Gladiators TV caught up with Captain Ben Barker at the Press and Practice day on Saturday.

Main image credit: Fin Sutton

The Plymouth Gladiators take to the newly adapted Coliseum track this coming Saturday the 23rd March, for Press and Practice day.  

Entrance for Season Ticket Holders only is from 10am, with general entry from 12.30pm. Refreshments will be available at the event, which is free to attend, whilst any donations to the club are always gratefully received.  

The Plymouth Gladiators have suffered a major blow with big winter signing Nico Covatti injured in a crash in Argentina.

Covatti is due to make his return to UK racing with the Gladiators in the Cab Direct Championship this season and was continuing his winter programme in the International Speedway Championship.

But he was involved in a frightening accident with former Sheffield rider Facundo Albin in the Final of the ninth round, as both came down heavily on the exit of the second bend.

Whilst Albin appears to have avoided serious injury, pending further scans, Covatti suffered arm and leg fractures with surgery to come next Thursday.

He told La Nueva: “We will have to think about when the return to Italy will be after the operation. We are evaluating having my wife come with the baby, and thus be a little more contained here.

“Right now, it’s about being as united as possible. In Italy I will start with rehabilitation and, from there, by the spring of Europe I will be able to start touring.”

Everyone at The Gladiators sends our best wishes to Nico for a quick and speedy recovery.

Further team updates will be provided once available.

Plymouth Gladiators 2024 season tickets are now available via the official online ticket store.

Packages include a Family ticket (2 adults and up to 3 children between the ages of 11 and 17), seating in the NHS Grandstand and standing throughout the rest of the Coliseum.

Each package covers 11 home meetings (8 Championship, 2 BSN and 1 KOC fixtures) and  include a range of additional benefits, including parking, discounts on merchandise and VIP access to press and practice day.

As a Christmas bonus, anyone who purchases a ticket before the 1st of January, will receive an extra free ticket to bring a friend to our first fixture of 2024.

Click on the image below to launch the online ticket store, powered by TryBooking.

The final piece of the Plymouth Prow Park Gladiators jigsaw for the 2024 season has been confirmed as seven-time Italian national champion Nico Covatti.

The 35-year-old, who hails from Argentina but races on an Italian license, will spearhead the Gladiators’ attack from next season after being named as their number one rider by team manager Garry May, who is delighted to be linking up with him again after a brief spell together at the Somerset Rebels.

“Nico rode with me at Somerset, so I have worked with him before, and he is a very good rider in this league and at this level,” May said. “He nearly made the GPs last year, I think he finished sixth or seventh in the GP qualifier.

“If he can get the hang of the Plymouth track, then he could be very good. He doesn’t create any trouble, he just gets on with it and as I say, he is just a very good rider at this level, really.

“He texted me and said: ‘Gazza, I want to come back and ride for you,’ so that was it really! I think he had calls from a couple of other clubs, but he sent me a text to say he didn’t want to go there, do me a deal! I spoke to Mark (Phillips), we did a deal and that was it. He was so easy to work with.

“He will fly in and out (of the UK) because he will go home and ride as well, but he said to me if he could ride in this league and do well with his bikes and everything, and someone gets injured in the top league, then he’s here and ready to ride. He’ll be a very good signing I think and he will be our number one.”

Confirmation that he will ride at number one means the team is now complete with Covatti joining Ben Barker as the Gladiators’ heat leader. Kyle Howarth, Richie Worrall, Dan Gilkes, James Pearson and Ben Trigger will not be returning to the Coliseum after riding for the club in 2023.

Covatti has not raced in the UK since 2020 when he finished an eight-year stint on these shores riding for Kent Kings. Before that, he represented Birmingham Brummies, Sheffield Tigers, Ipswich Witches, Somerset Rebels and Poole Pirates, but he can’t wait to return.

“I am happy to work with Garry in 2024,” Covatti said. “I had the opportunity to work with him in 2018 and 2019 with Somerset and the truth is he is a great team manager. With many ambitions to win, he transmits this to the riders and I think it is something very important.

“I’m very excited to be back in the British league. I have very good memories and I hope to give my best for the team. I’m looking forward to a great season and can’t wait to meet all the Plymouth fans as I am very happy to be part of Plymouth in 2024.

“During these years I was not present in the UK, I always remained active with speedway.

2023 was a great year for me and I won the Italian title for the seventh time, winning all the meetings. I also qualified for the SGP Challenge for the fifth time – and this is not easy.

“I also won the European semi in Hungary and qualified for the European final in pairs.”

