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Just saw this in Northampton town centre...

I don’t really understand people using the fact Mayfield have made cuts at GP level as a stick to beat them with. The product was haemorrhaging money left right and centre. There was hardly a queue of people lining up to take over Warner/Discovery who wanted nothing more to do with it all. Any businessman worth his salt would be making monetary cuts to stem the flow of losses. That’s just common sense isn’t it? Really don’t understand the criticism there at all.

Problem is, and it's a big problem for not only Ipswich and / or Northampton, but British Speedway as a whole, especially at this extremely late stage, is that Richard Coleman does not have money at his disposal, he always uses other people's money. The guy wants to be Christian Horner, but is very much a "pound shop" version, playing with other's money. A google search regarding the new owners / investors of the "Tech3" MotoGP team reveals the following: Tech3 MotoGP Investors Pierre Gasly and David Blitzer are part of a broader investor group acquiring Tech3 MotoGP, led by Günther Steiner and IKON Capital. Additional investors include Main Street Advisors (led by Paul Wachter), Bolt Ventures (David Blitzer's firm), SLAM/TRAIL (Gasly's group), and others such as ALK Capital, Penman Holdings’ Barry English, Tom Stafford, Charles de Carvalho, and Dolphin Capital’s Richard Cook. Notice the absence of Richard Coleman as an investor? He may be the team principal, but he is basically "just" an employee as things stand. David Blitzer holds stakes across major leagues as co-managing partner of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (HBSE), owning the Philadelphia 76ers (NBA) and New Jersey Devils (NHL). He has minority ownership in the Cleveland Guardians (MLB, 25% with option for control), Washington Commanders (NFL), and previously Real Salt Lake/Utah Royals (MLS, sold majority in 2025 but retains stake). Blitzer also owns stakes in international soccer clubs via Global Football Holdings, including Crystal Palace (Premier League), FC Augsburg (Bundesliga), Brøndby IF (Denmark), and others like Estoril Praia (Portugal) and ADO Den Haag (Netherlands); additional investments cover Joe Gibbs Racing (NASCAR) and more. Tech3 MotoGP is based in Bormes-les-Mimosas, 65 miles from Marseille, in Provence in the south of France. Also, In the Speedway Star magazine interview dated September 27, 2025, Coleman discussed his new role as FIM Speedway Grand Prix (SGP) promoter from 2026, stating that the budget for the series would be cut compared to previous years, which we now know has cut prize money by around 25% - 30%, with racesuits also falling by the wayside in favour of a return to old style race jackets.. In the article, Coleman highlighted his involvement with the South of France-based Tech3 MotoGP team as Team Principal, noting he would attend some SGP events but not committing to all, amid Mayfield's growing Formula 1 engagements in addition to MotoGP with "Tech3"... While Mayfield Sports Events are viewed by some as saviors for Ipswich Speedway, given the extensive commitments outlined above, how will Coleman manage to fit everything in? He wont - Coleman will rely on SGP hosting tracks and loyal Ipswich staff to operate SGP events and league racing, while prioritising MotoGP. For example, the day after the two SGP events at Belle Vue, there is a round of MotoGP in Hungary, with MotoGP practice happening whilst the SGP is in full flow in Manchester. Wonder where Coleman will be that weekend, and other such clashing weekends? The probable hold up to Mayfield's heavily rumoured takeover at Ipswich? A lack of investment, other's investment funds, as Coleman himself hasnt got the money. The sport will find out he is a Walter Mitty character, who spins a good yarn, but who has as much financial substance as Arthur Daley & Del Boy Trotter !

