From the point of the announcement that the Kent TouchTec Kings were moving up to the SGB Championship, there was heaps to look forward to in 2020 for a side which aims to bring home the bacon.
And the two latest signings reveal that there’s Heeps to look forward to and the Bacon has come ‘home’! The two riders revealed today as loan signings for the Central Park-based club’s inaugural season in Speedway’s second tier are Cameron Heeps and Tom Bacon.
24-year-old Cameron makes history as the Kings’ first ever rider hailing from the country which gave the world the sport of Speedway, Australia. A multi-junior champion in his native Western Australia, the Perth-born speedster will be a new face to most Kent fans, as he’s been operating in the higher divisions since making a huge impact on the National League in the couple of seasons before the Kings entered the sport.
That was with the Mildenhall Fen Tigers where Heeps won the Knock Out Cup in 2011 and the NL ‘quadruple’ the following year as he inspired the Fen Tigers to the league title, the KOC again plus the Fours and Pairs crowns. Returning down under that winter to take the first of his (currently) three senior championships in his native state, the Australian international became an asset of Ipswich with whom he has ridden in the top tier, as well as spells with Wolverhampton, Somerset and Edinburgh. Heeps joins the great Championship adventure the Kings are to embark on thanks to the cooperation of his top tier club Ipswich Witches from whom he joins on loan.
Kings’ Team Manager Chris Hunt commented, “We are delighted that Cameron is on board for the forthcoming season. He has made a big impact on British Speedway these past few years - indeed it’s remarkable really that for someone still as young as 24 and having come here from somewhere as far away as Australia, that he’s about to start his tenth season in British Speedway. That makes him a very experienced rider at this level and this will be invaluable to us. He’s also a winner, as his remarkable haul of ten State titles back in Western Australia from the Under 16 ranks up to senior level and his team success here testifies to. Welcome on board, Cameron.”
If Heeps is a new name for many Central Park aficionados, Tom Bacon is the opposite: a much-loved and hugely respected opponent of recent years with Mildenhall and then Birmingham, the 26 year old has been perhaps the most coveted signing which up to now hadn’t happened. From making his Central Park debut as the rawest of rookie recruits riding in the 2015 Futurama event (where he finished runner up), the Coventry- born Bacon extremely rapidly rose up to be one of the most impressive of visiting riders to Kent’s Sittingbourne home and immediately established himself through his behaviour both on track and off as the most popular of all opposition team members. Bacon was a key member of the Birmingham Brummies side which completed the National League & Trophy ‘double’ in 2016
Tom is almost unique in the modern sport (and indeed certainly through Speedway history) in that he came into the sport after graduating from university (getting his degree at leading academic institution Leicester University) and joins up with Kent on loan from his parent club, the top division,Peterborough Panthers
Back after missing most of the 2019 campaign through injury, Bacon commented, “"I am delighted on my return now to full fitness that I’m joining the Kent Kings, it is a brilliant set up down there and a track I have always enjoyed riding. The fans have always been fantastic towards me even as a visiting rider, so I am very excited to get started in 2020!"
Team boss Hunt says of this sizzling news, “I’m absolutely certain that our fans are going to cock-a-hoop at the signing of Tom. There’s simply no one who’s been more popular among the Central Park faithful as a visiting rider than Tom – and his performances have been consistently brilliant with high scores and some of the fastest trace winning times too. We have, of course, wanted him in our ranks for some time now and our elevation up into the SGBC means that now can be a reality.
“Personally, I rode with Tom’s father Mike together in the Milton Keynes team in the 1980s and the family are the nicest people you could meet. It’s just great that we’ve been able to ‘bring home the Bacon’!”