SPEEDWAY racing has been given a dramatic green light to return to Wembley.
Stadium Director Liam Boylan told the Three Lions Podcast, to mark 100 years of the venue, that he wants the sport to return to its spiritual home.
Wembley was the original venue for World Championship finals from 1928 right through to its last hosting of the 1981 showpiece in front of a sell-out crowd.
Bruce Penhall was the last World Champ crowned at the stadium, a year later he quit for Hollywood and appeared in the TV show CHiPs. Legendary speedway names Ove Fundin, Barry Briggs, Ivan Mauger and Ole Olsen all won titles at Wembley.
The track was always a major feature of FA Cup finals at the old Twin Towers stadium. The famous walk from the tunnel for the teams took so long because they had to cross the shale surface before getting to the pitch.
Now it could return with Boylan admitting: “I remember obviously the old Wembley and speedway. The roar, that noise inside the stadium, was just something else.
“There was speedway near me where I grew up in Belle Vue, Manchester but I never went to see it but Lay and Play will actually give us this opportunity because we have always grown our pitch twice a year, once for the summer, and then we would actually grow our pitch during the winter, now our winter period there are no events from the middle of November until February for the Carabao Cup but it would it would take 90 days to grow our pitch, it has to be grown under artificial light because the sun doesn’t hit the pitch during that period.
“Now it opens up this new window for me, could I bring speedway back to Wembley in sort of November or December time, these are the things.
“It gives you the opportunity to look at these weird and wonderful things, I think from the old stadium, I would love to bring some of that speedway back in.
“It’s never happened in the new stadium. We couldn’t because of where the pitch is and where the surround is, we couldn’t get it in but because I’d be able to completely able to move it because of ‘lay and play’ and protect the soil and sand that’s underneath it, yes, I think there is an opportunity to do something like that. The new stadium has never had it.
“Can get the big motorsports back in, now if we look at it, let’s see what we can do.”
Words by Holeshot Media.