I care for the wellbeing of the sport and that’s all,as of this moment mayfield have been anything but credible about their speedway venture, they haven’t even said they are the company doing it. So forgive me if I don’t share your enthusiasm for another possible speedway disaster, I’ll be happy to be proved wrong

With all due respect, where are they now flagrag? And now Dean is sticking the boot in too. Come on people at least give them a fair crack of the whip before writing them off as disasters waiting to happen ffs. They’ve at least shown up to keep the show on the road whilst those that lay on an excellent buffet have buggered off. Bizarre. Anyway, veering off topic here. Northampton. Can anyone upload the pics of the Holders there today? I don’t do Faceache. Edit: Just seen Haza’s post. Thank you

I am sure the UK Speedway Marketing Director, and the young team of innovators and influencers who work for him/her, are working on the launch even whilst we discuss it...

I dunno actually. We think along those lines because we’re part of a very very small pool of supporters that regularly frequent this forum. The vast majority of supporters that turn up at their tracks will have gotten on with their lives over the winter and been oblivious to the finer details of club sales and a new track. I’d bet there actually isn’t that many who are like kids at Christmas and want to know what they’re getting yesterday. A bigger number will be confused at there being no fixtures or season tickets on sale sure, but I’m not convinced it’ll be a dealbreaker! From a personal point of view, after a long winter I’m at the point now where I’ve missed the racing and I’m looking forward to getting up to Lynn in a few weeks to watch some Speedway.

Running on a Saturday and not a Tuesday is a major improvement..... Plenty of young kids (and obviously those who pay for them), now in attendance that wouldn't be there on a Tuesday... When they are there you can engage them so they pester their parents and guardians to return... Difficult to do that when they are at home getting ready for school/nursery on Wednesday morning... I presume Stox don't run on normal Mondays and Thursdays for a reason...? Around a quarter of a million people live in and around Northampton so a pretty big target market for a completely new venture to try and attract... Getting around "1 in 200" (0.5%), or so, to attend regularly will be the aim I would imagine, with visitors from surrounding tracks, and ex tracks, an hour or so away being some added extra income to chase.... Surprised tbough at the secrecy to be honest given, ordinarily in business, you would want "the world to know" who you are, what you are doing, and when you will be open.. Difficult to build hype when no one knows about you... (Just like can be said for the sport in general isn't it?)... Best of Luck to All involved..

What is the deadline for Northampton (if it is actually Northampton) to declare ya or nay? we are 11 days away from march, 27 days away from first meeting, the secrecy is beyond a joke, no premier fixture list, no statements to the paying public, speedway has committed some real shoot itself in the foot moments over the years but this is just another level

Going by the time some say it takes to get there if he is 20 mins away that must be about a mile down the road ...

Don't think it's a HIgh Street Bank. He seems like more of a Merchant Banker.

I first thought CHolder was peering through a hole in the poster, like what you do at the seaside, being the O in Northampton!

Oh look. Polish troll is back. The one who said The SGP wasn't happening in 2026..... A few weeks before the 2026 SGP Calendar was announced. Now it's claiming that Companies House says Mayfield only came into existence in August 2025, even though Companies House clearly shows it was formed on 1 October 2014, and merely altered its name in 2025 to reflect its new move into MotoGP and Speedway

Steve Irving seems to have developed a mild allergy to facts when it comes to Richard Coleman and Mayfield Sports Events. A quick look at Companies House shows that Mayfield only came into existence in August 2025 — meaning any “track record of success” is, at best, still in the paddock. A quick Google confirms that while MotoGP’s Tech3 team has a long list of investors, Richard Coleman is not among them. Mayfield hasn’t even staged a single Speedway Grand Prix heat as event controllers yet, but somehow found time to slice riders’ prize money by up to 30%. Yet Steve calls their involvement “huge”… and he’s right, just not in the way he thinks. It’s a huge gamble — a huge leap into the unknown. Meanwhile, the much‑rumoured Mayfield takeover of Ipswich Speedway still looks some distance from the chequered flag. With February 18th upon us and no deal in sight, we’ll probably see the Easter Bunny before that contracts get inked. Maybe Steve’s just still got stars in his eyes from his favourite little‑known TV show, Track Idol, where he votes for Richard Coleman week after week — while the rest of us prefer the factual series Unblinkered. You have also never considered that, being born in the late 1960s, I have been in and around speedway for a very long time, nor have you considered that I have crossed paths with Coleman and know how he operates... For the sake of speedway, and people, fans, riders and others, potentially left high and dry by Coleman / Mayfield, but history says otherwise... Have you seen Flagrag's comments later in this thread ? : "Unfortunately Mayfield don’t have a great record with Speedway organisational skills. The GPs that they promoted operationally were a disaster with a number of important things that they forgot to arrange and in the end Discovery got them out of a mess by arranging the missing bits and bringing their operations team in. Even on the day little things were not arranged like buffet and food for officials , sponsors not getting their pit walks and badge allocation with track marshals names not on lists for practice just for the event etc "

