The new look Kent TouchTec Kings’ Speedway team is spreading its talents far and wide these days with new signing Cameron Heeps attracting a whole heap of attention back in his native Australia racing in their season whilst waiting for the new campaign to begin here in Blighty.  

Hailing from Western Australia himself, the 24 year old is back on home soil and in the winning groove in 2020 already –  beating a star field  in the Jeff Gittus Memorial event. 

In the field headed by Heeps was the 2019 GB Under 19 champion Drew Kemp – the ex-Kings’ man on a racing tour of the sport’s birth-place.  The action took place at the newly refurbished Pinjar Park in Heeps’ home city of Perth and a venue where the seven times Western Australian Youth champ and three times winner of the senior State title first honed his racing skills.

And Heeps hasn’t just been wowing his home town crowd on two wheels either, as local Speedway journalist Graeme Sinden updates us back here, Heeps was at the Perth Motoplex this last weekend and behind the wheel of a midget car,”Cam raced a limited sprintcar at the Perth Motoplex venue last Saturday evening showing the depth of talent he has when it comes to racing on the dirt.   I recorded Cam in one of his heats at 159 kph which is not too shabby at all.”

In Australia where the sport of motorcycle dirt track racing dubbed Speedway began in the 1920s, there are often three types of events in a meeting: Solos (which is normal Speedway to us in the UK), Sidecars and Midget Car racing. 

The four-wheeled version of the sport has never taken any kind of substantial foothold here in the UK but is massive Down Under and Heeps showed his proficiency in a rare outing as Sinden went on,”It doesn’t necessarily mean because you are brilliant at racing Speedway solos on dirt that you can quickly adapt to high horsepower sprintcars and do well in this discipline but Heeps was enjoying himself and was certainly well on the pace and very smooth all night long during changing and challenging track conditions.”

The rider who will be sharing racing duties back in the British leagues in 2020 between Championship side Kent TouchTec Kings and the Premiership side Ipswich Witches will return to what he does best next weekend when he rides for Australia in the first two Test Matches in a series with the touring Brits sponsored by the Bennco Group. 

The opening pair of Tests are at the Pinjar Park complex, with Heeps lining up alongside two former national champions Sam Masters and Rohan Tungate taking on the GB touring side led by three-times World Champion Tai Woffinden, alongside Kemp and a rider the Kings’ will be facing in 2020 Dan Bewley plus the familiar faces from National League racing of Jason Edwards, Leon Flint & Jack Smith.

There are two circuits at Pinjar Park with the international friendlies on the smaller and larger circuits on the two days of the weekend.

Talking of Ipswich, there’s certainly a big connection between Kent and the club from Suffolk this coming season with not just Heeps doubling up with the Witches but also other new signing for the TouchTec Kings, Nico Covatti. 

Then of course there’s a further connection with new Kent skipper, the seven-times British champion Scott Nicholls who hails from the Suffolk town originally and began his racing career at the famous Foxhall Heath circuit; and Kings’ own discovery, Danny Ayres has also now been announced in the Witches’ Premiership side for 2020.

As Kent co-promoter Len Silver commented,”Ipswich and Kent certainly will have a lot in common for the coming season. Heeps and Covatti in both sides and Danny Ayres, a Kent asset for the Witches.  And not forgetting of course that in my racing career I was myself an Ipswich Witches rider from 1952 through to 1960!  Hope it’s a good omen for both clubs!”