Wightlink Warriors Speedway Club

It's Meeting No6 and............our last RACEDAY
Your last chance to enjoy the Smallbrook experience and a massive Thank You to all those who have supported us to this point

📍Smallbrook Stadium PO334BH
📆 TODAY
🟡Gates open 5.30pm
Live rider briefing // Junior races
🔵Main Event Warriors v Kent + GT140 Invitational 7.00pm
FREE PARKING
FREE KIDS U16
ADULTS £15
CONCESSION £12
Wightlink in the Community Wightlink Isle of Wight Ferries

The Warriors have been rocked by the news that our No 1 rider Darryl Ritchings will be unable to take his place in our final meeting of the season due to an injury picked up in a grass track meeting at the weekend. With the Warriors already running Rider Replacement, a frantic search has been going on to find a rider to fill his place but with no luck so far. If there are any riders of NORA standard that we may have missed in our search and who can ride tonight, please contact us asap.

Our season finale on Tuesday 1 September so get those messages in ready for broadcast at the meeting.
Wightlink Isle of Wight Ferries Wightlink in the Community

Meeting Preview: NORA Challenge – Warriors v Kent Eagles

After the excitement of last week’s Individual Championship, it’s back to team racing on Tuesday (1 September) as the Warriors stage their final track action of their very successful 30th anniversary season.

Kent Eagles will be the visitors, a fellow NORA club, and they come with a very strong sextet that will take some holding. They have, of course, already tasted success at Smallbrook Stadium in the Island Pairs and that winning duo of Ben Morley and Jack Kingston return alongside evergreen Eddie Kennett to provide a power-packed spearhead. Backing them up will be former Warrior Connor King and Island regular Nathan Hargrave with ultra keen Alex Chadd given another chance to impress.

Taking the challenge to the Eagles will be Warriors newly crowned NORA British Individual Champion Darryl Ritchings, third placed Arran Butcher and in the absence of concussion victim Charlie Southwick the home side have recruited last week’s runner-up James Shanes as cover. Positions 2 and 6 will be filled by club captain Danno Verge and James Laker respectively whilst Rider Replacement will be in operation at number 4 due to Mickie Simpson’s unavailability.

Promoter Martin Widman was clearly looking forward to the meeting as he said, “What a way to end our anniversary season. The Kent meeting looks to be a humdinger and one not to be missed.

When you think back to May and the possibility of no speedway it would have been hard to imagine the six weeks of racing that we’ve just had. The support through the turnstiles has been excellent, our sponsors have been brilliant, the riders have given us everything and our newly created band of volunteers have gone above and beyond every week.

And now as we bring the curtain down on 2026 we must plan for the future, not only in speedway terms, but on how we develop the stadium and its facilities and activities.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed in so many ways. Let’s go out with a bang and a Warriors win”.

Expected line-ups:

Warriors: Darryl Ritchings, Danno Verge, Arran Butcher, James Laker, Rider Replacement, James Shanes.

Eagles: Eddie Kennett, Nathan Hargrave, Jack Kingston, Alex Chadd, Ben Morley, Connor King.

Supporting the main event will be the return of the grass track GT140 racers with five heats of their harum-scarum antics featuring 8 rider races.

The stadium gates open to the public at 17.30 hours with admission by cash or card. It’s free entry for accompanied youngsters 16 and under. There’s grandstand seating and ample on-site catering looking after all tastes with The Premier Lounge open for balcony viewing in comfortable surroundings.

As always, special thanks to Wightlink Isle of Wight Ferries for their help bringing riders and staff across the Solent.

Image courtesy of Sportography / Ian Groves shows James Shanes (yellow helmet) edging ahead of Jack Kingston (blue) and James Laker (white) in last week’s Individual Championship.

Nora 500cc Championship beyond the spotlight
Thank You again Ian Groves over at Sportographyfor capturing the magic

Revised Line-Ups

Wightlink in the Community

Thank You to The best of the Isle of Wight for visiting during our meeting last night and the great description of our event. Hopefully you'll visit again some time and Thank You to Lee Betts for mentioning us to them

Meeting Report – 2026 NORA British Individual Championship

RITCHINGS TAKES BRITISH TITLE

Isle of Wight speedway star Darryl Ritchings lifted the NORA British speedway crown after a pulsating evening of racing at the Smallbrook stadium on Tuesday writes Ken Burnett.