That’s the problem we at Belle Vue have had for decades, knowing who will be in our league. Any of our current or past competitors can just decide on a whim that they are dropping out. It’s a nightmare and very amateurish.

This isn't an officlal poster... If it was, it would have also said... "And Bring a Friend!"..

As I've said elsewhere if the current crop of riders aren't putting the bums on the seats they can hardly complain if the prize money goes down while competing in half empty (and sometimes completely empty, SWC) stadiums.

Mayfield didn't ruin the GP's. FIM Leftists did by diluting the product when exluding Russian's and then replacing them with bang average out of depth riders in a box ticking exercise.

1st visit to Plymouth will be this season, dont think the club gets enough credit for work and effort in changes and upgrades to their track to improve the racing ,safety and over all entertainment. Fair play Plymouth ,best of luck for 2026.

Could have been passing through along the M1 and thought let’s go and have a look at the Stadium and stir a few people up it’s a photo that’s all . And it could be AI

Is it you that’s representing UK at Eurovision?!

Can imagine potential sponsors at Northampton has long time lost interest similar with other clubs to a lesser extent cant even tell a potential sponsor how many teams are in the league this close to the start of the new season in all honesty who would be the slightest bit interested in sponsoring a club ?

Think most regular speedway fans would have said we have to a step back and regroup,but the men in charge seem intent on self destruction.IMO. The Premiership is only in name apart from I/2 doz riders.

It's past getting the point where people now don't care what happens, then will be thinking twice about attending speedway in the future, then if the punters don't attend the promoters business plan ( if they have one ) goes out of the window. This applies to not just Ipswich it's the whole fookin sport

And if they followed Sheffield’s lead, “you buy 10 and get NONE free!!” 😁

British based riders and running on a night to suit the fans are probably the two biggest drivers.

And here he is again regurgitating the same old crap on various threads. You have a clear agenda here against Richard Coleman for reasons only you know. It’s blatantly personal.

And just how many people do you think are prepared to spend this amount of time travelling to watch speedway on a regular basis?

Sorry to be a part pooper. Anyone who thinks that you could drive from anywhere west of Coventry (e.g Greater Birmingham, Black Country, Staffordshire, Worcestershire or further west) in anything under 2 hours to remote Northamptonshire is living in cloud cuckoo land. It can take an hour to get from Wolverhampton to Birmingham or Birmingham to Coventry. The only way a Track in Braefield can attract any fans further west than Coventry would be to run on Saturday night or Sunday. Fans would literally have to take a day off work / school and fork out £40 / £50 in fuel. They may do it once or twice for novelty value but that is all. Its a financial disaster on the Perry Barr scale waiting to happen.

We’ve had Pjiper’s and Harrison in various Berwick junior Teams but somehow not persuaded them to stick around for Bandits.Tell you something.IMO

I just cannot, and will not be able to square away the fact that a track can be opened where nobody is calling for it, yet there have been multiple clubs that it would have been much easier to save but weren't rescued over the last let's call it a decade or so. It's compounding years of bad business with some more bad business.

