Matt Maher: The man who couldn’t let the Heathens name die

So said Andy Hawthorne in 2021, when explaining why he had decided to spend a sizeable chunk of his own, hard-earned money on getting one of speedway’s most famous names back on track.

A couple of years on, it is heartening to learn not only does his passion burn just as strong, things are stepping up a gear.

This week came news the Heathens won’t just be racing again in 2023, they will be doing so in the UK’s first new speedway league for nearly 30 years.

The Nora 92 League, overseen by the National Off-Road Racing Association, will feature teams from Plymouth, Sittingbourne, the Isle of Wight and Cradley, with the latter racing their “home” meetings at each of the venues. A fifth team, based a little closer to the Midlands, have also expressed a strong interest in joining. As of last night, those talks remain ongoing.

It isn’t ideal, of course, considering the distances involved but then little has been since the Heathens were evicted from their Dudley Wood home in 1995.

“The important thing is we are keeping the name alive,” explains Hawthorne, a lifelong supporter who took on responsibility for running a Heathens team after the previous iteration, fronted by long-time Wolves promoter Chris Van Straaten and backed by Gary Patchett and Nigel Pearson, withdrew from the National League in 2019.

“People still care a huge amount about this team,” he continues. “When we announced we would be part of the Nora League I was bombarded with messages asking where we would be racing and when the meetings would be.

“I know it not ideal but at least we are keeping the name out there. That is all we can do at the minute.”

The first speedway league to launch in the UK since the National League was formed in 1994, the idea for the Nora League was born from the three-team challenge tournaments held on the Isle of Wight the past two summers, to which Hawthorne took four-man Heathens squads, winning the competition last year.

Each team will now consist of six riders, who will get five rides per meeting, while the league also intends to use a revolutionary handicap system trialled during the Isle of Wight events. Meetings will also incorporate junior races, with GB women’s champion Katie Gordon set to be part of a four-strong junior Heathens unit.

Organisers have been at pains to stress they are not setting up as a rival to those long-standing leagues run by the British Speedway Promoters’ Association. Instead, their ambition is to complement and support the existing structure, strengthening the grassroots of a sport in which many teams are currently struggling to make ends meet.

“It’s more meetings, more opportunities for riders to compete,” says Hawthorne. “At the moment we are looking at six meetings, or eight if the fifth team joins.

“We’re also looking at the possibility of running a Grand Prix series at each track.

“Quite a few of the lads who have ridden on the Isle of Wight over the past couple of years are now progressing through British speedway, which is what we want. We want the sport to be as strong as possible.

“People really want to see team speedway. They want to see two teams, rather than three or four. This is a progression which was necessary for us.”

Notable names to have ridden for Hawthorne’s Heathens before moving up include Tom Spencer, now with Leicester Lions, Berwick’s Conor Coles and Jason Edwards, recently signed with Championship outfit Eastbourne.

Of the six-strong senior squad he has assembled for this season, meanwhile, three are former Heathens racers.

“That keeps some continuity going, which I think is important,” says Hawthorne. “The lads are really committed to doing it. I’ve actually had to turn a couple of riders down. There’s been plenty of interest.”

The riders might be keen, yet the bigger, more pertinent question is what the supporters think? Hawthorne admits there weren’t too many who made the trip to the first year of racing on the Isle of Wight, yet last summer the number had increased and with Plymouth and Sittingbourne both expected to hold their meetings on weekends, there is hope it will grow even further this year.

Tentative talks have also been held with Wolverhampton and Birmingham about the possibility of staging junior challenge meetings later in the summer.

“We just want the fans to see we are giving it a go,” says Hawthorne, who is also hopeful of finalising a sponsorship deal which will help him carry the load.

The long-term goal, as it has been for every supporter since 1995, is for the Heathens to eventually have their own track again back in the Black Country. The search has been determined, long, yet ultimately frustrating and fruitless so far.

Hawthorne, who was first taken to Dudley Wood as a baby in 1964 and didn’t miss a meeting between 1977 and the stadium’s closure, is realistic but a long way from being ready to give up on the dream yet.

“It might seem a little sad but when people ask why I am doing this, it is a love of Cradley,” he says. “Ivor Brown was my first hero and is still the screensaver on my phone.

“People say: ‘Why can’t you support another team? But it is not the same.

“The dream is for someone, somewhere to find us a bit of land and say: ‘Here you go, build us a stadium’.

“Until that happens, we will just do what we can. I’m still not ready to let them go yet.”