A season remembered and celebrated will be the theme, along with good company, dancing, drink and food (in other words the perfect ingredients for a festive gathering!) when Kent SLYDE Kings Speedway club supporters and riders meet up for their annual End of Season social event at Central Park on Friday 20th. November.

With all the 2015 season’s riders who appeared for the Sittingbourne-based club attending, it will be a time for the supporters to acknowledge their input into a memorable year on track- one which ended with silverware aplenty in the form of the National Pairs title and an precedent one-two in the individual Riders Championship for the Kent duo of Ben Morley & Danny Ayres.

And a very special part of the event on the 20th. will see the race jackets worn by Ben & Danny auctioned.
As Team manager Chris Hunt explained these are two truly historic race jackets,

“We had special one off race jackets made up for Ben & Danny when they represented the club up at King’s Lynn in September in the National League Pairs: wearing numbers 19 & 20 in the meeting. Then having taken the title that night in such superb fashion, I adapted these self same two jackets for the lads to wear at the National League Riders Championship at Rye House a few weeks later. And it proved to be a very lucky omen indeed, as the two Kent boys swept the board again. This is a once in a lifetime chance to own race jackets worn in these two amazing triumphs and we expect the biding to be busy and competitive!”

For those who want to relive the action live on DVD in their own homes over the winter, Kent Speedway’s Media Partners, Rerun Productions will be there selling their 2015 Season Review DVD package for a special event-only discounted price of £15 for the two disk 150 minutes long bumper souvenir.

They’ll be a raffle, buffet, fully-stocked bar and a disco with dancing ‘til late for revellers- all proceeds from the night go to the riders. The event starts at 7pm and admission (available in advance via the Kent Speedway Supporters Facebook page for details) or on the door is £10 for adults and £5 for children.

The event will also see the presentation of the inaugural ‘Supporters of Kent Kings (SOKK)’ Rider of the Year Awards. This breaks new ground in being a truly interactive award with supporters from the recently established Facebook-based grouping donating towards voting for their favourite stars.

As Bill Roissetter from SOKK explains,

“Shortly after our Facebook group was set up in July this year, we moved towards discussing ways we could best show our appreciation and support for the Kent SLYDE Kings riders, with most people favouring a ‘rider of the year’ style award. All of this was great for us because our ambition was to be more than just a speedway chat room. It was encouraging to see SOKK members sharing that goal and wanting to be more than just spectators. Not everyone can afford to sponsor a heat or a rider, but through the SOKK award they have the opportunity to show their support in a material way.

“The fund raising started at the end of August. Initially, our goal was just to raise enough cash that it wouldn’t end up being an embarrassment. Fortunately, we’ve managed to raise enough dosh for two awards, so it’s looking none too shabby and we’ve still got over a week of collecting to go (have a look at the Facebook page for details of how to donate). We do have clear leaders for both awards, but there’s two or three other riders right up their exhaust pipes.

“Both awards will be in the form of vouchers for the spares van. The main SOKK Rider of the Year (ROTY) Award will be accompanied by the presentation of The Boiler Engineer Shield (generously donated by The Boiler Engineer Ltd). The shield will give the award some prestige and some history. The hope is that we can do this every year, with winners’ names being added to the shield as we go. The Young ROTY Award (no trophy – yet) has been made possible by the generous sponsorship of Karl Rushen and SLYDE. Massive thanks go to everyone for the contributions received so far, and especially to Wayne Chapman from The Boiler Engineer and Karl for their involvement.”