The Support Oxford Speedway Website

SOS is an independent supporters organisation which is committed to raising funds in order to support the ongoing promotion of speedway in Oxford.

Oxford Speedway has now received the news it was dreading as notification came from the Greyhound Racing Association that league speedway will not take place at the Cowley Stadium in 2008.

Confirmation was received in a telephone call made by GRA Managing Director Clive Feltham, who called Councillor Bob Timbs to inform him of his decision. He said that the GRA had made their decision and the decision was not reversible. Clearly this has come as a massive blow to the campaign to maintain speedway in Oxford in 2008. Feltham declined the opportunity to talk to supporters groups to further explain his decision.

In outlining his reasons for the decision, Feltham outlined a number of factors which led to the decision. Firstly not enough people were coming into the stadium to make it worthwhile for the GRA to open up the stadium and the lack of revenue was leading the GRA to lose money of speedway. He felt Oxford needed to run in a higher level of speedway to ensure that the required people entered the stadium. He also claimed that the GRA had been let down by recent promoters at Oxford with bills being left unpaid. While declaring that the stadium would not be made available for league racing in 2008 he did not discount the running of major meetings in the stadium, saying that he was willing to talk about any proposals regarding this.

Oxford Speedway had been given a deadline of Thursday 24th January, the date of the Conference League Promoters meeting to have an agreement in place with the GRA. With this deadline now here an extension to this deadline has been requested from Peter Toogood, the Chairman of the British Speedway Promoters Association who will seek this extension on behalf of the club tomorrow. It is however felt that even if an extension is granted this is unlikely to lead to Oxford being able to enter a league in 2008.

On hearing the news, Andrew Smith MP has written to the GRA requesting an urgent meeting to discuss what options there are which would maintain the sport and Councillor David Rundle, the portfolio holder for leisure on Oxford City Council has also expressed his support.

Commenting in the news SOS spokesman Chris Brown said “Clearly this is devastating news and puts us in a position where is looks almost certain that Oxford will not race in 2008. We have not given up the fight though and while it looks an impossible position, the fight will go on. We will work to ensure that should Oxford not take to the track in 2008 then we can secure a long term future for the club. Whether this be at the Stadium or at another venue remains to be seen but the GRA while being clear there will be no speedway in 2008 appear to have not ruled out speedway taking place in future years.”

In closing the door to league speedway in 2008, Feltham did dismiss the idea that speedway would be replaced by stock cars, commenting that Oxford Stadium had no plans to introduce stock cars at Oxford.

Brown also added “it is important that we continue the fight to see the club continue. SOS will continue its fundraising throughout 2008 to ensure we are creating a fund to allow the sport to continue in the future. We cannot let our Diamond anniversary to pass without celebration and we will work to ensure we celebrate this important anniversary”