The next four riders have been announced for the tenth Ben Fund Bonanza at the Paul Chapman & Sons Arena, Leicester on Sunday 17th March, start time 2pm. They are the Worrall brothers Steve and Richie plus Thomas Jorgensen and Ulrich Ostergaard.
The Worralls have always strongly supported the event with seven previous appearances between them. Of course 2018 was a pretty dreadful year for Steve who was injured very early and only managed to return for the last few matches at Belle Vue and Scunthorpe. He could be excused for thinking his luck hasn’t changed after losing his Championship club Workington recently.
Steve said “The Ben Fund has helped so much. Obviously as we grow older we get more responsibility, and I now have my family with two children, it’s tough and speedway for me is my only income. If you haven’t got good insurance policies in place (and they cost a lot of money as well) then it’s tough. If you have a bad injury and a lot of time off, you still have so many outgoings. You can’t ring them up and say ‘Look I’m in this position at the moment, I’ll give you a ring in a few months…’
“It doesn’t happen like that does it, so thankfully the Ben Fund is there to help out. I’d put so much into it over the 2017-8 winter, you don’t think – what if I get injured? You’re always thinking about the positives rather than the negatives. Four or five meetings into the season I hadn’t even earned enough money to get my bike sorted. So the Ben Fund was a life saver.
“I offer my services every year to the Ben Fund Bonanza. I have had one or two injuries now, and Paul is always straight away on the phone asking if he can help in any way. He doesn’t have to – anyone who is involved with the Ben Fund, they don’t have to - and if there’s one little meeting that we can do to give something back, and help with the collections throughout the year, then that’s fine.”
