This in from Bryn Williams on behalf of Island Speedway. Ed
Tomorrow, Wednesday 2nd December 2015, is very much D-Day in terms of Barry Bishop and Martin Widman’s bold bid to bring National League racing, that this year featured a total of ten teams stretching from Buxton in Derbyshire to Eastbourne in Sussex, back to the Isle of Wight after a two year absence.
Quietly confident
They are due to learn in person whether or not that bid has been successful at the National League’s AGM which takes place at the Auto Cycle Union’s HQ in Rugby, Warks and whilst both were quietly confident that they and their Wight Warriors side would be given the thumbs up, neither were taking anything for granted over the weekend.
They, along with the club’s fans and sponsors, will very much be keeping their fingers and just about everything else crossed that all the hard work carried out both at the track and behind the scenes within the club so far since their application to join the league was submitted won’t have proved to be in vain.
Wight Warriors at Smallbrook stadium
They hope that their application to join the league next season will be approved and that they can then press on towards their ultimate goal of seeing those Wight Warriors in action next year at Smallbrook stadium.
They’ll then be aiming to put together a team capable of competing for all the National League’s major honours in this incredibly exciting seven-a-side team sport that sees team members racing highly tuned 500cc motorbikes with no brakes around an oval shale raceway.
Meanwhile, and following upon the weekend revelation that Andy Hague had been appointed as the club’s commercial manager, comes the revelation that also joining the Warriors operations team in the capacity of part owner and chief mechanic to the ‘My First Skid’ speedway school is another Andy – Andy Perring.
A future speedway star?
The club has made no secret of the fact that they would very much like to unearth a future speedway star amongst Island residents through this scheme and Andy will no doubt have this very much in the forefront of his ambitions.
Speaking of his new role at the club he said,
“I have known Barry for some years and had already agreed a sponsorship package for the Warriors in 2016.
“However, having got more involved with the club and spending time with Martin and the other members of the team, I felt it was just a natural step to take on my new roles with the club.
“I am extremely proud of the machines we have prepared for use in My First Skid, hope to be able to announce other important steps in building the school soon and we cannot wait to welcome riders with their own kit and those who want to try speedway at Smallbrook.”
So a great deal is in place already, but there’s still much to do and whether further plans are pressed on with at pace very much depends of course on news emanating from tomorrow’s National League AGM and the fervent hope is that news emanating from that meeting up there in Warwickshire is very much good news!
Image: Lee Jordan under CC BY 2.0
