The Isle of Wight Warriors (formerly Isle of Wight Islanders) are a

motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...

team from England. They last competed in the 2019 National Development League and ride their home meetings at the Smallbrook Stadium. Since leaving the British Speedway leagues, the team has competed in various challenge matches and the amateur NORA league.

History

Origins and 1990s

Isle of Wight speedway began in 1996, at the Smallbrook Stadium, when the team signed up as a founder member of the newly formed Conference League. The league was for teams outside of the Premier League at the time and during their inaugural season the Ryde Wight Wizards finished in fourth place in the 1996 Speedway Conference League table. The following season in 1997, the team entered the Conference League again, which was now the third tier of British speedway because a new Elite League had been formed as the top tier, with the Premier League becoming the second tier. However, in July the Premier League team Skegness Braves folded due to financial difficulties and the Smallbrook Stadium promotion stepped in to host the remainder of the fixtures. The team would be known as the Isle of Wight Islanders. The team won their first silverware in 1998 after winning the Young Shield, an end of season event for the leading eight clubs in the league table. They defeated the league champions

Peterborough Panthers The Peterborough Panthers were a British motorcycle speedway team based in Peterborough, England from 1970 to 2023. They were three times List of United Kingdom speedway league champions, champions of the United Kingdom, winning the highest lev ...

in the final.

2000s

After several mediocre seasons they won the Young Shield again during the 2001 Premier League speedway season. In 2002,

Adam Shields Adam Matthew Shields (born 8 February 1977 in Kurri Kurri, New South Wales, is an Australian former international motorcycle speedway rider, who has ridden for multiple teams in the British speedway. Speedway career He first rode in the Unit ...

and Danny Bird won the Premier League Pairs Championship, held at

Derwent Park Derwent Park is a Rugby League Stadium and former motorcycle speedway in Workington, England situated beside the Cumbrian River Derwent. It is used mostly for rugby league matches and is the home stadium of Workington Town who play in Leagu ...

on 19 July and the following season in 2003, the club won their best honour to date, when winning the

Premier League Knockout Cup The Premier League Knockout Cup was a motorcycle speedway Knockout Cup competition in the United Kingdom between 1995 and 2016, governed by the Speedway Control Bureau (SCB). History The teams from the Premier League, the top tier of league rac ...

. During the 2007 Premier League speedway season, the team reached the play offs and won both the

Pairs Concentration is a round game in which all of the cards are laid face down on a surface and two cards are flipped face up over each turn. The object of the game is to turn over pairs of matching cards. Concentration can be played with any number ...

(

Chris Holder Christopher Robert Holder (born 24 September 1987 in Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australian speedway rider, who was the 2012 World Speedway Champion. He is also five times Australian champion (2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2014. Career Hold ...

and

Jason Bunyan Jason Michael Bunyan (born 9 March 1979 in Milton Keynes) is a former England under-21 international motorcycle speedway rider from England. He is a ten times champion of New Zealand. Racing career He won the New Zealand Championship from 200 ...

beat

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

in the final) and Fours Championships (Holder, Bunyan, Krzysztof Stojanowski, Glen Phillips and

Cory Gathercole Cory James Gathercole (born 2 December 1986) is an Australian former motorcycle speedway rider. Career Gathercole first came to British speedway when he joined the Swindon Robins squad in the Elite League for the 2007 Elite League speedway s ...

). After the 2008 season the Islanders joined the third division (the National League) finishing 5th.

2010s

After three seasons without National league success, the team won the National Trophy (a supplementary tournament, during the 2013 National League speedway season). After a break of two years (2014 and 2015), the club reformed in 2016 under the promotion of Barry Bishop and Martin Widman. For the

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

and

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

seasons the team raced as the Isle of Wight Warriors.

2020s

The

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

caused the cancellation of the 2020 season before the club announced they would not be competing during the 2021 season. However, a team would race as the Wightlink Warriors Shale Track Racing Club, separate from the British speedway leagues. In 2024, the team won the amateur NORA league. On 30 May 2025 a fan forum is being held regarding the future of Warriors speedway.

Notable riders

Season summary

References

{{Speedway National League Speedway Premier League teams National League speedway teams Sport on the Isle of Wight