Charles Martin Wright (born 26 October 1988) is a British

speedway Speedway may refer to: Racing Race tracks *Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta *Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a motor raceway in Speedway, Indiana Types of races and race cours ...

rider.

Career history

Wright was born in

Stockport Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here. Most of the town is within ...

, Greater Manchester, started his career with the

Buxton Hitmen The Buxton Hitmen were a speedway team in the British National League (formerly the Conference League) from 1994 to 2018. The club stopped racing in the National League after the 2018 speedway season. History The team's inaugural season was i ...

in the Conference League before stepping up a level and joining the Workington Comets for the 2008 season. In 2011, he had a spell on loan at

Leicester Lions Leicester Lions are a speedway team which originally operated from 1968 until 1983.Bamford, R & Jarvis J.(2001). ''Homes of British Speedway''. The club returned to speedway for the 2011 Premier League season, moving up to the Elite League ...

, replacing Jamie Courtney, only to be replaced himself later in the season.2011 Rider Index: W
, speedwaygb.co.uk, retrieved 2011-12-05 In 2012, he rode for

Edinburgh Monarchs The Edinburgh Monarchs are a Scottish Speedway team, currently based in Armadale. They compete in the SGB Championship, racing on Friday nights during the Speedway season. The club is run by a board of directors, chaired by Alex Harkess. The cl ...

until being released in July. Shortly after he went on to join the Glasgow Tigers only a few weeks after his axe from Edinburgh replacing long serving reserve Jayden O'Malley and simultaneously joined the Buxton Hitmen in the National League at number one. In late August 2013, he replaced Stefan Nielsen in the Somerset Rebels side, and made an immediate impact when scoring 9-points in the 2nd leg of the KO Cup Semi-final at Edinburgh, which ended in a 90-90 aggregate draw and had to be ridden again the following month when the Rebels eventually carried off the Cup. He went to become a major contributor to the Rebels title and KO Cup winning efforts. In 2014, he was one of only two riders retained from the Rebels double winning septet, with the other being Nick Morris. He continued his 2015 season with the Somerset Rebels again. In December 2016, he signed for

Redcar Bears The Redcar Bears are a British speedway team who currently compete in the SGB Championship (middle tier of the British speedway leagues). Their major team honour to date is the SGB Championship KO Cup win in 2019 against rivals Newcastle Diamo ...

in the

SGB Championship The Speedway Great Britain (SGB) Championship is the second division of speedway league competition in the United Kingdom, governed by the Speedway Control Bureau (SCB), in conjunction with the British Speedway Promoters' Association (BSPA). It ...

for the 2017 season. For 2018, he moved to local track

Sheffield Tigers The Sheffield 'Tru Plant' Tigers are a motorcycle speedway team based in Sheffield, England. They currently race in the British SGB Premiership, and their home meetings take place at Owlerton Stadium. The Tigers traditionally hold their race n ...

and he won the

SGB Championship Pairs SGB may refer to: Organisations * Schweizerischer Gewerkschaftsbund, the Swiss Trade Union Federation * Scholengemeenschap Bonaire, the secondary school on the island of Bonaire * SGB-SMIT Group, a transformer manufacturer * St.George Bank (ASX co ...

partnering

Kyle Howarth Kyle Howarth (born 11 February 1994) is a British speedway rider. Biography Born in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, Howarth competed in grasstrack and motocross before starting his speedway career in 2008 in amateur competitions, gaining ...

for the Tigers, during the

SGB Championship 2018 The SGB Championship 2018 was the 2018 season of the second division of Great British speedway. The season ran between March and October 2018 and consisted of 11 teams participating. Workington Comets completed the treble winning the playoffs, Ch ...

season. He returned to

again in 2019. Charles was crowned British Champion for the first time in his career after winning the 2019 British Final at the National Speedway Stadium in Manchester on 29 July. He appeared as Wildcard in the British Grand Prix in Cardiff on 21 September 2019 scoring 5 points. On 23 October 2019 Charles was awarded his first Great Britain cap when he represented Team Great Britain in the new Global Challenge series against Denmark scoring 10 points as joint top scorer. Four days later Charles became the first Captain of the Redcar Bears to lift the

Knock-Out Cup after defeating local rival Newcastle in the final. Charles competed in the inaugural 2019 FIM Oceania Speedway Championship in Gillman South Australia finishing sixth with 11 points. In 2021 and 2022, Wright rode for the

Belle Vue Aces The Belle Vue Aces are a British motorcycle speedway, speedway club, based in Manchester. The club hold the record of having won the top tier List of United Kingdom speedway league champions, League championship 13 times. They currently compete ...

in the

SGB Premiership The Speedway Great Britain (SGB) Premiership is the top division of speedway league competition in the United Kingdom, governed by the Speedway Control Bureau (SCB) in conjunction with the British Speedway Promoters' Association (BSPA). It was int ...

and the Redcar Bears in the

. In 2021, he won the bronze medal in the 2021 British Speedway Championship and won the 2022

SGB Championship Pairs Championship The SGB Championship Pairs Championship formerly the Premier League Pairs Championship (from 1997 to 2016) is a motorcycle speedway contest for the second tier teams in the SGB Championship in the United Kingdom. The teams consist of the top two r ...

for Redcar, with

Lewis Kerr Lewis James Kerr (born 25 March 1990) is a British speedway rider from Snettisham in England. Speedway career Kerr took up speedway in late 2009, and made his competitive debut in June the following year for King's Lynn Young Stars' in the Nati ...

. His 2022 season produced further success when he won the

SGB Premiership 2022 The 2022 SGB Premiership was the 87th season of the top tier of British Speedway and the 5th known as the SGB Premiership. Sheffield Tigers topped the regular season table and met Belle Vue Aces in the play off final but Belle Vue ran out the winn ...

with his team Belle Vue. In 2023, re-signed for Belle Vue for the

SGB Premiership 2023 The 2023 Sports Insure SGB Premiership is the 88th season of the top tier of British speedway and the 6th known as the SGB Premiership. There was an increase of one team after the Leicester Lions opted to move up from the SGB Championship. 20 ...

and

for the

SGB Championship 2023 The 2023 SGB Cab Direct Championship season will be the 76th season of the second tier of British Speedway and the 6th known as the SGB Championship. The British Speedway Network (BSN) would stream 35 matches live for the second year running. S ...

Family

His grandfather, Jim Yacoby rode for the

from 1959 until 1967. Charles' brother

James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

is also a speedway rider. He was British Speedway Champion in 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Charles 1988 births Living people British speedway riders English motorcycle racers Sportspeople from Stockport Belle Vue Aces riders Buxton Hitmen riders Edinburgh Monarchs riders Glasgow Tigers riders Leicester Lions riders Peterborough Panthers riders Redcar Bears riders Sheffield Tigers riders Somerset Rebels riders Swindon Robins riders Workington Comets riders