WEYMOUTH Wildcats have announced the signing of Luke Barnes ahead of the start of their season which begins on Saturday.

Barnes, 24, was recommended to get in touch with the Wildcats who have since signed him to the team to complete their roster of six riders.

Co-promoter of the Wildcats, Martin Peters explained: “ Someone told him about us and said to come and contact us and he contacted James, and he told us about himself and we checked him out and invited him along to the individual that we have got next weekend at Eastbourne.

“It turns out he is quite a decent rider and he wants to get back into the sport so we thought well we will add him as the sixth member of the team.”

Peters admits to feeling fortunate with how the signing came about and praised Barnes for his attitude displayed so far.

Peters said: “It just fell into our laps, to be honest, I think he is going to add that little bit of extra steel that we might need.

“He is a little bit older than the rest so he has been riding for a while. He is really enthusiastic he is keen and he is willing to help everybody else as well so the younger ones are going to sort of learn from him.

Barnes joins Connor Fletcher, James Jessop, Jacob and Bailey Fellows with Jordan Bull the captain of the team.

The Wildcats boast a young squad and Peters admitted that it was a relief to have someone older in the side, with two of their riders at school and another two at college and one of their scheduled meetings outside of a holiday.

Peters said: “So with Connor, who is 19 and Jordan, who lives close, and then Luke we would just need the one rider to step in for us for that day against Exeter.”

The signing allows the Wildcats to look ahead to the new season with a complete team now, meaning they will face considerably less pressure than they did last year in terms of their squad.

Peters said: “We have got six really keen riders now who all want to ride so the pressure is going to be a lot less than it was last year so I am really looking forward to this year. “

In the same interview, Peters confirmed to Echosport that there had been no further developments in their ongoing efforts to move back to Weymouth.

For the season ahead the Wildcats will be based in the Arlington Stadium, which is just outside of Eastbourne in East Sussex.

The Wildcats begin their season on Saturday with the Chesil Radio Individual Challenge.

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