Warriors joint-promoter ‘confident’ speedway can ride out crisis caused by the pandemic

Speedway action on the Isle of Wight at Smallbrook in 2019. Picture: Ian Groves/SportographySpeedway action on the Isle of Wight at Smallbrook in 2019. Picture: Ian Groves/Sportography
Speedway action on the Isle of Wight at Smallbrook in 2019. Picture: Ian Groves/Sportography
Isle of Wight Warriors joint promoter Barry Bishop is ‘confident’ speedway will recover from the pandemic.

Hardly any meetings have been held since March and British Speedway chairman Rob Godrey recently struck a negative note.

‘If we don’t start another season then it could end the sport,’ Godfrey said in the wake of the Government’s pressing of the pause button with regards the return of crowds to elite events.

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‘That news really was a hammer blow, in the sense that it just cracked the skull. You’ve got to fear for our future – it’s heart-breaking, real pit-of-the-stomach time.’

Bishop was more hopeful, saying: ‘This is one person's view of our situation and while he (Godfrey) is right that we are in a very challenging situation, I am confident that the speedway community will rally around speedway clubs once fans can return.

‘On the Isle of Wight we have a really good feel about the sport and our club.

‘Thanks to a great team of volunteers, the stadium is even ready to go now, and our speedway school - which with fewer riders, volunteers and no spectators - has continued.

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‘We continue to promote the club and the sport via reruns of previous meetings, so we are very positive about speedway's future and our ability to take it forward.

‘We take all the Covid precautions seriously because we know, before we can return to racing, the club has to focus on the health of everyone associated with our club and do our bit for the community as a whole.

‘Then we will return in style, continue our show and produce speedway stars of the future because we know our community values what we bring to it.’

Speedway’s current Premiership and Championship seasons were cancelled in July due to the ongoing uncertainty, and Godfrey believes there is little hope of next year’s campaign starting in March under the current six-month restrictions.

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‘We were obviously fortunate in that we did not start our season because that would have been a disaster,’ added Godfrey.

‘You can’t start a season then shut it down for six months – it would have made us a laughing stock. But the concern now is where we’re going in the future.

‘The latest round of Government measures go as far as March 22, one week after the start of our season, and we could not possibly plan with the restrictions still in place, because we’d be facing the same uncertain situation, along with issues such as sponsors and obtaining visas for riders.’

Godfrey cited last month’s British final as an example of the uncertainty. Having achieved status as an official test event, promoters sold 2,200 tickets, only to subsequently be told that numbers must be reduced to 1,000.

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It ended up taking place without any spectators – and at a significant financial loss.

‘There’s no strategy whatsoever in my opinion,’ said Godfrey. ‘You can’t just keep kicking people in the b******s. We accept that we’re a minority sport, we’re down there already and they just keep kicking us.

‘I can’t emphasise just how ridiculous and demoralising it is. We put our hearts and soul into this sport and people should be allowed to go and watch it.

‘Speedway is the number one sport in Poland and they are letting people into stadiums. There’s no reason why it can’t happen here. One thousand people can go to Tesco’s or go to the zoo, but they are not allowed to watch speedway.

‘We are not the only sport in this position and hopefully football will lead us out of this, but I think all the sports need to really stick together and unite to make our voices heard.’

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