The final Speedway meeting at Central Park in 2021 has a special admission price of just £10 for all adults, with children aged 12 going free. And the Kent Iwade Garage go for the win they need to ensure a fifth season in a row finishing in the top three of British Speedway’s National League [NL] against the Belle Vue Colts.
Sadly the Royals will have a notable absentee for this (and the match against Armadale at Leicester on Sunday 31st. too) as fans’ favourite Alex Spooner is out after a non-racing accident has seen him suffer lacerations to his hand & arm. Coming in for Alex will be New Zealander, Ryan Terry-Daley.
At number one for the Manchester-based Colts is a rider who actually made his first appearance in the NL for Kent but has gone on to have something of a love-hate relationship with the Central Park faithful, 22-year-old Jack Smith. Stoke-on-Trent born Jack is the son of former three-time British Champion and Grand Prix stalwart Andy Smith. At the opposite end of the popularity stakes as far as Kent fans are concerned is Connor Coles. Like Smith coming from a famous Speedway family (his grandfather Bob rode for Romford & Mildenhall, his father Michael for Exeter), Connor was a member of the original Kent Kings team in their first season in the sport in 2013.
A real bonus for the Colts this year (being the junior side of the world-famous Belle Vue Aces club based at the National Speedway Stadium) has been the form of brothers, Harry and Sam McGurk. The sibling duo started at reserve and have both at one stage handled the number one race jacket. 15-year-old Sam is a two-times 125cc British Youth Champion - winning back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018. A rider on the comeback trail this term has the nightmare name for race card compilers, Jack Parkinson-Blackburn. Once hailed as the hottest young prospect in the sport, the 21-year-old from Dewsbury bowed out of the sport after sustaining serious injuries in a car crash towards the back of 2018 - but the former NL title winner with Birmingham in his first two seasons in the league is back this term.
Completing the line up in the reserve berths is Burton-born, Sam Woolley and the Colts’ experienced skipper, Paul Bowen. Bowen once appeared in Channel 4’s ‘First Dates’ programme and there’s a reminder that the important date in your calendar is TUESDAY 26TH. OCTOBER when it’s just a TENNER to see Kent Iwade Garage Royals vs Belle Vue Colts – doors open at 5pm, with tapes up at 6.30pm.
