RISING Star selections for the 2025 ROWE Motor Oil Premiership have been made by the seven competing clubs.
Whilst the full team building criteria, including the points limit, will be ratified at the AGM of British Speedway Promoters’ Ltd next month, it is already known that the requirement for each club to track a rider from the Rising Star list will continue.
The initiative, which began in 2021, guarantees that each Premiership team will start the season with a young British rider in the No.7 position, and over the past four years there have been several success stories.
Premiership clubs are firmly behind the Rising Star concept with discussions already ongoing over the ways in which it could evolve over the coming seasons beyond 2025.
For next year, the Rising Star criteria remains unchanged: a rider on the Rising Star list must be aged 23 or under as of January 1, 2025, and they must not have a current Premiership average which exceeds 4.00.
This means that from the 2024 Rising Star list, Anders Rowe and Dan Thompson have moved out of the category as both riders ended the season with an average in excess of 4.00, racing for King’s Lynn and Ipswich respectively.
Both will now be eligible for team spots in the Premiership with a 25% discount on their averages, compared to the normal 2.5% for British riders.
Clubs who completed the 2024 season with a Rising Star who is also eligible for 2025 were given the option of ‘protecting’ that rider and automatically declaring the same Rising Star for next season.
The remaining Rising Stars were then selected from the available list of riders, with clubs selecting in reverse order from the final standings in the 2024 Premiership.
Protection was taken on their 2024 Rising Stars by the following clubs:
Belle Vue – Jake Mulford
Leicester – Sam Hagon
Oxford – Luke Killeen
The remaining Rising Star selections for 2025 were made in the following order:
Birmingham – Jason Edwards
King’s Lynn – Ashton Boughen
Ipswich – Jordan Jenkins
Sheffield – Leon Flint
It should also be noted that riders eligible for a Rising Star position are not precluded from taking a team place elsewhere in a Premiership line-up if not selected as a Rising Star.
The full Rising Star list will be published prior to the new season and extends well beyond the riders selected. Those on the list will be eligible to come in if team changes are required, or to take guest bookings.
Feature Image by Mark Lee Sing
