KENT QUARTET IN GB TITLE RACE AS SPEEDWAY ROARS AGAIN
Tuesday 15 September 2020
A quartet of Kent Speedway teenagers finally get into competitive action carrying the Central Park-based club’s colours in the GB Under 19 Speedway Championship Final on Sunday (September 20th.).
The meeting will be held in front of spectators (albeit a reduced all-ticket attendance following strict Covid-19 guidelines) at Scunthorpe Speedway and will feature Kent TouchTec Kings’ Dan Gilkes (who will go into the meeting as one of the favourites) plus his team mates from the Kent Iwade Garage Royals’ ranks: Jordan Jenkins, Jake Mulford and youngest rider in the field, Sam Hagon.
Kent followers making their way up to North Lincs for this one will be hoping that history can strike twice, as last season this coveted crown was taken by a then Kings’ man in the form of Drew Kemp – the rider who’s now linked up with his home town club Ipswich is in the field again though and will be the man to beat as he looks to defend his crown. Kemp is amazingly one of nine riders in the field who have been national champions across the age ranges at youth levels of Speedway showing what incredible talent there is at the junior levels in the UK.
One is young Sam Hagon who is the reigning 250cc GB Under 16 Youth Champion and is recovered now from a broken collar bone suffered during a BMX accident earlier this year. Jake Mulford & Jordan Jenkins, who both hail from Norwich were members of the Kings’ side which got to the final of the Play Offs in the National League last season. For Jenkins it’s a third GB U-19 Final, whilst for relative newcomer to the shale sport after a stellar career in schoolboy & youth Grasstrack racing, Mulford is competing for a first time in a GB Speedway national final.
The other former GB champions in the field include the Thompson twins who were in the Leicester side which pipped Kent to that NL crown last season: Joe taking the 125cc national title in 2015 and his sibling Dan succeeding him the following year. The ‘elder statesman in the field, turning 19 just late enough to qualify for the 2020 event by reaching that birthday in January is Plymouth’s Henry Atkins who won his national title also at the 125cc class extraordinarily as far back as 2011. Kent’s fierce local rivals Eastbourne Eagles have two competitors in the field: 2019 runner up to Kemp, Jason Edwards and a three times Youth GB title winner in Tom Brennan.
Kent TouchTec Kings were scheduled in 2020 to be moving up to the Championship division – the Coronavirus pandemic ravaging British sporting events has put a paid to this but a number of opponents who would’ve returned to oppose the side at Central Park in the season that never was are in this field, including two riders with an extraordinary six British youth titles between them: the Berwick Bandits duo of Leon Flint and Kyle Bickley. And the third reigning GB champion in the line up (along with Kemp and the Royals’ Hagon) is 2019 GB 500cc Youth Champion, Jordan Palin who carries the home fan at Scunthorpe’s hopes.
Chris Hunt, Kent’s team boss is happy that finally the bikes will roar into action with four of the club’s young talents entering the mix, “It’s great that finally the youngsters have a chance to get competitive action and it really is a very good field which will test their mettle. We hope to see some of their more senior Kings counterparts in the British Final the following weekend (the full field for that event at Ipswich awaiting confirmation) as Speedway finally begins the journey to get back on track. We are full steam ahead with our preparations at Central Park to get the team sport back home in March 2021 but 2020’s national individual championships are the priority right now”.
Of the meeting at his home circuit Scunthorpe this coming weekend, British Speedway Promoters’ Chair Rob Godfrey commented, “We’re expecting the British Under-19 Championship to be a superb meeting between some hugely talented young riders. There’s four-fifths of the GB lads who took the World Under-21 team bronze medal competing against each other this time around.”
Riders (in draw order) 1. Henry Atkins (Plymouth); 2. Jake Mulford (KENT); 3. Leon Flint (Berwick); 4. Jordan Palin (Scunthorpe); 5. Tom Brennan (Eastbourne); 6. Elliot Kelly (Mildenhall); 7. Dan Thompson (Leicester); 8. Jason Edwards (Eastbourne)
9. Sam Hagon (KENT); 10. Archie Freeman (Newcastle); 11. Joe Thompson (Leicester); 12. Harry McGurk (Belle Vue)