A LOST SEASON IN BRITISH SPEEDWAY RODDY McDOUGALL Contents Acknowledgements 9 Introduction 11 1. September 2019 – Same sport, different worlds 16 2 October 2019 – A damp squib 33 3. November 2019 – If the points fit 52 4. December 2019 – Workington woman 70 5. January 2020 – Speedway’s conundrum 89 6 February 2020 – Sunlight through dark clouds 108 7. March 2020 – Lockdown 126 8. April 2020 – Fear and frustration 144 9. May 2020 – The speedway bubble 163 10. June 2020 – Closed doors 181 11. July 2020 – An elite sport 200 12. August 2020 – Some kind of normal 222 13. September 2020 – Best-laid plans 241 14. October 2020 – The unluckiest break 261 Postscript 287 Select bibliography 288 September 2019 – Same sport, different worlds LOOMER ROAD Stadium – or, to give it its original title, the Chesterton Greyhound and Speedway Stadium – wouldn’t be many people’s first choice for a great Saturday night out It’s hidden away, out of sight of the road, in the hinterlands of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, at the end of a featureless industrial estate boasting the likes of Burma Bacon Supplies and Dynamic Pump Services ‘Stadium’ is a bit of a stretch, too, if we’re being honest There’s a small brick and corrugated metal grandstand along one side of the track, rust-red steelwork holding up a sloping roof, which has ‘STOKE SPEEDWAY’ in black capitals across the front It’s functional rather than flamboyant Glass windows offer good views from the bar area above a shallow concreted standing area, and there are red, metal barriers on either side of the grandstand for spectators to lean on as they fill in their scorecards The other three sides are effectively grass banks where cars can drive up and park – American drive-in cinema style – to overlook the track in the middle To the uninitiated this looks like a muddy and puddled construction site after a period of heavy rain rather than something that’s going to be the centre of paid-for entertainment Yet, tonight, a sunlit evening in mid-September that can’t decide if it’s late summer or early autumn, there are hundreds of people heading towards this unlikely sporting mecca A long line of cars and vans is 16 SEPTEMBER 2019 – SAME sport, DIFFERENT worlds queuing patiently to get through the stadium’s narrow entrance from the east From the west, there’s a queue of pedestrians, their entrance money – £13 for adults, £11 for senior citizens, £2 for children aged 5–15 – ready to be handed over at the small brick turnstile block They’ve all come out to watch their local speedway team, the Stoke Potters, race against the Leicester Lion Cubs So many have turned up, in fact, that tonight’s advertised start time will have to be pushed back by half an hour to half past seven Many are regulars, visitors to Loomer Road for many years Some have probably made a special trip this evening, having not been for quite a while Others – including me – are here because tonight is the last time that this stadium will host speedway A sport that was first staged in Stoke in 1929 – and which has continued, off and on, in the area ever since – will come to an end Loomer Road Stadium is to be demolished It may be replaced with more warehouses or housing, no one seems quite sure yet These good people of Stoke and the surrounding area will have to find something else to do with their summer Saturday nights *** It’s easy to spot Dave Tattum, the promoter of speedway at Stoke For a start, he’s walking around in a red ‘Stoke Potters Speedway’ fleece jacket with his name neatly printed on the right-hand side Spend any time amongst real speedway people – the managers who organise the riders on the night, the promoters who are responsible for just about everything else and, of course, the truly committed fans – and you’ll soon discover there’s real pride in wearing their clubs’ branded jackets But Dave’s hard to miss anyway as he seems to be everywhere, chatting to people as they arrive and then moving between the riders in the pits, the volunteer track staff in the centre green and the supporters and former riders in the bar who’ve turned up to pay a last farewell to the old stadium He also makes sure to look after the night’s guests, including the sponsors of the club’s £100 draw – Activity Mobility of Weymouth 17 NO BREAKS Over the years, the team has attracted a range of sponsors – from Signal Radio, the local independent radio station, to a long association with Easy Rider, a Stafford-based motorcycle and scooter dealer Since 2016, they’ve been sponsored by A R Richards Ltd of Market Drayton who, amongst other services, specialise in concrete sleepers, farm waste disposal and wheelie bins Promoters are the people who run speedway clubs and hire riders to race, although the work involved covers a