Aces geared up for a thrilling new era

Photo: PICTURE by IAN CHARLES.

SO CLOSE: Aces’ Craig Cook (blue helmet) leads Poole’s Dakota North (white) in a nail-biting Elite League Grand Final clash.

Speedway: 

THE final chequered flag of Belle Vue’s 2015 season signalled the end of speedway racing at the greyhound track on Kirkmanshulme Lane.

With the Aces making their first appearance for a decade in the Elite League Grand Final last month, it was a fitting way for the club to bow out of the old stadium.

Reigning champions Poole provided the opposition, and the two teams served up a fine match. Belle Vue, inspired by Craig Cook and Matej Zagar pulled back a 10-point deficit in the last three heats to go into the second leg on the South Coast all square. But Aces were unable to pull off the win and fell two points short, the home team winning 92-90.

The two legs of the final pulled in huge crowds in front of Sky’s television cameras to provide a fine, almost glamorous spectacle of speedway as a team sport.

All of this was a far cry from Frank Arthur’s victory in the Golden Helmet at the opening meeting at Kirkmanshulme Lane in July 1928; the first of 13 meetings at the venue that year.

Other tracks had operated in Manchester before Belle Vue, with racing at Droylsden and the Snipe in Audenshaw. These were tough and wild days for speedway as the sport fought to establish itself.

Tracks opened and folded as promoters tried to make money from the sport. It wasn’t uncommon for riders to compete under false names to avoid being black-listed from racing at official venues.

By 1929 Aces, under the control of the so called “Mussolini of speedway” legendary EO Spence, had moved to their home in Hyde Road, where they would stay until the stadium was controversially sold to British Car Auctions in 1987.

During the tenure at Hyde Road, Belle Vue’s name became synonymous with speedway worldwide. Aces were successful as a team, with over 40 major titles.

When the late Stuart Bamforth, a former Stock Car world champion sold the Hyde Road stadium in 1987, Aces began their quest for a new home. Belle Vue’s chief operating officer and former star Chris Morton remembers that winter as a bleak period as Aces fought for survival.

At the eleventh hour a consortium led by former Ace and world speedway champion Peter Collins secured the use of their old track on Kirkmanshulme Lane. Frantic activity saw work completed for the tapes to go up for a new season in April1988 – only for the Manchester weather to stop the meeting after only two heats.

Local businessman John Perrin was involved from the start and for the next 17 years led the struggle to keep the Aces afloat as attendance declined. Perrin was famously outspoken and, a caterer by trade, saw speedway at Belle Vue as “steak and chips” compared with the “egg and chips” on offer

elsewhere.

But eventually Perrin called time. Midlands businessman Tony Mole stepped in for a season before

current owners Dave Gordon and Chris Morton took over in 2006.

In the 27 years since the return to Kirkmanshulme Lane, success on the track hasn’t been prolific. The 1993 British League title stands alongside Knockout Cup triumph in 2005. That’s pretty much it...

The dominant goal for Morton when he took over in 2006 was always to find the club a home that befitted its status as, arguably, the most famous speedway team in the world.

“After a while,” Morton reflected, “I came to realise the responsibility owed to all those who support the club and to its history.”

Now, his dream of providing world class facilities for the Aces will be realised: the club makes a fresh start next season in its new National Speedway Stadium home, just yards from where it all began on Kirkmanshulme Lane.