Henry Atkins returns for 2021

Plymouth Gladiators’ 2021 team building has continued with the return of Exeter based rider Henry Atkins for another season.

The twenty-year-old is a popular figure with the Gladiators’ fans and finished the curtailed 2020 campaign in style by scoring an 18-point maximum against a Young Lions side at the Coliseum.

Under a new rule introduced this year, clubs in both the Premiership and Championship must field a young British rider from a ‘Rising Star’ list that has been produced by British Speedway Promoters Ltd as part of a five-year plan to encourage the development of British talent, and Atkins fulfils that requirement for Plymouth.

Atkins, who will start the season in one of the reserve berths, had no hesitation in putting pen to paper for promoter, Mark Phillips.

‘I can’t wait for the season to start’ he said.’ I have continued to work hard on my fitness over the winter and we really got the bikes dialed in to the Plymouth track last year, and what an opportunity to be riding on the same team as Jason Crump and Bjarne Pedersen.

I’m sure they will also help my development tremendously. I watched those two in the Speedway Grand Prix series when I was barely old enough to ride a bike and it’s a dream come true to be now riding alongside them’.

‘It was a no-brainer to bring Henry back again this year’ commented Phillips. ‘The fans love him, and he really knows his way around the Plymouth track.

He has also ridden at quite a few of the other tracks in the Championship during his spell with Somerset in 2019’.