much wider range of jobs than the title might at first suggest Dave had arrived at the stadium around 9 30, as he’s done on just about every other race day He unlocks the gates and the sheds to get various vehicles out of storage that will be needed later: two tractors, JCBs and the parade truck on which the winning riders will be driven around after the meeting to wave to fans Dave makes sure they’re all full of diesel and prepared, along with the generator Then he keeps an eye on what’s happening with the weather and whether he needs to put water on the track during the morning or a little more shale around the turns or at the start Getting the track right is vital for both the riders and the spectators Shale, a fine-grained sedimentary rock mainly composed of mud, allows the riders to skid around the corners at speed and, hopefully, encourages safe and exciting overtaking If the track isn’t well prepared it’s dangerous for the riders If there’s not enough shale, and the track’s too slick, racing can be processional and dull for the spectators There’s always something to do for a speedway promoter and most of it is far from glamorous Dave has a loyal band of helpers – Ron, Gaynor and Caroline – who help out too, all of them volunteers, looking after, among other things, the bars and the catering while Dave’s off doing his many other jobs I catch him by the stadium entrance at six o’clock, his fleece collar up despite the warm evening sun Dave’s a friendly soul and, even if tonight’s difficult for him, he’s doing his best to keep everything together He says that he was choked on air earlier in the week when he was doing interviews on local radio ‘I felt like a fool because I 18 SEPTEMBER 2019 – SAME sport, DIFFERENT worlds couldn’t talk It was very emotional ’ But he’s pulling himself together tonight: ‘You can’t let the fans see that You have to go out as if you’re the happiest man in the stadium ’ I tell him I’m an Edinburgh Monarchs’ fan and he says he’s spoken that morning to Alex Harkess, the co-promoter at Edinburgh who’s been involved in speedway even longer than Dave has It turns out that Alex was one of the volunteers who helped build Loomer Road Stadium when he was living in nearby Newcastle-under-Lyme ‘He wanted to phone and wish me all the best He’d heard what had happened obviously You know what? We both ended up in tears ’ Dave’s been promoting speedway at Stoke for a quarter of a century He’d only found out earlier in the week that the stadium owners had decided to sell up and that tonight’s meeting, the last of the 2019 season, would be the final one Full stop He’s keen to make clear that it’s all coming to an end because the owners have simply decided to sell the stadium ‘There’s no hidden agenda here or anything with that sort of stuff you read on the internet We’ve always paid our rent We’ve had some good racing here and we’ve had some good crowds this year ’ The owners of the stadium have come to a logical decision With no greyhound racing at the stadium anymore – the last meeting was back in 2003 – and increasingly fewer speedway meetings (tonight’s is the 13th of the season when, back in the 1980s, there’d be at least double that number), the only other activity is stock car racing It’s not really enough to justify the maintenance and upkeep of a stadium and its large car parking area Dave can understand completely ‘I feel certain the buyers have done their homework It will be developed I really think it will be under construction come January They have invested a lot of money and they have to recoup that money somewhere They don’t want to sit on this empty ’ Since speedway first took place in Stoke in 1929, it’s had a chequered history in the area According to the club’s website, the Sun Street Stadium at Hanley in Stoke hosted speedway before the Second World War until 1953 when the track closed The entertainment tax 19 NO BREAKS – a 48 per cent levy on the revenues of many sport and entertainment venues – hit many clubs that had sprung up in the post-war speedway boom It reopened in 1960 but closed after just three years and only began again ten years later at its new venue here in Loomer Road Apart from a single-season break in 1993 and a year as the curiously named Cradley Heathens/Stoke in 1996, the Potters have raced at Loomer Road – at different levels of league racing – ever since But Dave Tattum isn’t banking on this being just a short hiatus before speedway starts up once again He sees little prospect of a return ‘We’re noisy and dusty No one wants to be near a motorsport stadium Unfortunately, it will be inevitable the club will end ’ And while there’s been some talk of Stoke possibly carrying on by racing next year, 25 miles away, at Buxton in Derbyshire, that’s not something Dave thinks