Many hours of negotiation and organisation culminate in the launch of the much talked about Nora 92 No Brakes Racing League, a brand-new speedway competition, that starts on Sunday with the four pioneering teams representing Cradley, Isle of Wight, Plymouth and Sittingbourne locking horns for the first time at the Old Gun Site in Iwade near Sittingbourne.
The league will run over four rounds with aggregate points deciding the League Champions. Each league meeting will take the form of a four-team tournament with the sides consisting of four riders and run over the traditional 16 heat format. The provisional line-ups (in alphabetical order) for the opener on May 21st (12 noon 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 said, “I’m really excited. An awful lot of effort has gone in to 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”.