|
News Archive
January 2008
ANOTHER TITLE FOR HOLDER
Former Isle of Wight star Chris Holder
powered his way to another title when taking victory in
Sunday's Australian Under-21 Final.
Holder took the chequered flag in the Grand Final ahead of
Tyron Proctor and Glasgow's Robert Ksiezak.
Swindon's Troy Batchelor won a run-off against Edinburgh
recruit Aaron Summers for the last qualifying place in the
final. However, having got to the showdown race, he fell and
was excluded.
Run-Off: Batchelor, Summers
Final: (Re-Run) Holder, Tyron Proctor, Ksiezak (ret),
Batchelor (f, ex)
 BOOKINGS
BEING TAKEN FOR TRIP TO READING...
The new look Wightlink Islanders
open their 2008 season with home and away challenge matches
against the Reading Racers over the Easter weekend, the home
leg taking place at Smallbrook on Saturday March 22nd and
the return encounter being staged at the Berkshire circuit
the following evening.
Fans who wish to avail themselves of the subsidised travel
to the away match, courtesy of the generosity of both
Wightlink and Chalfont Coaches Ltd, should book their places
by phoning the stadium (01983 811180) during normal office
hours as soon as possible as places will be on a 'first
come, first served' basis. The total cost per person will be
a mere £4 and travel to and from the mainland from the
island will be via Wightlink's FastCat service with the
coach to Reading starting from Portsmouth.
"These will be two cracking matches to get our new season
underway", said co-promoter Dave Pavitt, "and we are very
grateful to both Wightlink and Chalfont Coaches who have
enabled us to offer our fans such a good deal so they can go
and support the team in their first away match.
"Similarly Reading fans will be coming to Smallbrook in
their droves for the first match so we're really looking
forward to both matches."
OPENING FIXTURE NEWS...
The opening two matches for the 2008
Wightlink Islanders will see them take on the Reading Racers
in home and away challenge matches in the space of 24 hours.
The first leg takes place at Smallbrook on Saturday 22nd
March and we then race the return fixture 24-hours later on
the Sunday evening at Smallmead. Chalfont Coaches have
kindly agreed to sponsor both meetings, which will see them
laying on subsidised coach travel for the respective sets of
supporters to travel to the away meeting.
PRESS
& PRACTICE DAY - DATE SET...
The date for our official 2008
Press & Practice Day has now been set. It will take place at
Smallbrook on Saturday
March 15th commencing at 1p.m. -
make a note of the date in your diaries NOW!
 "NODDY"
COMPLETES SUPERB CLEAN SWEEP...
Wightlink Islanders No.1 for the last two
seasons, Chris "Noddy" Holder, completed a quite brilliant
clean sweep in romping to victory in the fifth and final
round of the Australian Championship at the Sydney
Showground earlier today, thus being crowned Australian
Champion for the first time.
His victory completed a staggering five wins out of five in
the championship series with him having romped to success in
the previous four rounds staged at Gillman, Mildura, Mount
Gambier and Newcastle - a truly remarkable achievement.
In today's final, featuring the top four scorers from the 20
heats, he had to come through from the back to pass Troy
Batchelor, who'll be riding for Swindon in this year's Elite
League, to take the victory and thus make it five wins out
of five. And, having now taken victory in the senior title
race, he'll be keen to retain his Australian Under 21 title
at Mildura later this month.
Speaking of Chris's title success, Wightlink Islanders
co-promoter Dave Pavitt said, "By any stretch of the
imagination, to win all five rounds of the championship is a
truly remarkable achievement but Chris is a truly remarkable
rider and we're proud to have had him in our side for the
last two years and to have assisted in his development.
"As we've said before, he moves onto ride for the Poole
Pirates in this year's Elite League with our very best
wishes and I've a feeling that he'll take that league by
storm in 2008 and I would also go as far as saying that
he'll be crowned World Champion at some stage in the
future."
There'll still be a Holder racing at Smallbrook in 2008 of
course, Chris's brother James who will be making his debut
in UK league racing, starting the season in one of the two
reserve berths for the Wightlink Islanders. He was
originally named as one of the four reserves for the Aussie
series that has just ended and was drafted into today's
meeting in Sydney as a replacement for the injured Travis
McGowan showing up well too by finishing ninth in the
meeting. And that too left Pavitt feeling happy.
"It's not going to be easy following his brother onto the
island," he said, "but I'm confident that he'll show up well
for us in the season ahead, particularly riding in one of
the two reserve berths rather than the top five in our
team."
Further down the field today, in 12th spot in fact, was his
2008 team mate on the Island Cory Gathercole who suffered
mechanical problems during the course of the meeting but
Island fans saw enough of the 21 year old from Irymple in
Victoria last season to know that he too should do well in
2008.
FINAL SERIES POINTS STANDINGS AFTER TODAY'S FIFTH ROUND IN
SYDNEY: Chris Holder 100, Troy Batchelor 86, Joe Screen 78,
Fredrik Lindgren 77, Cameron Woodward 77, Jason Doyle 73,
Filip Sitera 57, Robert Ksiezak 48, Cory Gathercole
44, Tom Hedley 37, Aaron Summers 36, Josh
Grajczonek 32, Travis McGowan 29, Trevor Harding 28, Tyron
Proctor 27, Lee Herne 26, James Holder 20,
Richard Sweetman 10
 A
BRAND NEW YEAR AND A GOOD START FOR TWO WIGHTLINK ISLANDERS…
Yes it's the
start of a brand new year and we're all eagerly looking
forward to the start of the 2008 speedway season for the
Wightlink Islanders in the Spring.
Once again the Islanders will be competing in the nation
wide professional British Premier Speedway League, meeting
opponents from as far a field as Edinburgh and Glasgow in
Scotland, Newport in Wales and English sides from Newcastle
in the North East to Somerset in the West.
And they'll be doing so in one of the toughest and most
exciting motorised team sports in the world with opposing
riders from each team racing against each other on 500cc
highly-tuned motorcycles with NO brakes around a loose shale
oval track in each and every race at breakneck speeds!
Two of the Wightlink Islanders new-look squad for the
forthcoming season, popular Polish rider Krzysztof
Stojanowski and winter signing Paul Fry have already taken
the opportunity of shaking off the winter cobwebs as it were
as both competed in the annual "New Year Classic" meeting on
Sunday at Newport where they finished joint fifth, both
scoring eight points from their five rides.
And that pleased Wightlink Islanders co-promoter Dave Pavitt
immensely and he commented," Whilst little should be read
into what is basically a one off meeting, I was more than
satisfied with the way both Paul and 'Stoj' rode and saw
enough from them to indicate that both should do well in the
season ahead.
"As I've said previously, we feel that we have put together
a very exciting team indeed again this year especially as
we've had to overcome the loss of both Chris Holder (now
with Poole in the Elite League) and Chris Johnson (sadly
ruled out by injury)."
With other 2008 team members Cory Gathercole and James
Holder currently competing in the Australian National
Championships and both skipper Jason Bunyan and Andrew Bargh
riding in New Zealand, the side are already building up
their fitness levels as the build up to the new British
season continues.
Gathercole and Holder are in action twice this week riding
in the last two rounds at Newcastle (NSW) on Wednesday and
the Sydney Showground on Saturday.
News of both Bargh and Bunyan's exploits in New Zealand this
winter has been somewhat sparse to say the least but the
former, being a native Kiwi, is fully expected to line up in
his country's National title meeting at Oreti Park on South
Island on 23rd February before returning to the UK to link
up with us again.
|
|
