Another bumper crowd is expected at Central Park, Sittingbourne on May Day Bank Holiday Monday as the Kent CTA Fire Kings get their home National Speedway League campaign underway with the visit of 2012 champions, the Mildenhall Fen Tigers.

Following on from an impressive showing on Easter Monday to see off Mildenhall’s own local rivals, King’s Lynn, the Kings know they will need be firing on all cylinders as they bring a very busy holiday weekend to a close (the side visit Coventry on Friday and then are up in the Potteries taking on Stoke on the Saturday) by hosting one of the top sides in the division.

With the Suffolk side twice winners on their previous visits to Central Park last season, it is very much a case of the Kent club harbouring thoughts of revenge for those defeats – including a particularly smarting party pooping win by Mildenhall at Kent on Whitsun Bank Holiday last year.

The Fen Tigers have again assembled an impressive line-up, bolstered by the major influence they carry in attracting riders due in no small part to the management trio they have of former Speedway World Championship runner up and Team GB star of many years standing, Chris Louis and fellow one-time GB internationals, Kevin Jolly and Robert Henry.

Returning to their ranks after a year spent away from his home county club is that veritable cracker of a young rider, Joe Jacobs. He rejoins the experienced Dan Halsey, now a permanent fixture in the Fenlands after honing his skills from schoolboys’ days onwards under the tutelage of Kent Kings’ own management duo of Len Silver and John Sampford at Rye House.

If it’s a reunion for Halsey with his former mentors, it’s a reunion of far greater significance for Jack Kingston and Connor Coles.  The hugely popular duo of young speedsters were of course Kent Kings themselves last term but this year have moved onto hook up with Mildenhall and will be warmly welcomed back.

Kingston, from Dagenham, will be seeking to apply a dagger through the hearts of his former employers, whilst Coles has much to prove after often struggling around the Central Park circuit when in the red Invicta race jacket.

For the other Connor in the visitors’ ranks the experience of racing at the Kent track will be a completely new one, Connor Mountain only this year having reached his first summit of appearing in the National League; whereas former GB Under 18s champion, Brendan Johnson was a pretty regular visitor last term when he moved clubs mid-season.

The Fen Tigers side are completed by Josh Bates who shocked the Speedway world a fortnight ago by claiming the GB under 21 title. Bates recoded a double-figures score in Mildenhall’s NL win at Central Park last year and as a rider in form is a real danger man to look out for on Monday.

But talking of men of the moment they come any more significant than the CTA Fire Kings’ Ben Morley, who make history last Friday by being the first National League graduate under the Fast Track draft scheme to score a paid maximum in the Elite League.  Riding for his EL side the Lakeside Hammers, the hugely popular Morley was unbeaten by an opponent as he recorded a paid 12 score against the Swindon Robins.

The promoter at the Essex club who top the EL rankings thanks in part to home county star Morley’s efforts in recent matches, Jon Cook commented,

“Ben’s performance was very special. He is a cult hero at the Arena Essex Raceway and his second ride battle with young Australian international Dakota North was a real highlight.”

With Morley in such dazzling form, skipper Simon Lambert off to a brilliant start to his own NL season (hoping he has the Bronze Helmet to defend still after the two away matches which preceded Monday’s meeting) and David Mason up against his former side it promises to be an action-packed affair.

Gates open at 1.30pm with tapes up at 3pm.

Picture supplied by http://www.psp-images.co.uk/