On being the Gladiators’ number one, Covatti said: I think it is a big responsibility to be number one on the team and that is why I want to be very professional in my work and give my best in every meeting.”

The club are still seeking sponsors for the new season and welcome people and business to discuss a host of sponsorship opportunities that the club can offer. For further details, please contact Mark Phillips on mark@plymouth-speedway.com or Paul Swarbrick on paul@plymouth-speedway.com

After being released by Poole Pirates at the end of last season, Kyle Newman said it was a no-brainer to get in touch with Plymouth Prow Park Gladiators boss Garry May and get himself fixed up for the 2024 campaign.

Newman, who turns 32 on Thursday, is no stranger to the Coliseum, of course, having ridden for the club for two years under their former guise as the Devils. 

Newman captained the club back then and helped them win the Premier League Fours – the club’s only major trophy to date – but, after eight years away, he is coming back as part of the main Gladiators team for 2024.

“When I found out I wasn’t at Poole, it was disappointing as I thought I’d had a good year, but hey-ho. It is what it is,” Newman said. “My options were limited really, so I kept pestering Garry and luckily for me, something crept up.

“Saturday nights work for me, I was captain there before, so I know the place and I know the track’s going to be slightly different, but there will be familiar faces and I am looking forward to getting back with Plymouth.

“I haven’t had the greatest of times since I left, but I am recovering from a shoulder operation now and hopefully you will see a bit more of the old me. That’s where I want to be at.”

Newman’s departure from Poole is largely down to the lower points score in the Championship for 2024 with clubs having to build their teams within a 38-point limit. Newman’s Green Sheet Average was 5.86 in 2023 and after averaging 7.07 for the season, it has increased for this year which meant Poole struggled to find a place for him in their septet.

Hopefully, the Pirates’ loss will be the Gladiators’ gain with Newman joining Ben Barker, Alfie Bowtell, Dan and Joe Thompson and Aussie reserve Jacob Hook in the team for next season.

“I improved my average last year – not as much as I wanted to – but it puts the likes of me in that middle zone where it is awkward to fit us in,” Newman said. “With all due respect, I see myself as better than a reserve position, I actually feel I could take a heat leader role, but I wasn’t quite there with my average last year.

“You then get caught in that middle zone and get pushed to the side or the back when it comes to team building. I understand that, it’s frustrating for me as a rider but it is what it is. I just have to keep pushing on and next year, push that average back up to where it should be.

“I like the responsibility of heat leader, but I will go wherever he puts me. I think it is a lot more balanced side than last year, but my responsibility this year will be to step up, as it will for the likes of Alfie and then the heat leaders to push on from where they are as well.

“As long as all the other boys do their job and get some points on the board, then we will be there or thereabouts. Jacob has had a few years in England now and we need him to push on as well and showing what he is really capable of.”

May was delighted with the acquisition and said: “Kyle lives at Wimborne and I am in Poole, so he’s almost my neighbour! But when he got dropped by Poole, he rung me up and I told Mark (Phillips), but we were dealing with other things at the time and I couldn’t give him an answer straight away because he wasn’t in our plans.

“He scored points everywhere last year and he rides Plymouth well because he’s been there before. We have used him as a guest and he rode well then, but I am sure he will score points again. He is a gutsy little rider and gets stuck in and I am sure he will improve.”

The club are still seeking sponsors for the new season and welcome people and business to discuss a host of sponsorship opportunities that the club can offer. 

For further details, please contact Mark Phillips on mark@plymouth-speedway.com or Paul Swarbrick on paul@plymouth-speedway.com

Points from the reserve riders were a problem throughout 2023 for the Plymouth Prow Park Gladiators, but they are hoping to improve that considerably with Jacob Hook the first of two signed to fill those berths for next season.

The 21-year-old, from Brisbane, Australia, regularly chipped in with points for the Edinburgh Monarchs and then Berwick Bandits in last season’s Championship, while he was also a regular top scorer for the Monarchs’ National Development side.

Now, he is swapping Scotland for England after being the fifth Gladiator confirmed for the 2024 season, joining Ben Barker, Alfie Bowtell and the Thompson Twins, Dan and Joe, with the younger twin partnering him at reserve.

“I am super stoked to be back in the Championship next season, it is where I want to be,” Hook said. “I want to get up further and I feel that Plymouth is going to help me to do that and progress this season.

“I like the track there, it is tight and technical and I have ridden it a few times, but I think it will help me develop, for sure.

