The Ipswich ‘Tru7 Group’ Witches retain club captain Danny King for the 2025 season.
King has been at Ipswich for the past nine seasons and next year will be his sixteenth at Foxhall, but he admits he wasn’t sure if he would be back in Suffolk after a difficult season hampered by injury.
“Certainly, this year, I wasn’t sure. The club knows my situation, I don’t want to go anywhere else; I want to be there. I didn’t have a great year in general with everything that went on with my hand and struggling to carry on racing.
“Speaking to the club it means so much to me to know they want me back and just shows my loyalty to them works both ways. They knew full well that I was not 100% and they know that I have got room for improvement on that average. I did certainly feel that this year though that it might not happen.”
The skipper fractured his hand in two places in April and had an operation to insert two plates but never felt he was fully comfortable on the bike after the surgery.
“It was a tricky injury, I broke my hand quite badly, I’m not sure if everyone knows how bad it was. It was bad, it needed to be plated, and the hand is a tricky one. You can ride with a sore leg but with your hand you need to hold on and I can’t fully close my hand enough to squeeze the handlebar how I want to hold it. I have to force my hand closed which makes it difficult on rough tracks to hold on.
“I felt comfortable enough to race, I didn’t feel like I was going to fall off all the time, but it wasn’t 100%. Fighting that all year was difficult and I was doing everything behind the scenes with physio to try and help and it did, but it was a tricky year. To do it so early in the year and try and finish the year like that wasn’t easy.”
The 38-year-old is heading back to see his surgeon over the winter as he looks to return to full fitness in 2025.
“As soon as the season finished, I got back in contact with the surgeon, and he is seeing me next month so we will see what he says. There is a lot that going on in the hand and a lot that can happen after an operation, and I think that is what has happened, I think it is a scar tissue issue and he did say these things could happen. Hopefully he will be aware of it when I see him and it is not a massive deal and just a little bit of surgery and it will be fixed quickly.”
The 2016 British champion has spent the majority of his career with the Witches and says it is easy to see why riders want to stay at the club.
“I’m so comfortable at Ipswich, I love the club and riders coming to the club don’t want to go anywhere else, that speaks for itself. You have got one of the best riders in the world in Emil (Sayfutdinov) wanting to come back here every year and riders like Jordan (Jenkins) who have only done one season and already he doesn’t want to go anywhere else. It speaks volumes to the type of club we are, and people can see why I have spent so much of my career here.”
King was left frustrated with his performances after the injury but remains as passionate as ever about bringing more silverware to Ipswich.
“My aim is to get back to where I should be and support the team, it was hard on me last year as I knew I wasn’t doing what I should be doing but it wasn’t through a lack of effort that is for sure. I genuinely think a fully fit Ipswich in 2024 went all the way. It is what it is and that is speedway sometimes and we were hit by injuries, so the plan is to avoid injuries and carry on where we left off as a team because the team we have got is capable of going all the way and getting major silverware.
“Getting myself fit so that I am 100% is the main priority because I need to be at 100% to benefit the team and myself, that is the main goal and I am not concentrating on anything else at the moment, just get my hand sorted. Then the plan will be to get out early in the new year and get plenty of practice in so I can hit the ground running because I was disappointed with how my season went and it is difficult as a rider when you feel you are letting people down and that is not what I am about. I give 100% all of the time and it was difficult to do with the hand the way it was. I wanted to do my best, but it wasn’t good enough so next year has to be back to 100%.”
Words by Henry Chard – Images by Ipswich Speedway
