By Ky Capel - Dorset Echo

Weymouth Doonan Wildcats will be marking this Saturday's Conference League Pairs meeting as the 100th race night at the Wessex Stadium since speedway returned to the town five years ago. Weymouth faced a 19-year absence from the sport in 1984 when uncertainty over land saw then promoter Mervyn Stewkesbury move speedway to Poole after their stadium became available. However, after almost two decades of waiting, speedway made its comeback in 2003, and to celebrate the century occasion the Wildcats will sponsor a £100 race-off with Kyle Newman, Matt Bates, Brendan Johnson and Tim Webster all competing for the cash prize. That race will be a warm-up for the main event - the Conference League Pairs - in which Jay Herne and Jon Armstrong will represent the Radipole Lane outfit against the top two from each Conference League club.

Derek Smithson, incident recorder for the Wildcats and long-standing enthusiast, said: "It was an extremely long wait, and after ten years I thought it would be the end of speedway in Weymouth. But Brian White persevered and eventually got temporary planning consent in 2003 to bring speedway back to the stadium. "I hope now that Phil Bartlett can take the club to the next level, which is the Premier League because we need to look forward."

Wildcats chairman Bartlett, who joined the club in 2005, is hoping for a prosperous future. He said: "Ideally we'd like to go up to the Premier League but we need the crowds to increase for that to happen because everything's more expensive, it's a higher standard of racing with more clubs to race against." Of Saturday night's main attraction, Bartlett is very much looking forward to it. He added: "I'd tip Weymouth to win but you never know what will happen on the night. If the lads are on top of their game it could be our first piece of silverware this season."