2012 team building has started early for the Ipswich ‘Sackers’ Witches with the first rider set to wear a Witches racejacket next season signing his contract at their Supporters Club end of season dinner dance held on Saturday night.

2012 team building has started early for the Ipswich ‘Sackers’ Witches with the first rider set to wear a Witches racejacket next season signing his contract at their Supporters Club end of season dinner dance held on Saturday night.

After a very impressive UK debut season riding for the Mildenhall Fen Tigers aussie teenager Cameron Heeps will step up in to one of the Ipswich reserve berths while continuing to ride for the Fen Tigers at National League level.

Ipswich Director of Speedway, Chris Louis, said after the contract signing had been completed “I am very excited at the prospect of seeing Cameron in action for Ipswich next year especially after the way he finished fourth in the 16 Lap Classic at Foxhall last Thursday night. He had only done a few practice laps previous to that and he wasn’t riding his own bike so to compete as he did in difficult conditions against mainly Premier league riders was a really big achievement for him. It’s probably unusual to announce one of the reserves as your first signing but we believe Cameron will play an important part in the future of Ipswich Speedway and this is another step forward in our long term plan to rebuild the club after dropping down to the Premier League. We have already put in a lot of time, effort and expense bringing him over to the UK but in the short time he has been here he has already matured as a rider, is always willing to listen and learn from Kevin, Michael and myself over at Mildenhall and combined with his great natural ability on a bike he looks destined to go a long way in the sport. I hope to be able to announce more team signings in the very near future so keep checking back on the team website for the latest updates...”.

The ‘end of season’ awards were also presented during the dinner/dance and the recipients were as follows: Most Improved Rider - Chris Mills, Most Entertaining Rider - Mat Tresarrieu, Most Bonus Points Scored - Kevin Doolan, Rider of the Year - Lasse Bjerre, Junior Witches Rider of the Year – Taylor Poole. A Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to 90 year old Ruby Woods who has been an ardent Witches fan since 1951 when speedway first started at Foxhall Stadium. She still attends as many home meetings as possible and always talks to ‘her boys’ both before and after the racing.