“I know Garry (May) quite well and he seems like a great bloke. It seems like there is a really good atmosphere down there with the fans and the riders and I wanted to be a part of it. I haven’t ridden for Garry before, but I guested for you guys at Glasgow (scoring 4+1) last season.

“I think we should be looking to make the play-offs. Everyone wants to be the number one, but we have to make the play-offs first, so we just have to take each meeting as it comes and keep progressing and hopefully, when it comes to the play-offs, we’ll be at our peak and it all falls in our favour.

“Me personally, I want to enjoy it and improve the average I have at the moment, keep moving forward and get more and more comfortable on the bike on the British tracks. And improve those starts!

“I think it’ll be a really good thing for Plymouth that they are making the track just that little bit bigger and create a few more race opportunities if you do miss the start, but my aim is to make those starts so you don’t have to worry about anyone in front of you.”

Riding in Australia is very different to the UK, of course, as there is no league structure, so all the meetings are individual affairs. But Hook hopes that after an indifferent year in 2023 and after his recent success back home, he can hit 2024 hard and continue his improvement in the sport.

“I had an up and down year really,” he said looking back on 2023. “I started the year at Edinburgh and got dropped from there before I got picked up by Berwick. I actually broke my collar bone riding in the Under-24 league in Poland and got dropped by Berwick and then re-signed for them.

“It was definitely an up and down year for me, but it was a lot better than my first year and that is what I took from it. I learnt a lot on and off the bike, in the workshop and stuff like that, so I am going into this year with more experience and a lot more confidence behind me because I have just secured the New South Wales Under-21 championship and I am having a decent season back here in Australia.

“I am going to keep riding and training and working hard. I’m over the injury I had now and had about six or seven weekends in a row (of racing) lined up. It started with that New South Wales title and then I had the Darcy Ward meeting, the Australian Under-21s where I unfortunately had bike issues where I still came away with six at that meeting, which wasn’t great but I was hoping to come away with a lot better.

“I then came second in the Queensland Under-21 titles and unfortunately had a little incident in the Queensland Open titles the night after and wasn’t able to finish the meeting due to a little injury I sustained, but I am on the mend now and hoping to do some more riding before I get back over there.”

Team manager Garry May added: “He impressed me last year. He got dropped by Edinburgh and then rode for Berwick and he guest rode for us at Glasgow quite well and just got on with the job. He’s gone back to Oz and done well, beating James Pearson in the final of an Under-21 championship.

“We decided to go a different way this year with some power at reserve. We have suffered bad in the last two years and we had to do something and I think it’s the only way to build a team.

“I am hoping that he will be down there (at reserve) in a weakened league scoring me points.”

The club are still seeking sponsors for the new season and welcome people and business to discuss a host of sponsorship opportunities that the club can offer. For further details, please contact Mark Phillips on mark@plymouth-speedway.com or Paul Swarbrick on paul@plymouth-speedway.com.

They were Prow Park Gladiators for a very short spell in 2023, but now, the ‘Thompson Twins’ will be returning to Plymouth to ride for the club from the start of the 2024 campaign.

Brothers Dan and Joe Thompson, 19, were signed at separate times last summer by Gladiators team manager Garry May, but for Dan, it was a move that never really materialised. 

A host of rain offs followed by a season-ending shoulder injury whilst riding for Ipswich in the Premier League meant he never actually got to wear his Gladiators kevlars.

Joe, meanwhile, was drafted in as a guest for the last meeting of the season when the Gladiators beat Berwick Bandits and he contributed to the success by scoring 9+2. Now, both will be full-time members of the team heading into the new Championship season, joining Ben Barker and Alfie Bowtell in committing to the club.

“I am over the moon to be at Plymouth to be honest,” Dan, the older of the two by 17 minutes, said. “Obviously I signed half way through last year, but I never actually got a meeting in, so for them to allow me to come back and show what I can do is definitely a good thing for me and I think it is going to be a good season.

“We had a tough time with rain-offs and track work going on at the time, but I was always interested in Plymouth. I like the atmosphere there, there is a real family feel about the club and it was frustrating not to get going with them last year. But at least I’ll get my chance with them in 2024.

“Me and Joe ride well together and we do enjoy racing together. I certainly think that will help with the enjoyment side of things, going through the season, and the team looks good as well, so I am looking forward to a good year.

“The averages and what not have changed for this year and I think teams are taking a different approach to team building. I know some of the other guys and they are all great riders, so I am looking forward to working with them.”

