Speedway News

With only a month to go before the Carlos Villar Benefit meeting is set to explode upon the Berwick sporting scene, his fund continues to grow at a steady rate, once again through the close season.

Following Rob Finlow's horrific injury at Newport last October whilst riding for Somerset Rebels, a group of the Rebels fans have rallied round with a collection for Rob and presented him with a laptop computer.

The Reading Euphony Racers promotion have named two more riders in their quest for Premier League honours in 2004. Completing the top five sees Andrew Appleton returning for his third season with the Berkshire club.

Wimbledon team captain Chris Hunt is to leave Plough Lane and will be racing for Conference League rivals Carmarthen in 2004, after being squeezed out of the GMB Dons line up by a mere 0.008 of a point.

Arena-Essex Speedway rider Paul Hurry is likely to miss the opening matches for the A F Stocktaking Hammers in the Sky Sports Elite League due to his arm injury requiring further surgery.

Wimbledon have secured the prized signature of promising Matthew Wright, on loan to the GMB Dons from parent club Ipswich. GMB Dons Team Manager Dingle Brown arranged the transfer from his holiday retreat in Tenerife, which leaves only three slots to be filled for the ambitious Londoners.

Two of Australia's best young speedway protagonists will set aside their regular fellowship when they go head-to-head in this Saturday's Australian Under 21 Solo Speedway Championship at Undera Park Speedway, near Shepparton (Vic), on January 31.

Arena-Essex Speedway today followed up on their announcement on Monday of the signing of Grzegorz Walasek with news of another signing for the 2004 season. This time they have named the rider who will represent the Club as their No.8.

Cornish based riders Jason Prynne and Wayne Barrett are among the first riders to join the new Plymouth Conference League speedway side. They have been joined by David Mason, the former skipper of Premier League Rye House, and Australian Corey Blackman, who rode for Exeter last season.

Berwick Bandits side took a huge step to completion with the announcement this week that popular Dane Claus Kristensen is to return to the Border outfit.

International Championship Events/ICE presented round three of the 28th Annual World Championship ICE Racing Series last Thursday night to a packed Budweiser Events Center in Loveland, CO.

Reading have announced their fifth signing of the winter for their 2004 team, as the Euphony Racers have signed up Chris Mills on loan from Oxford to fill one of the reserve berths.

The latest signing for the Weymouth Wildcats Speedway team by his own admission expects to make big strides in the sport by achieving an eight or nine point average in this years Conference League.

Wimbledon GMB Dons have pulled off a stunning coup with the sensational capture of reigning Conference Riders Champion Barrie Evans for the forthcoming season at Plough Lane.

Despite the Christmas break, the money has continued to roll into the Carlos Villar Support Fund for the paralysed Berwick Bandit's speedway rider with the announcement at the latest committee meeting on Wednesday night that the current total is ?15,411.54.

Attempts to bring speedway back to Norwich were dashed earlier this week - an outcome that has left Norwich proposed chairman Steven Ribbons rather annoyed and threatening legal action. He issued the following statement.

The national speedway season continues its relentless charge through January when the 2004 Australian under 16 solo championship is held at Olympic Park Speedway in Mildura (Vic) from this Thursday until Sunday (15 18).

Chris Schramm has been granted his wish with the news that the 19-year-old will be returning to Smallmead to ride for the Reading Racers for the 2004 season on loan from Peterborough Panthers.

With the Weymouth Wildcats successful application to join the 2004 Conference League being accepted by the BSPA yesterday, Club Chairman Brian White has wasted no time in making his first signing.

Speedway result for Sunday 14 December. Brighton Bonanza, Brighton: Team Pairs Championship Bobby Schwartz and Shawn McConnell Bonanza VII Individual Championship

The weekend has seen a surge of transfer and signings activity as both Elite and Premier League promoters jockey for position and compete to complete their teams for the 2004 season.

Weymouth chairman Brian White has been pleased to see octogenarian Lew Coffin attending the reformed club's weekly training schools.

With the usual winter re-shuffling now rife in British Speedway, the behind the scenes structure at Berwick Speedway are also being tweaked and altered for the betterment of the club commercially and in terms of publicity on the world wide web.

Justin Elkins has been crowned Dorset Echo Weymouth Wildcats Rider of the Year 2003. The flying skipper took the prestigious award after roaring to victory in the paper's readers' poll which saw fans voting in their hundreds by post and e-mail.