140 Mildenhall Speedway supporters packed into West Row Village Hall on Sunday (2nd. Feb.) to give a resounding vote of approval to a re-launch of the club, a significant number agreeing to contribute towards the funding mechanism put in place via a Community Trust which will ensure the Fen Tigers can return to track for the 2025 season. The Steering Committee of Steve Ribbons, Keiran Phillips, Jeremy Reader, Diane Farmer and Derek Barclay have been charged with responsibility for progressing the application for Mildenhall to join the National Development Trophy [NDT] competition for 2025 and to confirm a team (all of which will be riders not associated with any other 2025 British Speedway side) to bring the Fen Tigers back to action for their Golden Jubilee season.
And it’s going to be Saturday Night that’s alright for racing for this latest Mildenhall Speedway era, as Ribbons explained,
“We have secured, thanks to the cooperation of track owners Spedeworth International, ten weekends across the Speedway season and the plan is to have a meeting on the Saturday night, followed each time by a practice/training session on the next morning. This is, we feel, the perfect model for developing riders - so youngsters and others who come along to the training are able to graduate to second half racing. And the practice/training on Sundays will provide a vital income stream to subsidise the Fen Tigers’ promotion.”
The enthusiasm in the packed room was tangible and a massive fillip not just for those seeking to bring Speedway back to West Row after a year’s hiatus but for the sport nationally, as Fen Tigers’ ‘original’ (debuting in that 1975 season) and club legend, Rob Henry told the crowd,
“When I started my Speedway career with Mildenhall the track hadn’t long been laid on what had been a potato field. Now it’s vital for all who care about both this club and the sport in general that we don’t ever go back to seeing potatoes growing there again. In those early days we thrived on flat out enthusiasm which was felt throughout the town and wider area and I can feel that same sense of enthusiasm in this room today.”
The former Fen Tigers’ skipper went on, “What’s needed in Speedway these days to bring back the glory days of the sport is time, patience and money – and what we see today with this launch of the Mildenhall Speedway Fen Tigers Supporters Society is that there’s clearly a future here and that the sport as a whole needs clubs like ours to be up and running today”.
Of the new Community Trust model, Steve Ribbons (who has a background in bringing clubs back into Speedway having done so in the past at Rye House, Wimbledon and Sittingbourne) stated,
“This is a first for British Speedway, a club owned entirely by its supporters, with all posts and decisions not made by a promoter but voted on by shareholders; and the enthusiasm and support shown at our launch meeting on Sunday bodes very well for a sustainable and promising future. All monies will stay within the Trust, which needs a capital outlay at first for the licence to run which involves a bond paid to the British Speedway Promoters Ltd company and some infrastructure at the venue. With the commitments received on Sunday by those signing up to the Trust, we are very close now to reaching the necessary target for that initial outlay.”
Plans to revive Speedway at Mildenhall Stadium have been revealed this week. The Fen Tigers were last on track as members of the National Development League [NDL] in 2023 and the proposed formation of a Supporters Trust to bring the sport back to West Row, in what will be the 50th anniversary of league Speedway at the venue, has led to a deal being agreed to see racing back in time for the Golden Jubilee celebrations of one of the sport's longest running tracks.
A Steering Committee was formed in the latter part of 2024 and a member of the committee went to the Aldershot headquarters of stadium owners Spedeworth International earlier this month and had a meeting with the Managing Director, Mr. Deane Wood. The committee member reported that Mr Wood could not have been more helpful and that there is a deal on the table for the Fen Tigers to race again in the forthcoming 2025 Speedway season.