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Meeting report: 'Racing in the East' NORA British Pairs Championship - Mildenhall 25/7/26 The tightest of finishes (not without a dose of controversy) on Saturday 25th. July at Mildenhall Stadium saw the inaugural 'Racing in the East' NORA British Speedway Championship Pairs title go the way of the Kent Eagles, edging out Cradley in the Grand Final after a heavy crash involving Man of the Meeting, Seth Norman. The 15-year-old Norman had a sensational run of victories beating the hugely-experienced Ben Morley, Alfie Bowtell and Simon Lambert in successive races to ensure the Heathens pairing finished level on points after the qualifying heats with the Eagles, setting up an exciting dénouement. Sadly the Final was to end in painful disappointment for Norman though – crashing out on the third bend of the first lap, with the trailing Jack Kingston then running into the fallen teenager. The initial decision was to exclude Kingston much to the confusion of all watching on and a Speedway version of VAR (using footage recorded of the incident) was applied by the referee to correct his earlier mistaken interpretation of the crash. That effectively ended the Black Country side’s chances of a surprise victory and Norman himself ended the night in hospital with a nasty abrasion and back injury. Third place went the way of the Wisbech Cross Keys duo of Mickie Simpson and Sam Woods – the European Grasstrack Finalist Simpson delivering a hat trick of race wins himself, including one terrific scrap with the home pairing’s number one, Bowtell. Young Aussie World Women’s Championship number four, Tayla Street showed well from the gate in a number of her rides but was caught out by a track she’d never seen before and so was unable to contribute points to add to her partner Lambert’s individual haul of 13. The crowd were also entertained (and responded very enthusiastically to) the awesome sight of the two 1000cc Right Hand Sidecar Speedway bikes piloted by the country’s two leading exponents of this comeback formula, Paul Whitelam and Will Penfold. Next up for the Mildenhall Fen Tigers is on Saturday August 15th. with Kent Eagles visiting West Row, this time as a full team in the second leg of the major NORA League competition of 2026, the Pioneer Cup. Meeting scores: Kent Eagles 19 Ben Morley 3 2 2 3 3 13 Jack Kingston 2 1 0 2 1 6 Cradley Heathens 19 Luke Harris 3 2 1 2 1 9 Seth Norman 1 0 3 3 3 10 Wisbech Cross Keys 15 Mickie Simpson FX 3 3 2 3 11 Sam Woods 1 1 0 1 1 4 Mildenhall Fen Tigers 15 Alfie Bowtell 3 3 2 1 0 9 Harry Sadler 1 2 1 0 2 6 Anglian Angels 13 Simon Lambert 2 3 3 3 2 13 Tayla Street 0 0 FX 0 0 0 Ipswich Academy 9 Ashton Vale 2 1 2 1 2 8 Harrison Rogers 0 0 1 0 FX 1 Heat details: Key: IA = Ipswich; CH = Cradley; MFT = Mildenhall; AA = Anglian Angels; KE = Kent Eagles; WCK = Wisbech) 1 Harris, Vale, Norman, Rogers 54.1 [IA 2 CH 4] 2 Bowtell, Lambert, Sadler, Street 52.9 [MFT 4 AA 2] 3 (rerun) Morley, Kingston, Woods, Simpson (fell exc.) 53.9 [KE 5 WCK 1] 4 Bowtell, Sadler, Vale, Rogers 53.0 [MFT 9 IA 3] 5 Simpson, Harris, Woods, Norman 53.4 [WCK 5 CH 6] 6 Lambert, Morley, Kingston, Street 53.6 [AA 5 KE 8] 7 Simpson, Bowtell, Sadler, Woods (fell rem.) 53.3 [WCK 8 MFT 12] 8 (stpd – awarded) Lambert, Vale, Rogers, Street (fell exc.) no time [IA 6 AA 8] 9 Norman, Morley, Harris, Kingston 53.3 [CH 10 KE 10] 10 Lambert, Simpson, Woods, Street 53.6 [AA 11 WCK 11] 11 Morley, Kingston, Vale, Rogers 53.7 [KE 15 IA 7] 12 Norman, Harris, Bowtell, Sadler 53.7 [CH 15 MFT 13] 13 (stpd – awarded) Simpson, Vale, Woods, Rogers (fell exc.) no time [WCK 15 IA 9] 14 Norman, Lambert, Harris, Street 53.7 [CH 19 AA 13] 15 Morley, Sadler, Kingston, Bowtell 54.4 [MFT 15 KE 19] Final: (rerun) Morley, Harris, Kingston, Norman (fell exc.) 54.2 [Kent win] 1000cc RH Sidecars 1 P. Whitelam/R. Webb; W.Penfold/R.Pay 56.5 2 P. Whitelam/R. Webb; W.Penfold/R.Pay 56.0 3 W.Penfold/R.Pay; P. Whitelam/R.Webb 56.7 4 P. Whitelam/R. Webb; W.Penfold/R.Pay 56.1