Brother Joe added: “I am really excited and I am really grateful for the opportunity and that Garry May asked me to be a part of the team. I did a guest meeting for them and it went really well, so that just makes me all the more excited to get going now.

“I recognise a few faces from last year, although they are two very different teams. But I get along with all of them, so I am excited to get going. It’s nice to have familiar faces around and people we can work with and get along with.

“I feel 100 per-cent now. Me and Dan have been working very hard this winter on our injuries in the gym, so I couldn’t be happier with how that is going.

“We obviously fully support each other and it wasn’t nice last year to both get injured. We both know what we need to do and how to work on it and we are working hard.”

Both twins are also fixed up with Premiership clubs last year and in a quirky twist of fate, they will be riding for the team their brother rode for in 2023! Dan is heading to Joe’s former team, Ipswich Witches, while Joe will be riding at reserve for Leicester, in place of Joe.

“I have signed for Leicester in the Premiership next year, which should be good. Obviously it was opposite roles last year with me at Ipswich and Dan at Leicester, but it will definitely be a good contest.

“We can both help each other get dialled in correctly as we both had some good meetings last year, so we handed the set up over to each other. I think we are both just excited to get going now.”

Team boss May was delighted with the latest additions to the team and expects both brothers to kick on with their speedway careers in 2024.

“Hopefully, Dan will ride for us this time!” May joked. “Joe did one meeting for us and got a win for me in that last heat decider against Berwick, but those boys are lovely kids to work with.

“I have monitored them for a few years now and I think they are just coming through nicely. When I did the final a few years ago for Leicester against Poole and we were at King’s Lynn, I will always remember how they raced. I just said to them to go out and ride hard and they did that and came back with a 5-1 and big grins on their faces!

“I just like them and I think they are going to progress big this year because the league is a weakened league, so I am expecting those two to really push on this year. Plus, they are riding in the top league this year as well, so they’ll be riding a lot. But I am very happy to get those two.

“You have to remember that it is a weakened league this year with the 38-point limit and they will progress. They both love the track and they are so easy to deal with. I said to them: ‘do you fancy coming to Plymouth?’ they said ‘yeah’ and that was it. There was no asking for a week to decide, they just said yes and that was it.

“They help each other as well. That meeting I had with Joe, he was on the phone to Dan, who was watching the meeting on the stream and he said: ‘change this and change that’ so he did and that’s why he came good at the end.

“Their Dad takes them everywhere and is a lovely bloke as well, so I think they will really fit in nicely and I am really glad we have got them, the Thompson Twins.”

The club are still seeking sponsors for the new season and welcome people and business to discuss a host of sponsorship opportunities that the club can offer. For further details, please contact Mark Phillips on mark@plymouth-speedway.com or Paul Swarbrick on paul@plymouth-speedway.com.

The second signing for the 2024 Prow Park Gladiators needs no introduction as he is already familiar with the club – but race fans will be delighted to know that Alfie Bowtell is returning for another year with Plymouth Speedway.

The 26-year-old was a Gladiator from 2020 to 2022 before he left for a year with the Birmingham Brummies in 2023 but, after a year away, he is delighted to return to the Coliseum and join Ben Barker in yellow and blue for the 2024 season.

“I am really happy to be back,” Bowtell said. “I am grateful to Mark (Phillips) for the opportunity and I feel like I have unfinished business at Plymouth. I feel that Mark puts in a lot of effort down at Plymouth – and so does everyone else – and he deserves to get something back, at least into the play-offs and hopefully a little bit of silverware at some stage.

“I know it’s a bit of a drive, but everywhere is a drive in speedway! But it’s better than having a day job, that’s for sure!

“I wanted to come back last year, but I think it has done me the world of good having a year away from Plymouth, to go and prove it on a bigger track. My average has gone up a bit, so that is always a good sign and I am enjoying it more than ever.

“I know I can do well at Plymouth, it is just the away meetings that I was struggling with a couple of years ago, so hopefully I can prove that next season.”

Bowtell’s return was met with delight by team manager Garry May with the two putting a disagreement over his exit from the club behind them ahead of the new season.

“I know we had a bit of a disagreement when he left the year before over certain things, but sometimes, I think you have to move away from a track where you are comfortable in order to progress,” May said. “Then you can come back because you have learnt more.

“I used to have this at Somerset with Alex Davies. He would get 9-12 points at Somerset every meeting easily. But away, he’d only get two or three. He went away and was going to come back, but he didn’t get a visa, but he would have come back a better rider and I think Alfie will come back as a better rider.

