KING’S Lynn bring down the curtain on the 2025 season with the Poultec Young Stars Pride of the East at the Adrian Flux Arena on Thursday (7.30pm).

An exciting line-up including plenty of emerging talent has been assembled for the meeting which will also celebrate the club’s 60th anniversary and a successful campaign which saw them lift the NDT title.

Young Stars favourite Cooper Rushen, after a stellar debut season at the age of 15, will be one of the top contenders, but he’s likely to face stern competition from another teen sensation Will Cairns, along with fellow Development league stars Ben Trigger, Ben Morley, Jordy Loftus and Darryl Ritchings.

In addition, Ryan Ingram has made massive progress in 2025, whilst the more experienced James Shanes is an interesting inclusion in a rare speedway appearance having returned to grasstrack racing this year.

Meanwhile 15-year-old Ollie Binns makes his debut this level after celebrating his birthday on September 8. Binns has been practicing on 500cc machinery and the meeting gives him a taste of what is to follow when he races at NDL level in 2026.

Young Stars manager Jason Pipe said: “I was asked a few weeks ago by Buster (Keith Chapman) to put together a meeting at National Development level so we can celebrate 60 years of speedway racing at the Adrian Flux Arena.

“I know the Pride of the East has been a really big event over the years at King’s Lynn, with some great riders in past, but it hasn’t been seen for a number of years now for a number of reasons.

“With this being the 60th anniversary season and a few fans been asking for it to come back, it felt right to bring this famous event back to King’s Lynn.

“Although we have had three or four riders having to drop out since I started putting it together, the replacements I’ve brought in I personally think are just as good as the original riders, so we still have a very good line-up.

“Recently I’ve seen a couple of comments on social media about this rider and that rider are ‘too old’ for this event, so I’d like to clear something up. Because the title of the meeting is called the ‘Young Stars’ Pride of the East, it doesn’t mean it’s for young riders only.

“This meeting is for riders who are either currently racing at National Development level, or they are eligible to race at this level.

“The reason the Young Stars name is in the title is because it’s so that people can see it’s a meeting at this level with these riders, and with our own team at this level called the Young Stars it was a fitting way to put our own name to the title of the event.”

One disappointment is the absence of Young Stars skipper Jody Scott, who suffered a heavy crash at Oxford when racing for Redcar on Sunday.

Scott was able to walk away from the incident but he is ruled out for 12 days under the sport’s concussion protocols. Meanwhile fellow Young Stars heat-leader Luke Harrison is in Poland to race in the FIM Speedway of Nations 2 on Friday alongside Dan Thompson and Luke Killeen.

Pipe added: “My thanks to Darryl Ritchings for coming in to replace Jody at the last minute. Darryl has had to juggle things around with work so that he can now ride in this meeting, which I very much appreciate.

“Also thank you to Sam Woods, Jason Garrad and Arran Butcher, who have all only just come into the line-up over the last few days.

“I’d like to thank Richard Knight, who has done a great job in getting all the heats sponsored, including securing meeting sponsorship from training specialists Poultec.

“I’d also like to thank all those that have helped me with sponsoring the race jackets that have been made for this event, and to Richard Newton for the methanol sponsorship, and to Phillip A Lawson (PAL decorator) for his sponsorship of the chain sprays for all the riders.

“The weather looks like it’s going to be on our side, so I’m hoping we will see a decent crowd on Thursday and I’m sure they will see some good racing.

“It will be a few weeks since we last saw speedway at King’s Lynn and I’m hoping many will have missed watching the racing and will come along and support these boys.

“I can’t even predict who I think will win this meeting, but all I do know is that it’s going to be a great evening’s entertainment, not to be missed.

“These riders that are on show this Thursday deserve a meeting like this to race in, just as much as the top riders.

“I know our own loyal supporters at this level will turn out to watch on Thursday, but I ask, if you have yet to sample racing at this level, please come along on Thursday and you might well just be pleasantly surprised at how good this level of racing is. It’s a long winter ahead without seeing any racing!”

There will be 23 races on Thursday with a GP-style format building up to a winner-takes-all Final. Admission prices are £20 adults, £5 children (12-15), with under-12s free.

LINE-UP: 1 Cooper Rushen, 2 Jason Garrad, 3 Kai Ward, 4 Kenzie Cossey, 5 Ben Trigger, 6 Arran Butcher, 7 Will Cairns, 8 Ollie Binns, 9 Jack Smith, 10 James Shanes, 11 Ryan Ingram, 12 Darryl Ritchings, 13 Ben Morley, 14 Sam Woods, 15 Dayle Wood, 16 Jordy Loftus. Reserves: Emerson Betty, Dylan Huthwaite