Charles Wright (speedway rider)

Charles Martin Wright (born 26 October 1988) is a British speedway rider.

Career history
Wright was born in Stockport, Greater Manchester, started his career with the Buxton Hitmen in the Conference League before stepping up a level and joining the Workington Comets for the 2008 season. He was part of the Workington four who won the Premier League Four-Team Championship, held on 26 July 2008, at Derwent Park.

In 2011, he had a spell on loan at Leicester Lions, replacing Jamie Courtney, only to be replaced himself later in the season. In 2012, he rode for Edinburgh Monarchs until being released in July. Shortly after he went on to join the Glasgow Tigers only a few weeks after his axe from Edinburgh replacing long serving reserve Jayden O'Malley and simultaneously joined the Buxton Hitmen in the National League at number one. In late August 2013, he replaced Stefan Nielsen in the Somerset Rebels side, and made an immediate impact when scoring 9-points in the 2nd leg of the KO Cup Semi-final at Edinburgh, which ended in a 90-90 aggregate draw and had to be ridden again the following month when the Rebels eventually carried off the Cup. He went to become a major contributor to the Rebels title and KO Cup winning efforts. In 2014, he was one of only two riders retained from the Rebels double winning septet, with the other being Nick Morris. He was part of the Somerset team that won the Premier League Four-Team Championship, which was held on 3 August 2014, at the East of England Arena.

He continued his 2015 season with the Somerset Rebels again.

In December 2016, he signed for Redcar Bears in the SGB Championship for the 2017 season. For 2018, he moved to local track Sheffield Tigers and he won the SGB Championship Pairs partnering Kyle Howarth for the Tigers, during the SGB Championship 2018 season. He returned to Redcar Bears again in 2019.

Charles was crowned British Champion for the first time in his career after winning the 2019 British Final at the National Speedway Stadium in Manchester on 29 July. He appeared as Wildcard in the British Grand Prix in Cardiff on 21 September 2019 scoring 5 points. On 23 October 2019 Charles was awarded his first Great Britain cap when he represented Team Great Britain in the new Global Challenge series against Denmark scoring 10 points as joint top scorer. Four days later Charles became the first Captain of the Redcar Bears to lift the SGB Championship Knock-Out Cup after defeating local rival Newcastle in the final. Charles competed in the inaugural 2019 FIM Oceania Speedway Championship in Gillman South Australia finishing sixth with 11 points.

In 2021 and 2022, Wright rode for the Belle Vue Aces in the SGB Premiership and the Redcar Bears in the SGB Championship. In 2021, he won the bronze medal in the 2021 British Speedway Championship and won the 2022 SGB Championship Pairs Championship for Redcar, with Lewis Kerr. His 2022 season produced further success when he won the SGB Premiership 2022 with his team Belle Vue.

He re-signed for Belle Vue for the SGB Premiership 2023 and Redcar Bears for the 2023 and 2024 SGB Championship seasons. In August, he won the SGB Championship Riders' Championship on his home track at the Ecco Arena. At the end of the season he was released by Belle Vue but signed for the Oxford Spires for the 2024 season.

Family
His grandfather, Jim Yacoby rode for the Belle Vue Aces from 1959 until 1967. Charles' brother James is also a speedway rider.