With the twelve-man field reduced to nine after a weekend of spills causing withdrawals due to injury the format was changed to three riders in each qualification race with each rider taking four outings.

The change made very little difference to the racing as the Handlebar Heroes gave it their all.

Kent’s Jack Kingston set the pace with an outstanding pass on Cradley’s Charlie Wood in heat one, before Ritchings stormed to victory in the second.

Hot favourite James Shanes won his opener by a street in heat three, before Ritchings had to work hard to hold off the exciting Kingston in the fourth.

Heat five, saw Wood take a hefty tumble on turn two trying an early outside swoop on Arran Butcher, the referee’s decision to disqualify the Cradley man not being received well as he returned on foot to the pits. Butcher made no mistake in the rerun to take the win.

Shanes then produced a perfect pass on Alex Spooner and then held off the hard charging Kingston in heat seven to book his semi-final spot.

Warriors captain Danno Verge gave the home crowd plenty to cheer, when he won heat 8 from pillar to post and in the next heat Ritchings came from last to first to book his spot in the semi-final with a magical pass of Butcher before Butcher joined him by winning the tenth.

The penultimate qualifying race pitched the two unbeaten riders, Ritchings and Shanes together to decide top gate picks and it was the Warriors number 1 who emphatically took the spoils in the fastest time of the night.

Spooner took the last qualifying race to book his progression leading Verge all the way.

In the first semi-final it was Butcher who sped from the start followed by Ritchings, they chased and passed each other twice in a super race, before Ritchings dived through to take first place, with Verge missing out.

The second semi-final saw Shanes race away to victory, but all the real action was behind him with Kingston and Spooner going neck and neck before Kent man Kingston, swooped past for second to take the last place in the Grand Final.

And what a Final it turned out to be with four terrific laps of racing with places swopping on every lap. Kingston went from first to last, Butcher first to third. Shanes fourth to second and the eventual winner Ritchings third to first in superb style for the win. The image courtesy of Sportography / Ian Groves shows the riders in the Grand Final bursting from the start with Jack Kingston in the red helmet, James Shanes in blue, Arran Butcher in white and Darryl Ritchings in yellow.

It was a fitting finale to end a fabulous evening of action in which every rider will look back on at least one highlight, and the super-sized, appreciative crowd can marvel at the sheer bravery and speed of the riders.


Qualifying Scores. Ritchings 12, Shanes 11, Butcher 10, Kingston 9, Spooner 7, Verge 7, Laker 5, Wood 5, Rogers 4.

Semi Final 1. Ritchings, Butcher, Verge, Laker.

Semi Final 2. Shanes, Kingston, Spooner, Wood.

Final. Ritchings, Shanes, Butcher, Kingston.

In the junior final that supported the main event, it was Archie Strong from Bicester who was victorious on his Smallbrook debut with four straight wins, but a special mention to Vinny Smith and Liam Laker who slugged out an exciting run off for second place that eventually went Smith’s way.

Promoter Martin Widman said after the meeting, “After all the problems with rider injuries, and last-minute rider unavailability, those riders that did take part put on a great show in front of another bumper crowd. There was some superb racing and even the riders in the Junior Championship played their part in what was a fantastic night of speedway”.

Next week (Tuesday 1 September), it's the final meeting of the season when the Warriors take on the powerful Kent Eagles. Tapes up 7pm.

As always, it’s thanks to Wightlink Isle of Wight Ferries for transporting the riders and staff across the Solent.

Our race night MC Rob Dyer has asked that we apologise to Lucie,Dawn & Richard whose shout out was overlooked last night. Amongst the many messages received was one for Leigh, Felix and Rocco welcoming them to Smallbrook Stadium and wishing them a fun holiday. Sorry guys, we let you down and that’s not the Warrior way. Hope it did not detract too much from your evening and that you can visit us again in the future.