Kent Iwade Garage Royals look to get their National League [NL] title challenge back on track on Tuesday (5/10), knowing that from now on nothing but wins will do to keep their hopes alive.
And in a trace of irony the side they take on at Central Park is the team that denied Kent the NL championship last year, Play Off winners back last October Leicester Lion Cubs.
Last week’s home defeat in the rain against current league leaders Berwick Bullets is a fixture almost all in the Royals’ camp would prefer is not to be mentioned ever again – all that is except for teenager Vinnie Foord, who won his first ever ride around Central Park on his home debut, followed it up with a paid win in his second ride and was leading comfortably in his third before the huge misfortune of a seized engine.
The 15 year old’s impressive start to life in the NL for the Royals sees him quickly elevated out of the reserve berth when the averages were reassessed as we turned into October and Foord will now be motoring from the no. 2 race jacket, with Jacob Clouting (who was the other ‘victim’ of that seized engine in last Tuesday’s fateful heat eight, crashing out on the meeting then also) moving down to reserve.
Clouting’s fellow reserve Josh Warren is fit to return after serving the mandatory period out after suffering concussion in this fixture up at Leicester the Saturday before last.
For the defending champions (who are certain now to relinquish their crown of course) there are just two survivors from the side which won on both Leicester’s visits to Kent in NL action in 2019: the twin brothers, Dan and Joe Thompson. Dan was last year’s GB Youth Champion and this year went within a hair’s breadth of emulating that achievement in the next age range up when he finished runner up in the national U19s. The two riders double with the senior Lions side (who are looking good candidates to reach the Play Off in the SGB Championship) and so were at Central Park just a fortnight ago.
The third heat leader berth for the visitors will be covered by Rider Replacement as Joe Lawlor has joined a group of riders this term who’ve called time (maybe just for this year, maybe permanently..) on their league racing careers. The other rider with experience of Central Park is Tom Spencer - who spent the 2019 season with Cradley Heathens where he gained an average fractionally under four points a meeting and having moved from West to East Midlands has seen that average rise to over the six points mark.
The other three riders in their side are newcomers to the NL this term: Ben Trigger (who’s succeeded Dan Thompson as %00cc GB Youth champion), Mickie Simpson and Kai Ward.
The action gets underway at 6.30pm on Tuesday 5th. October – gates open at 5pm.