What exactly would you like Berwick to do short of cutting seats from the stands or chopping bits off football pitch that without there would be no stadium. The corners were widened but with such narrow straights the capabilities of the stadium are limited. The track prep has been impressive this year especially with the aforementioned football teams regularly playing on a Saturday.

Sleep tight

I heard tonight Zach is not there on Saturday, Jason Edwards guesting, Lewi will be happy 😂

Thank you Mystery solved , I missed a email with the SGP 2 tickets attached , oops

Considering the injuriesthat are listed in the Speedway Star I doubt Holder will be back this season. "I broke my humerous pretty good + had to have an operation on that. I've also broken my right foot, my right ankle + a couple of ribs". "I also broke the sacrum bone in my pelvis. That's probably the worst one right now. It's uncomfortable to sit down". "When I crashed my arm was pointing the other way amd something with my back was uncomfortable ....."

So you don't watch the Scorpions stream, or BSN when they are at the EWR for great racing on a well prepared track?

Siggy was my childhood idol. Can vividly remember crying all day long when he was forced to retire through his ankle injury! Was a serious threat to the Danish dominance of the 80’s before that incident. Beaten Nielsen in the run off of the most lucrative meeting ever allegedly at the time, the British Open in 82 which was the standard of the world final itself, then topped the British League averages on 10.99 in 83 and was on an upward trajectory. Then came that accident in 84 that cut his career stone dead. We’ll obviously never know for sure but I’m convinced he would have stopped Nielsen and Gundersen from dominating the world Championship between them in the 80’s.

A lot of tracks can be gate and go by the 2nd bend nowadays

The track has seen a few riders all over the place in the first 1-2 or 3 heats then they grade it and it settles down, Poor old Jason Edwards seems to struggle to get going in heat 2 which ideally is a race we want him and Kevin to win!

There are such things as planned intervals and breaks between races so that one can check on all the haters. Incidentally the absence of Lawson did not seem to affect the attendance. In fact it was an excellent crowd. Let's hope Jason Edwards does well on Saturday

Also Worky have good racing but struggle with crowds. So not like it works the other way either. I cant think of any tracks that consistently have good racing apart from Glasgow, Worky and BV.

Sorry to see him go, to give credit sometimes if your heart isn't in it then its right to make that decision rather than try to soldier on! A great career in many ways won many things - fair play to him! Some times the hardest decision in any career is timing the exit!

I don't consider Shielfield Park much better. It can be and had been on my many visits gate and go and all over by the second bend.

Probably because Poole win every meeting… Can guarantee if a poor team was put together (unlikely with the money Poole have) not many people would want to watch speedway every week on that track.

Jacob Hook to Scunny 5.57 in place of Dan Gilkes

Didn't think it would be that easy 😉 what a total rout,no chance of the bonus point either

Does it matter whether he was seeded or a WC , he is in it and riding , the inclusion of the current World No.3 bound to add more people to the attendance. Is Bewley using this meeting as his comeback meeting ?

Well i dont buy the Berwick one so that evens that out lol. Funny how Poole gets the most fans through the gate though. 👀 Tbf first half the meeting was a bit of close racing esp between Morris and Masters. Jenkins also had few close battles. Most overtaking was done by Kennett and Newman, so i would say more passing then usual. Although watching Kennett is like watching a young rider going full throttle. 150% every race, fair play to him. Backs off when he has to though!

For the days of Siggy, Cowboy Cook and T Rick those lads could pull some moves.

Still interesting to get your take on Eastbourne M.D how much did they get stiffed for by the last promoter ?

The problem is you didn't want us to win and make all the passes.

Link to the interview Bagpuss was referring to. Really good listen.

Oh dear so sorry we won at home again with a decent crowd, you should try it at Workington, you might get more people turn up!

Did you watch the same meeting as me ? It was fooking awful 😞