Scunthorpe Speedway - Backing British Youth

[Scunny Stag]

Scunthorpe Speedway back British Youth

 

With the British Under-18 Final set to take place at the Eddie Wright Raceway in just ten days time Scunthorpe Speedway have announced a series of deals that are designed to encourage youngsters in to the sport. In 2007 the club completed construction of their mini-track and ever since it has been introducing new riders to the sport. However, sessions have generally limited to once a fortnight and the club want to move towards the Swedish and Danish example where riders in those countries can get regular track time.

 

With this in mind the club are introducing new sessions where riders who have their own bikes can practice for just £15 when the club are run their practices and amateur meetings on their main track. It means that the mini-track will now be available every Sunday during the winter (from 9th November to 15th March with the exception of two weeks for Christmas; the 21st and 28th December) plus a selection of Saturdays. In addition the club run the very popular training sessions with Wayne Carter, the former captain of the Scunthorpe Scorpions, every second Saturday. The costs of those sessions are £25 for riders with their own bikes and £60 for those wishing to use the clubs 125cc and 250cc speedway bikes and equipment.

 

The club are also introducing a discount for young riders who use their main track for practices and amateur meetings. From now on they will now cost just £25 for riders, aged 15 and under, who ride a 250cc, or smaller, machine. Promoter Rob Godfrey explained the changes “There is a real shortage of kids coming into the sport and it’s a terrible shame. Our mini-track is perfect for kids wanting to try the sport and we have a few regulars who are likely to be the league riders of the future if they persevere. We want to give them as much encouragement as possible and hopefully the extra track time will see some of them develop in line with the kids in countries like Sweden and Denmark. If numbers increase then we can look at doing something semi-competitively on the mini-track to make it interesting for the kids”.

 

“It would be great if we could develop a scene like in Scandinavia where they have full blown league racing from an early age. Once youngsters have mastered sliding a bike and moved on to the 250cc and 500cc bikes then we have the amateur meetings for them. Hopefully, the interest in these will increase as riding opportunities diminish during the winter and maybe we will see more riders choosing speedway over other motorcycling disciplines at an early age”.

 

“Next year our Conference League side will be full of young talent like James Sarjeant (who has just finished second in the British Under-15 Championship) who has committed to us, and hopefully if we give the British youth these opportunities then others will want to ride for Scunthorpe. Our amateur meetings organised by a great bunch of volunteers are proving very popular and the open class is excellent for riders wanting to test themselves against Conference League riders. We will have run fourteen of these meetings in 2008 and then we have Malcolm Vasey organising proper second halves that can’t be cut short by a curfew because we haven’t got one. Clubs like Rye House and Sittingbourne have set the bar for rider development and we now want to take it higher and perhaps even establish a full-blown academy in time. We are taking it one step at a time but we feel we are moving in the right direction and it can only be good news for the future of British speedway.”

 

Anyone interesting in learning to ride a speedway bike, practicing or taking part in an amateur meeting can contact Richard Hollingsworth via e-mail at richard@scunthorpespeedway.com or call him on 0732-402167.