and get here that way.
Article continues below this advertisement “It was all last minute.com but I’ve got to praise up the whole of the Warriors squad especially Chad Wirtzfeld and his Dad Dave for getting a bike ready for Georgie. The other riders and mechanics all mucked in to get things sorted and to see Georgie go and win heat one like nothing had happened was quite remarkable. What a Warrior!
Isle of Wight 48 | 42 Kent
Wightlink Warriors: Georgie Wood 9, Chris Widman 2, Ryan Terry-Daley 6+1, Danno Verge 9, Ben Morley 13, Connor King 4+2 and Chad Wirtzfeld 5.
Kent: Drew Kemp 10, Rider Replacement for Alex Spooner, Anders Rowe 11, Jordan Jenkins 4+2, Rob Ledwith 11+1, Jacob Clouting 1 and Nathan Ablitt 5+2.
