AFTER finishing 1999 at the bottom of the Premier League, which they had won in 1997 and finished runner-up in 1998, team building for the 2000 season would be vital.
Dave Mullett was ruled out of track action following his high speed crash that had demoralised the Racers in the second half of the 1999 season. He agreed to replace Tim Sugar as Team Manager whilst recovering. Phil Morris was given the captaincy and was joined at heat-leader by 1999 sensation Per Wester. Both of these riders were amongst the only positive points to come out of the 1999 season. After Petri Kokko signed for Elite League Eastbourne on loan, both were always likely to feature in the 2000 team line-up. Within the 45 point limit, this allowed the Racers to sign Armando Castagna. Unfortunately he was only allowed to drop down to the Premier League on a massive 11-point average, which always looked unachievable. Most successful teams are built on riders that can improve averages, so the rest of the team needed to progress with the help of the experienced Italian.
Improvements would be vital from Paul Clews, Krister Marsh (returning after a year at Swindon), Mark Norris and Shane Colvin. A lot of pressure would be on the young reserves to improve to challenge for second string roles.
Reading made a slow start to the season which saw them finish in sixth place in their seven-team Southern Section of the Premier Trophy, so no further progress was made in the competition. Castagna got off to a poor start with just 1 (paid 2) in the season opener against Isle of Wight, but after adjusting to his new Jawa engines, was back up to speed and at the top of the Racers score-charts along with Morris. Wester had started the campaign how he had finished 1999, banging in the points, but after suffering concussion in a fall at Swindon it knocked the young Swede's confidence and he was never quite the same after that.
Reading started off their Premier League campaign in May with a 50-40 home win against Berwick and followed that up the following Monday with a 45-45 draw against Sheffield. The Racers then entered June and a Northern tour of Edinburgh, Berwick and Newcastle. They lost a controversial meeting at Edinburgh 50-43 and then went down to a 49-41 loss at Berwick the following night, with the Newcastle meeting being rained off. The rigours of the Northern Tour took its toll and Reading crashed out of the KO Cup to Swindon days later after losing both legs of their 1st round tie against the Robins. Wester's confidence was shot to pieces after his early season falls and a 6 point return in the 1st leg saw him dropped from the Racers team. Reading used guests for him initially before eventually moving for Arena Essex's Matt Read.
The Racers raced to a 46-44 home win over Newport, but this was quickly followed up with defeats at Hull and Sheffield. A month that had seen the Racers lose six and win only once was ended with a second win when they defeated the Stoke Potters 47-43 at Smallmead at the end of June. Reading continued with guests to replace Wester in their two defeats at Workington (51-39) and Glasgow (49-41), but Read came into the team for the home meeting against Edinburgh. He only managed 3 points against the Monarchs, but the Racers had enough about them to run out 49-44 winners. Unfortunately Read suffered a fall and a loss in confidence in the 47-43 home loss to Newcastle 2 weeks later and, that was the last the Smallmead faithful saw of the young Brit in Racers colours.
The month ended with a very successful Testimonial Meeting for the Racers skipper, Phil Morris. Dave Mullett made his comeback in this meeting and was surprisingly competitive after a year out of the saddle with a serious leg injury. Tim Sugar took over the Team Manager's role from Mullett. A reshuffle in the Racers team saw a return for Mullett at the expense of Marsh and Colvin after inconsistent performances. Unfortunately the averages meant that Read had to be retained despite his future being uncertain due to injury and loss of confidence. Lee Herne was brought in on loan from Newport to join Norris at reserve.
With Mullett understandably taking time to find his feet after his lengthy spell on the sidelines, this resulted in no back up to the heat-leaders. With rider-replacement being operated for Matt Read, this contributed in Reading slipping to home defeats to Glasgow, Hull and Swindon and heavy losses at Swindon and Exeter in August. They did manage a couple of home wins over Arena Essex and Exeter, but it was obvious that wins were going to be hard to come by for the remainder of the season.
Mullett was going great guns at home, but away from Smallmead was finding things tough on his return from injury- in fact he failed to score a single point on his travels. Mullett's injury return was to be premature though, as he had a quick return to hospital to remove the pin from his leg after a series of spills at home and ultimately at Swindon had aggravated his injury. The Smallmead legend missed the remainder of the season, but thankfully he had ridden the minimum six matches. This meant he had a new average for the 2001 season, which should be beneficial to the Racers as it was a lowly 4.39 - a figure he was sure to improve on quite considerably once he was fully fit.
Reading did go on to beat Isle of Wight 48-41 at Smallmead, but a home reverse to Workington (50-39) and away losses to Stoke, Isle of Wight and Newcastle soon followed in September. The final Premier League defeat at Newcastle confirmed the unwanted ‘Wooden Spoon' for a second successive season. It was a spirited performance by the Racers in a narrow five-point defeat, considering they were without the previous ever-present Phil Morris, who had damaged his cheekbone and eye socket playing football.
In summary of the season, Castagna was never going to live up to his 11.00 average, but after a slow start recorded double figures consistently to average over nine points. Morris added a point to his average after a significant improvement in 1999.
Fellow heat-leader Wester never got going after being concussed in a fall at Swindon in April. The improvement of Morris and Clews was cancelled out by Wester's two-point drop in average. Clews increased his average by almost a point on his final 1999 average. This was even more impressive considering he spent all year at second string or third heat-leader, after dropping to reserve during 1999. Marsh started the season well, but poor performances in July and inconsistency led to him being dropped when Mullett returned. Mullett showed glimpses of form before injury forced him to miss the last month of the season. Colvin's good gating delivered some impressive scores to put a point on his average and, Norris showed his potential in patches, but was too often let down by inferior machinery and his average dipped slightly.
