Moore Park hosts the first round of the Teams Solo Speedway Challenge on Friday 27th February at 6pm. It could be, say informed sources the final meeting for the former International speedway rider David Bargh before he retires for good.

Bargh will captain the Manawatu team and will do more than chat with another former international rider, Larry Ross. They meet in heat eight of the 16 heat contest.  Bargh has an injured Brendan Manu as team manager to call on and his nephew Andrew in the reserves. The former under 21 and NZ Champion has had several seasons racing in the English league. Jason McKay and Mitchell McHardy are the youth in the Palmy team.

Ross on the other hand will be joined by his son John, a new boy to the sport and will be backed by Andrew Aldridge and Cory Lang. Aldridge has just signed for another English season with Poole riding for the Bournemouth Buccaneers. He won the solo and GP solo titles at the recent Ascot Park Long Track meeting while John Ross took out the Long Track Grand Prix.

Southland team captain John Tuffley is the current Long Track Champion and his team includes the current NZ Under 21 Champion Grant Tregoning and James Miller. Tregoning also heads overseas for another attempt to break into a professional team.

The Moohan brothers will be split. Jamie will race for Southland now he resides down there and brother Dylan will ride for Auckland. The youngster Sean Mason is a rider of the future and is certain to take some valuable points from the opposition for his Auckland team. Karl Bagshaw joins him as does the Nelson rider Sean Cox. Cox is on loan and cannot be discounted. After coming back from serious arm injury last year, he finished fourth in this years NZ Champs after only three rides prior to the meeting.

The riders are looking forward to the challenge as Moore Park is a purpose built speedway bike track which allows close fast racing. It is also capable of handling any indifferent weather conditions and can be raced on effectively with puddles on the surface, if they have to. A rare site these days in NZ speedway circles.

Round two of the Teams Challenge is at Ruapuna on the big clay track on Saturday 28th at 7pm.