Must be cheap 🤪 been about for years and got no better, yet still gets signed up, where others show promise but don't get signed 🤔 my conclusion is less £ than someone else

Yes he does get called Chris who know him but it’s cvs to the speedway world

No the other side of the world I understand and the new promoters have very deep pockets along with some great sponsors lined up

Just can't warm to this pair not doubting there ability just something about them !

Bit harsh . Flirting with others will get you nowhere

You just did...

Swindon Speedway 2013 Director Steve Park has submitted a letter to SBC supporting the demolition of the Abbey Stadium! He claims rejection of the plans "will end any possibility of a return of speedway to Swindon" - bizarrely, he earlier claims that Studley Grange is "currently making progress through the planning stages." So, which is it, Steve? Will the weird logic of failure to remove the only speedway track in the locality really end all hope? Or are you delivering a new track? I'll let others speculate on what a speedway company director could possibly gain from the loss of the only speedway facility... https://pa.swindon.gov.uk/publicaccess/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=T2SDBXPTIS200

Correct. Not everything has to be a conspiracy.

These issue are extremely common in commercial leases when a tenant wishes to sell a business the landlord can insist on robust and onerous conditions in simple terms guarantees .This may also include financial remuneration for allowing transfer or a complete new lease . Even the simplest commercial lease depending on the detail can cost a minimum of 3-5 K each party ,I would imagine in this case the costs could be significantly more .

He seems a perfect fit with British Speedway in its current form then 😁

Let’s hope it’s a huge success for Northampton if they do indeed run. Maybe that will have some sort of knock on effect for the powers that be at the likes of Swindon, Coventry , Wolverhampton etc , to solve the ongoing problems they face in returning. A success story to relate to can only help in their causes in some way. What will never help though is the powers that be that run our sport and the atrocious way they treat their customers. Just expecting them to turn up when they decide to inform them when and where it’s happening . When these clubs see the amateurish way that the sport is run , they surely get nothing but bad vibes about being a part of it. A sport that is only going one way due to the ones that lay the rules and certain clubs that dictate when and what league they will only race in and are allowed to . But that’s another story.

Jacob Clouting 7.03 NDL 4.18 NDT Senna Summers 7.11 NDL 5.58 NDT Vinnie Foord 7.73 NDL 9.17 NDT William Cairns 10.78 NDL 9.56 NDT Ace Pijper 9.86 NDL 7.38 NDT Ashton Vale 6.38 NDL 4.44 NDT Ben Trigger 9.06 NDL 8.30 NDT Luke Harrison 9.68 NDL 7.89 NDT

I would imagine £26 will be there or thereabouts for the top tier this season... A hard sell if so.... Maybe some strong promotion will take place across the country if no TV deal to fall back on?

I think regularly attracting any worthwhile amount of supporters from defunct tracks is a myth...

I’ve been watching the replays that have been on YouTube and they are very welcome in the off season. I do however wonder what management have seen in Smith that has resulted in him being back in the team. He had a decent meeting against the comets but a fair amount of that was because of bad luck for the away side. I also wonder what Max Perry was asking for that he didn’t end up as a Bandit. He was brilliant on both visits so it can’t have been a performance issue.

I was down there today. Add a foam fence and some pop up pits it is pretty much ready to go. This works for the GP’s looks like they have done lots of new tarmac there and is a very tidy main grandstand. best of luck to the incoming promotion.

I honestly don’t have a problem with the team or any rider. My gripe is with the way rules in British speedway are just made up with very little effort or thought. I’m still waiting for an explanation for the points deduction to Workington last year. What is the criteria that needs to be met when the 8% reduction is applied for? How does that reduction work along side other reductions? I have quite a few other questions but it’s a waste of time listing them as the first two won’t be answered clearly. As much as I’m a bore, the point in any rule or law in sports is it will affect all the same. If the application of either is inconsistent it brings the whole show into disrepute.

These guys forget it is a sport,go and get a job if it’s that bad. They are earning good money for 6 months work for 10 minutes on a bike on race night.No sympathy I’m afraid.