Quote:
Originally Posted by old man
Not a regular contributor to this sector but spotted the Wimbledon thread, a familiar name from my early days watching speedway at Odsal.
It is strange and sad that greater London cannot support a short oval track, I have visited a few in recent years and, like karting, it is an exciting trackside experience where all the action is visible .
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The support is clearly there for the track and oval racing, 2000 people signed the petition to save it on the first evening. Despite all the restrictions on transporters, and battling Sunday Trading to get to the Venue, it still pulls in reasonable crowds and reasonable car counts. Most meetings have around 100 plus cars spread over four formula on average. Which is good through the Winter Months.
The problem is the owners, who seem to have brought Greyhound Tracks, for the purpose of trying to bulldoze them for housing.
Thankfully there are some strong Councils out there, and Oxford have said NO to houses on their Stadium. They see it as an asset.
Wimbledon Stadium is designated leisure land. So the developers have gone in with Wimbledon AFC to build a Football Pitch to tick that box and build 600 homes on the Car Park/Pit Area to fund it.
Until recently most media has been promoting it as a positive story. "The Dons are coming home". Well I'm sorry Wimbledon lost its pitch to housing and team to Milton Keynes. But Wimbledon AFC have never played in Plough Lane, so they aren't coming home and in truth it is a story of loss for London.
London is loosing its last Grand Old Stadium, Greyhound Racing and Stock Car Racing.
There is a huge area just been cleared of warehouses less than 3 miles from Plough Lane, with far better public transport links for a football pitch. So its not as if there is not space on cleared sites elsewhere.
Still it will be a story you must know only to well, with Odsal Stadium losing speedway after 54 years.
Its long over due that someone stood up for motorsport.
And full credit to Superstox driver Peter Gray amongst others, for stepping up and trying his hardest to save racing in the Capital.
And congratulations to him and BBC London radio for a great programme on Monday that highlighted the passion and family involvement in grass roots motorsport.
If there is one good thing to come out of this threat, it is the passion that all those involved in oval racing have shown for the sport, and the media are finally starting to recognise and report on that passion.