“Alfie was a no-brainer really because he rides Plymouth good. He really does like Plymouth and the first year I went there, when he was at reserve, I know we didn’t win many meetings with Bjarne (Pedersen) and all that, but looking at the meetings we did win, Alfie probably won them for us and he was at reserve.”

Bowtell, who also works as a plumber, will be in the main body of the team for 2024 after a year in which he didn’t just impress for Birmingham, but he rode well for Mildenhall in the National Development League as well. In fact, Bowtell’s 9.65 average in NDL saw him finish in the top five riders in the league and he hopes to carry that form into the new season.

“I was a bit hit and miss early on in the season, but I got something going with my bikes and it was good,” he said. “The odd away one was bad, but all in all, it improved my average – I think my away average went up about 2.5 points, so I have definitely improved a lot and it’s done me the world of good.

“Even riding for a bigger club – I know Birmingham isn’t the biggest track, but it’s bigger than Plymouth – but that has helped to bring me on as well, which is nice.

“I also had a good year at Mildenhall and broke some records, which was nice. I won the most races in a season (37) since 1987 or something crazy. But I had a good year in National League. I am not sure if I am going to be riding National League next year because all the averages and stuff are changing, but I am looking to make the step up in my career and really go for it.”

The club are still seeking sponsors for the new season and welcome people and business to discuss a host of sponsorship opportunities that the club can offer. For further details, please contact Mark Phillips on mark@plymouth-speedway.com or Paul Swarbrick on paul@plymouth-speedway.com.

It was always on the cards, but now it’s been confirmed – fan favourite Ben Barker will once again be riding for the Plymouth Prow Park Gladiators in 2024.

Now 35, the popular Cornishman is part of the furniture at the Coliseum, where he holds the track record and takes such pride in being ‘king of the track.’ And once it was announced that Plymouth will once again be riding next year, Barker was the first rider to get nailed down for the Championship campaign.

“Plymouth is where I want to be, so I am delighted to get fixed up and glad to be back for 2024,” Barker said. “I was pleased with how I rode in 2023, but also very disappointed. My season ended with injury and I was disappointed in that.

“I was also disappointed that the Plymouth team was really, really good on paper but it just didn’t develop and we couldn’t achieve anything together, really. I don’t know why, maybe a clash of personalities.

“Hopefully, this going forward, we can have a great team spirit and you can win meetings alone with a great team spirit and all the boys digging in helping one another.”

Team manager Garry May was also delighted to have Barker as one of his heat leaders for next season, calling his return a ‘no-brainer.’

“What can you say about him?” May said. “He just gets on with it, he is 100 per-cent wherever he goes and it was a no-brainer to have Ben back.

“He knows the track, he loves the people and the people love him and he will get points at this level wherever he goes. It was just a no-brainer.

“He had a good year and rode well until he got injured in that meeting which finished his season off with a broken collarbone. But we see Ben as being our second heat leader.”

Barker certainly had an up and down year with the highlight being his superb third place finish at the prestigious British Riders’ championship at Belle Vue, where he shared the podium with the winner and popular GP rider, Dan Bewley, and runner-up Steve Worrall.

It was the third time Barker had finished third in the event, after similar finishes in 2010 and 2014, while he averaged 7.81 in league meetings for the Gladiators last season, but he will no doubt be disappointed to have won only eight of his 32 heats on home shale.

However, he again provided plenty of entertainment on the tight bends and short straights of the Coliseum before that season-ending collar bone injury he picked up just 24 hours after his heroics in Manchester. And with work to increase the size of the track for 2024, his time of 49.19 seconds will now be etched in Plymouth speedway folklore as the fastest time ever recorded on that track.

Now, as one of his targets for the new season, Barker is keen to set a new one when tapes go up on a new campaign in March.

“It’s going to be exciting, isn’t it?” Barker said of the track work. “I mean, I loved the Coliseum as it was but everything changes and hopefully the changes will be for the better. I have been fortunate enough to get the track record and it is nice to keep it that way!

“That record will stand now, but it will be a new track, so I want a new track record and that is one of my aims for 2024 – get the track record at Plymouth, get to number one and become British champion.”

Barker is on the lookout for sponsors for 2024 and invites anyone interested to contact him through his social media, or by emailing

The club are also seeking sponsors for the new season and welcome people and business to discuss a host of sponsorship opportunities that the club can offer. For further details, please contact Mark Phillips on mark@plymouth-speedway.com or Paul Swarbrick on paul@plymouth-speedway.com.