From riding motorbikes across his family’s farm fields through his youth to appearing on track in some of the top Speedway stadiums in the country has been the journey taken by Mildenhall Fen Tigers’ (proudly sponsored by Manchetts Rescue and Recovery) 2022 signing, Josh Warren.

And the 22-year-old is only right at the beginning of his racing career.

 Crazy as it seems, starting out in Speedway aged 19 as the Peterborough-born rider did, marks him out as a comparative late starter in the sport.  But with so many youngsters entering the burgeoning youth ranks aged sometimes just 11 or 12 and first appearing in the senior leagues at 15, it is the case that Josh has entered the fray, by comparison, relatively late – as he explains,

“I first got on a Speedway bike at Scunthorpe at one of their try-out sessions at the end of 2019 and immediately I was hooked.

“I’d been around motor cycles sine I was a young kid – riding bikes over the farm fields at home and then as a teenager I’d competed at MotoX.  But once I got on a Speedway bike, racing around the track, I knew it was the sport I wanted to do”.

But no sooner had Josh made that decision then events conspired to frustrate his attempts to get going.

“2020 was meant  be the year I got started – but then, as everyone knows, along came the pandemic and Lockdown and it was hugely frustrating (for me and everyone else too of course) that the season got cancelled.  I did manage though to get a few amateur meetings in and that limited experience and by putting my name out there, I got myself the offer to ride for the Central Park-based Kent club’s Royals’ side in the 2021 National Development League [NDL]”.

The first season riding in the NDL gave Josh experience but not without frustrations too.

“The Royals played very much second fiddle in terms of Kent’s priorities to their senior Championship side and as meetings got lost to rain and other cancellations our team‘s fixtures got more and more squeezed out, until it was that we didn’t have any home matches until right at the end of September & into October.  The away matches had given me a chance to ride at a number of tracks new to me and I won my first NDL race at one of those away meetings, vs. Leicester so this is invaluable experience I can bring into this season with most venues ones I’ve now already raced at”.

 And it’s been at his new club’s first away day of the 2022 season where Josh has already displayed the great potential he brings to the all-important reserve berth in the side – ironically against a club called Kent Royals but riding now at a circuit he had no previous racing experience at,

“The match at Iwade the weekend before last was only the second time I’d been there – the first was at a practice session on the very first day in 2020 after the Lockdown when we were allowed out on track again. I have to say that I’ve progressed so much since those very early days that the way I was in the Cup match bore no resemblance to how I was in those very early days.   I felt good with myself and my machinery, calm and confident right from the off, getting that heat two win and kicking on from there.  I was really happy to reach double figures for the first ever time and also the first time I’ve won two races in one match – the 5-1 I got with Sam [Bebee] when I was drafted into heat eight was absolutely vital to the our aggregate win, I know”

And that win places the Fen Tigers into a Cup Final already at such an early stage of the season which only increases overall confidence around the camp as the team start their defence of their NDL title with the visit of league newcomers, Plymouth Centurions next Sunday (15th. May),

“Obviously joining a side that are reigning champions, my ambition for the team is for us to defend that title!  My team mates are a great bunch of lads and we are all up for the challenge”.

And for Warren it’s a full time job at the highest echelon of the sport which both pays his way when he’s not racing and is giving him even more experience,

“I work full time as mechanic for Danny King [Ipswich Speedway skipper and former British Champion] and I can’t tell you how invaluable that is for my own development as a rider. Danny passes on his know-how to me all the time, showing me the right things to do.  The way we look at it is that things it’s taken Danny his whole career to know [a career which included a KOC win with Mildenhall back in the early noughties], I’m able to learn by being taught by and being around him”.

And Josh also has the help of another former Fen Tiger and British U21 champion in current Ipswich Team Manager, Ritchie Hawkins. 

“Ritchie was in my corner in the pits with me at Iwade and as ever he was a huge help.  It really feels that all the hard work spent at training days and the hours in the workshop, the long trips around the country getting in rides – it feels all worthwhile when one gets a performance like in that KOC semi-final”.

As with all of the Fen Tigers’ riders, Josh is keen to express his thanks for the help and support he gets from family, friends and all-important sponsors,

“Obviously I want to thank Danny and Ritchie; and my Dad, Robert at RJ Warren Ltd; my Mum Susan and my Grand-dad, Andy Miller.

And my sponsors: EPD Insulation, A1 Fencing of Whittlesey; ARC Welding Ltd., John at John Industries; and The Air Conditioning & Ventilation Company (Peterborough)”.