The Kent CTA Fire Kings will be back in action this weekend as they take on the Devon Demons in British Speedway’s opening fixture of the 2014 season.
Plymouth is the destination for the Kings as they get back on the dirt track on Saturday 15th March and they will be looking to hit the ground running.
Quick off the mark is always a vital prerequisite in the dirt track motorcycling sport and never has that expression rang more true than for the county’s only league side as they travel way out west to take on the Devonians in the preliminary round of this season’s National League Knock-out Cup. 
Aiming for a first-ever victory in the Cup and a first-ever win on the road to boot, the Kings will be hoping to rule on the compact 216 metre circuit at the St Boniface Arena located just outside the famous naval city.
And they’ll no time for contemplating navels in this first leg of a tie both sides will be very keen to win – with the reward a quarter final against the Stoke Potters.
For the Central Park, Sittingbourne based CTA Fire Kings it will be a first outing in the red and white for new skipper, Simon Lambert.
The three-time League Pairs champ and victor last year in the Kent Laurels has been busy regaining fitness after his 2013 campaign with Rye House ended prematurely through injury – including hiring the Scunthorpe track last week to ensure he got in lap after lap of practice to prepare himself for the many challenges the Boston-born racer faces in 2014.
Lambert’s charges will find themselves up against a very solid looking Devon Demons outfit – the club making its debut in the National League this term. They’re led by former Mildenhall rider, Matt Bates who is one of three native Devonians in the side. Joining Exeter-based Bates are Cullompton-born Danny Stoneman and Richard Andrews who hails from Tiverton.
Bates and Stoneman will be well known to the Kent side’s own reserve debutants with Bates a team-mate of the Kings’ Daniel Blake when they were part of the seven who claimed the National Trophy when based at St. Boniface for the Plymouth Devils in 2009; while Kent’s former GB Youth champ and great hope for 2014, Brandon Freemantle lined up alongside Stoneman for the now defunct Isle of Wight in 2013.
22-year-old Andrews meanwhile has a Kent link from his early days riding at the Iwade track where he first made an impact wining the New Year Trophy at the very end of 2008.
Completing a very authentic West Country looking septet for the homesters are the very experienced Lee Smart from Swindon – like Kent Kings’ own Benji Compton, a one-time League Riders Individual Champion at this level; Cornwall-based Tim Webster who had partnered the Kings’ skipper Lambert to one of Simon’s three National Pairs title when the two of them turned out for the Stoke Potters in 2011; the very talented Ben Reade, also a Stoke Potter of that vintage; and multi-grasstrack champion who made a huge impact in his rookie campaign last year for Coventry Storm, Dorset-born James Shanes.
Joining Lambert and the two reserves as Kings’ debutants on the evening (tapes up at 7.15pm) is a rider who’s hooked up with the Central Park outfit direct from Stoke, Luke Chessell; whilst joining Compton as very welcome returnees from last year’s first-ever campaign, Ben Morley and another former League Riders Champ, David Mason.
Pictures supplied by Ian Charles