FANS’ favourites Ben Barker and Alfie Bowtell will once again be riding for the Plymouth Prow Park Gladiators in 2024.

Popular 35-year-old Cornishman Barker 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.”

Bowtell, 26, 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.

“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 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 nine to 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.”