Leningrad/st Petersburg Speedway

[moomin man 76]

I was just watching an old film on You Tube of speedway in Leningrad c.1977 and was curious when the track ceased to be operational.

I know that they left the old Soviet/Russian League at some point in the late 1990s (presumably due to travel costs) and began to ride in the Finnish League even winning it on one occasion.

Any information about the history/closure of the track after that point would be of interest (for instance does the track exist, but is no longer used, or even if the site was built over).

Edited April 23, 2016 by moomin man 76

[HenryW]

The track still exists, or at least it did as of the middle of last year. However, it didn't look in the best state of repair and I don't know when it was last used! I have this vague recollection of a meeting being arranged there at some point in the not too distant past (as in, the last 5 or 10 years).

 

There is an article about a little reunion that was held there last year on this Ukrainian speedway blog: http://gorka-speedway.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/25-2015.html

 

There was some talk 3 or 4 years ago about the Neva club starting racing league matches again and either joining the Ukrainian league (which has since fallen apart) or the Finnish league again. However, everything went quiet about this without anything happening. BSF member F-S-P might know whether there was actually any serious discussion with the Finns about them rejoining or whether it was just internet rumours.

 

As of this year, the Neva club are apparently starting the construction of new tracks in the St Petersburg Oblast, and had a stand at the St Petersburg Mortorbike show last weekend, so there is still some life about the club. You can follow their activities on their VK page: http://vk.com/nevaspeedwayclub

Edited April 23, 2016 by HenryW

[moomin man 76]

Many thanks - you've supplied far more information that I could have hoped for!

I followed the hyperlinks and although my Russian is non-existant, it did seem as if they were in the preliminary stages of marking out a track in some photographs. Talk of 'tracks' is intriguing though.

Hopefully it will lead to some resumed speedway activity, as all the current videos on their webpage seemed to consist largely of motocross.