DANNY KING hopes to repay the faith shown him by the Ipswich management after re-signing for a 16th season as a Witch.
There may still be a week to go before the BSPL AGM confirms the format and points’ limit for the 2025 ROWE Motor Oil Premiership but King joins Emil Sayfutdinov, Jordan Jenkins and Dan Thompson as confirmed starters.
But King admits that he wasn’t sure if he would be retained after a difficult 2024 hampered by injury.
He said: “I wasn’t sure. I don’t want to go anywhere else; I want to be here but I didn’t have a great year in general because of my hand injury and struggling to carry on racing.
“It means so much to me to know they want me back and just shows my loyalty to them works both ways. They knew that I was not 100 per cent and that I have got room for improvement on that average.
“But 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.
King said: “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. I have to force my hand closed which makes it difficult on rough tracks to hold on.
“I felt comfortable enough to race but it wasn’t 100 per cent. Fighting that all year was difficult and I was doing everything behind the scenes to try and help and it did. It was a tricky year.”
The 38-year-old is heading back to see his surgeon over the winter as he looks to return to full fitness in 2025.
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,” he explained.
“You have got one of the best riders in the world in Emil (Sayfutdinov) wanting to come back 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.
“Getting myself 100 per cent is the priority and I am concentrating on getting my hand sorted.
“Then the plan will be to get out early in the new year and get plenty of practice so I can hit the ground running.
“I give 100 per cent 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 per cent ”
Words by George Dodds.
Images by Taylor Lanning.