SCUNTHORPE SCORPIONS have revealed their complete line-up for the 2025 season in the Cab Direct Championship.
In addition to the already announced Luke Harrison, three other Scorpions will return from 2024 – skipper Simon Lambert, Jake Allen and Connor Mountain.
Steve Worrall returns for a third stint with Scorpions – the club where he started his career – and will commence the season in the No 1 position.
Meanwhile, the two reserve berths will be filled by the two Australian Kennedy brothers, Zaine and Declan.
Zaine Kennedy has previously ridden for Scorpions in 2022, but brother Declan is a completely new face to British Speedway.
Scunthorpe promoter Rob Godfrey said: “I think this team has got a very good balance.
“Steve Worrall’s 2024 season with Glasgow came to a halt due to illness, but he’s healthy again. He lives locally in Cleethorpes and our fans will have already spotted him at the Eddie Wright Raceway towards the end of last season. Steve wanted to join a club much closer to home.
“There are one or two riders who have left the league so Stevie moves up into the top positions where theoretically he could score points heavily at every track. It gives us a good platform to start with, which is what we had the year before last with Ryan Douglas.
“Zaine always wanted to come back to race for Scunthorpe. We saw what he was capable of last time around in 2022. He was all set to return in 2023, when he had an accident on his mountain bike.
“But we’ve kept in contact and then we got wind from Zaine that his brother Declan wanted to come over and ride for Scunthorpe as well.”
Lambert, Allen and Mountain are all well-known names with the Scunthorpe public. Skipper Lambert will be in his eighth season with the club, Allen in his seventh year, while Mountain returns for a third successive campaign as a Scorpion.
Godfrey added: “Anyone who knows me knows I’m very loyal to people and they all want to come back.
“The riders we’ve retained have all been here for a few years, Jake and Simon especially, and it will be Connor Mountain’s third year with us, so we know what to expect from them and they were all keen to stay.
“Michael (Palm Toft) also wanted to come back, but we had to work around the points limit. It was only Kyle (Howarth) who didn’t want to return because he said he wanted a track nearer to home after becoming a new father, so we respected that.
“It was impossible, with the points the team increased by last year, to keep everyone. We had to pull it apart and put something together that we believe is stronger throughout, and I believe we’ve done that with the way we’ve gone.”
One of the early home fixtures of the 2025 season will be when Scunthorpe stage the prestigious Championship League Riders’ Championship at the Eddie Wright Raceway on Sunday, April 6 at 3pm.
Words and Image by Scunthorpe Speedway
