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Speedway In Wales


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All very confusing now.

 

To clear it up it was you who I think has sh!t for brains.

 

Are we clear now.

 

And Gustix will be pulling his hair out now with no mention of speedway in Wales in the last few posts

I know I should but this made me LOL

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I would have thought Cardiff and Swansea are the only Welsh cities that might support speedway, given the fate of Newport. For all his critics Tim Stone built a decent stadium and track shape but after three years it never got the crowds.

 

Isn't there an old athletics stadium on the way into Cardiff City Centre? That might have been Cardiff's fourth venue pre-WW2 SCB?

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Isn't there an old athletics stadium on the way into Cardiff City Centre? That might have been Cardiff's fourth venue pre-WW2 SCB?

The athletics stadium (and its' precursor) have not been around long enough to have hosted speedway without me noticing. I've found mention of motorcycle racing at the old Ely racecourse. It has to have been between '53 and the late 60s I reckon

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Apparently Cardiff has hosted speedway at 4 stadiums, the Millenium Stadium is the 3rd but I can find no reference to a 4th, anyone got any ideas?

 

The 4th listing in "Homes of British Speedway" is a demonstration race by Mads Korneliussen and Tony Atkin at the Wales National Ice Rink in 2004, presumably a tryout for a possible Thomas/Drury promotion.

 

They also have Cardiff Arms Park listed in the grass speedways appendix for 1928.

 

The athletics stadium (and its' precursor) have not been around long enough to have hosted speedway without me noticing. I've found mention of motorcycle racing at the old Ely racecourse. It has to have been between '53 and the late 60s I reckon

 

HoBS list an Ely Grass Speedway in 1948.

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The 4th listing in "Homes of British Speedway" is a demonstration race by Mads Korneliussen and Tony Atkin at the Wales National Ice Rink in 2004, presumably a tryout for a possible Thomas/Drury promotion.

 

They also have Cardiff Arms Park listed in the grass speedways appendix for 1928.

 

 

HoBS list an Ely Grass Speedway in 1948.

The Mads K/Tony Atkin thing was a bit of promotion that backfired. Mads and Tony went to demonstrate speedway during the interval and ripped up the rink causing uproar! Certianly not a "home" of any sort of speedway though.

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  • 5 months later...

Thought I'd resurrect this thread having read this news on the BBC this morning.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-28778032

That circuit is going to be a huge white elephant, even assuming it ever gets built. There's already a preponderance of race circuits in Wales and the UK as a whole, and what's going to sustain the circuit other than the one MotoGP per year?

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Sounds like an April fool or indeed speedway, we have the event but no circuit so lets move it to another country,. Having said that I suspect our friend Humphrey is spot on with his assumption I also hope someone does look at it however remote a possibility it would appear to be.

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If Dorna have a deal for a Moto GP to be there in 2016 I reckon they will have a back up lined up.

From what I read Silverstone are saying to much is being asked by Dorna so they on the sidelines - but who knows.

Elsewhere I am sure it read that if £30m if given to Ebbw Vale scheme Silverstone says it will be illegal.

Interesting developments to come.

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That circuit is going to be a huge white elephant, even assuming it ever gets built. There's already a preponderance of race circuits in Wales and the UK as a whole, and what's going to sustain the circuit other than the one MotoGP per year?

Moto gp signed a 10 year deal with Silverstone , after the debacle of moving F1 Gp to Donnington

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  • 2 years later...

didn't the early plans for this circuit also include a 300 metres INDOOR apeedway track as part of the complex to be available as a training track.

At one point there was an indoor track, and at another point it was outside. God knows if it's still in the plans and in what state.

 

Certainly wouldn't be capable of hosting weekly speedway. Ebbw Vale is a rubbish hole that nobody wants to visit, the people there are generally as poor as it gets and there are no jobs (I'm sure Ebbw Vale was fairly recently top of the British towns/cities list for % of jobless), the locals certainly wouldn't be able to support it. And if Newport couldn't drag people from Newport, Cardiff and Bristol then a track 20 miles further away on crap roads isn't going to get any support.

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At one point there was an indoor track, and at another point it was outside. God knows if it's still in the plans and in what state.

 

Certainly wouldn't be capable of hosting weekly speedway. Ebbw Vale is a rubbish hole that nobody wants to visit, the people there are generally as poor as it gets and there are no jobs (I'm sure Ebbw Vale was fairly recently top of the British towns/cities list for % of jobless), the locals certainly wouldn't be able to support it. And if Newport couldn't drag people from Newport, Cardiff and Bristol then a track 20 miles further away on crap roads isn't going to get any support.

Hey I had acquaintances there once..admittedly I never wanted to visit them whatsoever lol
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When I was working in Cardiff (would be around 1965/66), there was an athletics venue in the City called the Maindy Stadium which looked quite suitable for speedway when I went and had a look at it. Is this stadium still there I wonder?

 

Speaking about speedway with the people I was working with, the general view was that Cardiff Speedway was a "good night out" but they all thought that the old Penarth Road track was too far out of the City and not very well served by bus routes (although it didn't seem to be too far to me when I walked to it from my hotel near the railway station.)

 

I did locate the Penarth Road site and the place was in a very sorry state with the grass head high and just a couple of surviving huts with their roof's collapsed in, and the only visible relic was the concrete starting grid.

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