The news that Kent SLYDE Kings’ supporters have been waiting for has been confirmed on a very big day for the club’s major discovery since Speedway opened at Central Park, Danny Ayres.

For on the same day that the Newmarket-based fans’ favourite Ayres was confirmed as a definite starter in the Sittingbourne-based Speedway club’s team for a third season, the National League Riders Championship runner-up signed his first Premier League [PL] contract also – a deal which sees the 29 year old doubling up in the PL for the ambitious club,  Glasgow Tigers.

Len Silver, co-promoter of the SLYDE-backed Kings announced,

“The management have agreed for Danny to join Glasgow Tigers as their new number 7 under the Premier League’s new mini-fast track scheme.  This is the new ruling regarding team composition in the PL agreed at last month’s British Speedway Promoters Association’s [BSPA] conference, whereby each club in the sport’s second tier have to have at reserve a British-born National League rider.  I could not be more pleased – Danny’s involvement with such a forward looking club as Glasgow can only help him move ahead in his career and that ultimately means better scoring for the Kings, so it is a win-win situation”
Legendary tune-smiths from north of the border, The Proclaimers might have boasted of going ‘500 Miles’ -but that’s small beer for Ayres, who will now be undertaking a 700 miles round trip for home PL meetings from his Cambridgeshire base! . The capital city slickers from Ashfield though, have certainly shown their commitment to the in-form Ayres, because part of the deal is the provision of transport with driver facilities.
Glasgow Tigers Team Manager Stewart Dickson commented,
“I think Danny is going to surprise a few people and I believe we’ve got ourselves a very good three-point British rider. Obviously the PL is a step up in class for him but it’s no coincidence that he was getting guest booking after guest booking at the tail end of the season in the City Gearboxes National League [CGNL] – and scoring double figures in almost every meeting.  He had several other clubs in for him and that’s not an exaggeration. But Danny’s been true to his word, because I was the first one to approach him”

Ayres certainly finished the CGNL season as the man most in demand and was in sizzling form as Danny recounts,

“I started getting a number of guest bookings during the CGNL season and then but after I won the Pairs and came second in the National League Riders, the ‘phone just didn’t stop ringing!  I rode for Cradley, Birmingham, Mildenhall, Coventry in the EL and for Somerset – including an away match at Glasgow, which was the first time I’d ridden at Ashfield. , it was a lot of work but I don’t like to turn anyone down – all I want to do when I get on my bike is give it 200%.”

It certainly was such a rich vein of form in the latter weeks of the 2015 campaign that Ayres became, as the Speedway season entered hibernation from the turning of November, the most coveted rider in terms both of the CGNL and also by PL clubs looking to fulfil the new obligations regarding British riders.

Danny said, “I have put a lot of pressure on myself and I do believe I can make it in this sport.  In my head perhaps I’d hoped I’d be where I am now a year ago, but putting it all together and achieving it with all the challenges has been amazing.  I am very proud but I put so much on myself I’d be disappointed in a way if I didn’t achieve what I have. I was a bit frustrated when the season finished because everything was really going so well.”
With many CGNL clubs having Ayres top of their wish list, it’s fantastic news for the SLYDE-backed Kings that Ayres will be back in the iconic Invicta race jacket again in 2016,

“Kent Speedway club is obviously my first love in Speedway.  It’s where I began my career so soon after first riding a bike at a Ride and Slide Day and all that I’ve achieved in these two short years has been as a Kings rider.  I’m delighted to be back again in 2016 performing in front of the best bunch of supporters one could ever hope for”.
And the winter won’t be a quiet time for Ayres, with some practice at making the long journey up north also on the cards,

“I’m looking forward to the winter because I know it gives me the opportunity to put in a lot of practice and develop my style while I’m not in race mode.  I’ll also have time to look after my bikes and put into practice some of things I’ve learned during the year. All that hopefully will make me a better rider when I come back in 2016.”

His new PL club are able to assist with this as Stewart Dickson explains, “I know Danny can’t wait to get started. He’s going to come up and practice whenever the track’s available and get some much-needed lap time in. He’s really excited by it.

Kent co-promoter Len Silver sought to reassure SLYDE Kings’ fans that Ayres’ additional commitments will not affect his ability to turn out for the Central Park-based club,
“Great care will be taken when putting our fixture list together to avoid clashes between the clubs and Glasgow have promised to do all they can to minimise interruption to Kent’s schedule, which begins on Good Friday with home and away dates with Eastbourne”.

And Ayres has already caused something of a frenzy among female fans north of the border with a national newspaper (the Daily Record) hailing the 29-year-old as the sexiest hunk riding in British Speedway!!  And this is all before our Danny has even invested in a kilt!

Picture supplied by Ian Bush