Former Workington rider Charles Wright is chasing a record that has stood for over 20 years this afternoon – and involves a Comets legend.
The Championship League Riders’ title has not been successfully defended since Carl Stonehewer won in 2001 at Coventry, following up his triumph at Sheffield a year earlier – the only time in history that the feat has been achieved.
Wright, who guested for Workington yesterday at Northside, insists he won’t put any pressure on himself to achieve back-to-back Championship glory even though it’s being raced on his own Redcar track.
The Bears number one goes into today’s big event at the ECCO Arena as one of the main favourites to take the crown.
All of the other riders who made the Final last season along with Wright – Chris Harris, Ben Cook and Danny King – feature once again at the Teesside venue.
Wright said: “It was a great result for myself last year. Obviously, it’s at my home track so I’ll go into the meeting aiming to make the semis and not putting too much pressure on myself – from there, I’ll see what I can do.
“We all know it’s all the top riders in the Championship so it’s going to be a tough meeting, but I’ll just take things one race at a time.”
Sam Masters will be another star on show having won the title in 2011 and 2022 with wins at Sheffield and Poole respectively.
Workington should have been represented by Craig Cook but a shoulder injury has ruled him out so the rising Finnish star Antti Vuolas will be the Comets representative.
Troy Batchelor should also have been involved but he has been a late withdrawal and is replaced by Ashton Boughen.
LINE-UP: Richard Lawson, Michael Palm Toft, Chris Harris, Jason Edwards, Ashton Boughen, Charles Wright, Tom Brennan, Danny King, Leon Flint, Josh Pickering, Drew Kemp, Dan Thompson, Antti Vuolas, Sam Masters, Simon Lambert, Ben Cook.
