Speedway’s Struggles
Dear Simon,
The mentions of speedway in the pages of Best of British over the past six months or so combined with a perusal of the 2024 fixture lists brought home to me how few active speedway tracks there are in the UK now. Only 15 will be staging competitive speedway this season in the top three tiers of the sport (Premiership, Championship and National Development League).
Towards the end of last year, I was belatedly made aware that Peterborough Panthers had lost the use of the East of England Showground. A few months earlier I spotted the news that Wolverhampton Wolves would have to quit Monmore Green at the end of the 2023 season.
While searching online for news of how speedway fans in Peterborough were faring in their quest for a new home for the Panthers, I stumbled on stories relating to the closure of Coventry Bees back in 2016. Brandon Stadium is still standing but in a sorry and overgrown state of disrepair as developers continue with their attempts to push through plans to build new homes on the site.
A recent mention of Buxton in a Best of British article prompted me to look up the Buxton Hitmen and I discovered the owners had pulled the club out of the National Development League after suffering unsustainable losses in the 2018 season. The stated aim was to re-enter the third tier in a future season but after six years this would seem unlikely. Mildenhall Fen Tigers decided to sit out the 2024 season to regroup for 2025 but one wonders whether the club’s colours will be seen in racing action again.
These are clearly tough times for speedway promoters to operate in but amid the doom and gloom shines a ray of hope with a first for British speedway – a club is tracking teams in all three leagues. The newly formed Oxford Spires will race in the Premiership while Oxford Cheetahs and Oxford Chargers continue in the Championship and National Development League respectively.
I’m sure anyone with an interest in speedway will be looking to see whether this bold move pays off for the Oxford promotion. Such a brave decision surely deserves to be rewarded with success as it gives young riders a clear pathway to progress through the leagues. The all-conquering Peterborough Thundercats septet of teenagers in the old Conference League in 1997 produced future international racers David Howe, Olly Allen and Simon Stead who all progressed from the Thundercats to help the Panthers win the old Premier League in 1998.