Track Talk: 90th birthday owes much to dynamic duo

They’re the oldest speedway club in the world, and that’s something we have to congratulate them on so I hope it’s an excellent night.

On track, it’s a big meeting against the Poole Pirates, who at this stage are clinging onto hopes they can put a run together to stay in touch with the play-offs.

I first got involved with the club as stadium announcer back in 1990, and I’ve got massive respect for Peter Adams and Chris Van Straaten for the job they do.

The fact Peter revived speedway at Monmore Green in 1984 after two years away deserves great praise, and since Chris Van Straaten got on board to offer his backing they have both dedicated a large part of their lives to Wolves Speedway.

Everyone with Wolves at heart owes them a huge debt of gratitude. They’ve always run the club in a professional manner, and although they’ve usually attracted good crowds they still work as hard as they did 30 years ago to bring people to the sport.

I’m writing these notes whilst I’m in Prague having arrived for tonight’s Czech Republic Grand Prix at the Marketa Stadium. This is now the longest-serving venue on the Grand Prix calendar, and with a line-up that’s as attractive as ever I’m expecting a great contest.

Tai Woffinden got off to a great start with a win in Warsaw, as did Freddie Lindgren who leads the Championship. Both have strong Wolves links. Tai’s ride in the final was superb and showed how much natural talent he has, whilst Freddie is faster and fitter than ever.

Jason Doyle hasn’t quite found the right set-up yet as reigning world champion, but I’m sure that will come, and I expect young Polish contingent to be a threat again. If I was to put my neck on the line for a prediction, I’d say something similar to Warsaw with Woffinden and Lindgren both making the final. I’d also say to watch out for Vaclav Milik as wildcard – he’ll be a spoiler and may well reach the final as he did last year.

Finally, a quick mention of Cradley, who go to Buxton tomorrow (Sunday) in an important National Trophy meeting.

We’re again without key riders, and Ben Morley, who we’d booked to guest for Adam Roynon, is ruled out with a bad dislocation of his thumb.

The management team of Gary Patchett and Will Pottinger are working as hard as ever to plug the gap, and we’ll be hoping to get four points to keep our hopes alive in the competition. Our thanks, as ever, go to our loyal fans, and whilst not doing a full season isn’t ideal we’ve got lots of good meetings to look forward to.

We’ll be hosting the Golden Hammer in August, we’ll hopefully make it through to the latter stages of the National Trophy, then we’ll look at 2019 when we reach the end of the season.