Redcar Bears Speedway — ECCO Arena, Middlesbrough
All at Redcar Speedway are saddened to hear of the serious injuries suffered by Richard Hall’s father, John Hall, in a recent car accident.
John is currently beginning the long road to recover and all associated with the Bears send their best wishes to him, Richard and all his family.
Redcar Bears Tobias Busch concludes his first season of ice racing this weekend when he lines up as reserve in round four of the World Championship buoyed by a sensational fourth place in the German title race on Thursday night.
Tobi, 28, was among the least experienced of the 16 competitors at the Horst-Dohm Eisstadion in Berlin, yet only missed out on a podium placing by two points.
The rider who became an instant fans favourite after signing for the SG Petch Bears midway through last season, needed to finish second in the last of his five rides to earn a run-off for the bronze medal with Marcus Jell.
But unbeaten Max Niedermaier, who took the title with a 15-point maximum, and Jell both led Tobi home in the 20th and final race.
That left Tobi on 11 points but with the satisfaction of finishing ahead of Luca Bauer, who was controversially awarded a wild-card entry for the two-day World Championship meeting in preference to the Redcar racer.
Tobi is one of only two survivors from last season’s Bears line-up and will now begin his preparation for the summer season on Teesside which begins with the Julie Lewis Memorial Trophy on Thursday, March 30th.
GERMAN ICE SPEEDWAY FINAL, Berlin (German unless stated)
Max Niedermaier (3,3,3,3,3) 15,
Hans Weber (3,3,2,3,3,) 14,
Markus Jell (2,3,3,3,2) 13,
Tobias Busch (2,3,2,3,1) 11,
Sebastian Gegenbauer (2,2,3,2,1) 10,
Luca Bauer (3,2,1,3,0) 9,
Jonas Andersson (Sweden) (1,fd, 2,2,3) 8,
Simon Reitsma (Netherlands) (0,2,1,1,3) 7,
Franz Marebuchler (2,1,1,1,2) 7,
Bart Schaap (Netherlands) (1,1,2,0,2) 6,
Jasper Iwema (Netherlands) (0,1,2,2,1) 6,
Gunter Bauer (3,D,N,N,N) 3,
Reinhard Greisl (0,0,0,1,2) 3,
Albin Lindblom (Sweden) (1,2,0,0,0) 3,
Erwin Schuster (Austria) (1,R,0,1,1) 3
Article courtesy of Keith McGhie and The Gazette, pictures copyright of LS-PHOTO
Spectacular fans’ favourites David Bellego, Ty Proctor and Aaron Summers
will all return to Redcar to spearhead a stellar field for the season opening Julie Lewis Memorial Trophy on March 30th.
The trio of former Teesside number ones have all confirmed their attendance for what promises to be the most intriguing curtain raiser in the club’s history.
They will set the bar that six of the 2017 SG Petch Bears riders will try and overcome, amid a field which also includes a host of faces familiar to Media Prima Arena patrons, plus a handful of currently unattached racers intent on keeping their names in the shop window should anybody need their services.
Among the most notable of those set to appear in the annual trophy battle, previously contested by National League standard riders, is David Howe – the former England International and Scunthorpe skipper who is on the comeback trail after an 18-month injury-induced retirement from the sport.
Unfortunately, Charles Wright will be missing for the meeting as he will be riding for Somerset on the same night and they have priority on his services.
Howe is joined by popular former Bears Jacob Bukhave and Ben Morley, plus twice European Grasstrack Champion Theo Pijper, Argentinian flyer City Garcia and veteran Australian veteran Matthew Wethers, who have all featured as guests for the Teessiders in recent seasons, yet are still searching a contract to ride somewhere in Britain this season.
The demise of Coventry, whilst bad news for hitherto doubling up Bear Jason Garrity, could benefit Redcar as the spectacular Mancunian was set to miss four meetings due to fixture clashes.
“It’s terrible for Jason this close to the start of the season but obviously means that, at the moment, he is just a Redcar rider and can fulfil all of our matches,” said Bears’ boss Kevin Keay.
Full lineup:
Ben Barker
Jason Garrity
Tobias Busch
Jonas B Andersen
Richard Hall
Ellis Perks
Aaron Summers
David Bellego
Ty Proctor
Theo Pijper
David Howe
Matthew Wethers
Tero Aarnio
Coty Garcia
Ben Morley
Jacob Buckhave
Reserve David Wallinger
Reserve TBC
Meeting will be 20 Heats with every rider taking 5 rides. Top scorer will be declared the winner. Tied points will be decided by a run off.
Article courtesy of Keith McGhie and The Speedway Star.
Redcar ‘Sg Petch’ Bears fans are reminded that there will be a quiz night at the Bears Bar tonight (Thursday), starting at 7:30pm.
Admission is £5 and will include a pie and pea supper. Also on the night, the lineup for the Julie Lewis Memorial meeting will be announced, plus news on the challenge meeting on the 6th April as well as your chance to ask any questions.
We hope to see so many of you there as possible!
The S.G.Petch Bears have appointed a new track curator in the form of Terry Chrabaszcz. The club has called on Terry’s 30 years of track preparation with the aim of preparing the best possible racing surface for the new look Bears side in 2017.
Whilst Phil Hainsworth steps down from the role he will still be around to help Terry settle in at the Media Prima Arena. Terry has most recently worked at tracks in the former ‘Elite’ league , at Coventry and Wolverhampton.
It is hoped the weather improves enough this week to allow Terry to get on track as soon as possible.
Many thanks to all Bears fans and the wider speedway community for reaching the £1000 target to help raise funds after the clubhouse burglary.
And only in speedway would you find an opposition rider donating to the local rivals in order to help them out…
Thank you Mr. Ludvig Lindgren.
The JustGiving fund will still run for another couple of weeks, so if you would still like to donate please go to Just Giving.
SG Petch Bears promoter Kevin Keay will be appearing on BBC Tees this evening (21st Feb) at around 6:45pm to give the latest developments with the Bears.
Please tune in if you can, on 95.0FM or online!
In an effort to raise money towards the Bears fund , top photographer Colin Poole has kindly offered to auction the following photograph opportunity.
Have your photo taken with the Bears team or your favourite Bears rider and help the club in its hour of need.
12×8 print in a folder supplied by one of speedways best photographers .
The photo can be taken on press and practice day or a regular race night to suit your availability.
The top 10 bidders will win this fabulous opportunity to have that special moment captured on film.
Bids can be sent privately to Bears promoter Kevin Keay via text 07800 933455 or Facebook messenger.
Bids close March 1st.
Please share this around anyone who you think may be interested in this, Redcar supporters, and Speedway supporters in general.
We here at S.F.Racewear have a long history with Redcar and formerly Middlesbrough Speedway. We are proud to have supplied products to Redcar over the past number of seasons. Redcar Bears have been a great supporter of S.F.Racewear. And we feel for the club right now, suffering the effects of an attack of mindless vandalism and theft. We hope the perpetrators are caught. But we all know that even if they are brought to book, it won’t make a difference to the repair bills that the club will face, running into thousands of pounds.
We are the sole suppliers of race jackets to Redcar Bears, and also the Cubs team too.
We have made the team bibs already for 2017.
We are making an extra 5 bibs this weekend, for the sole purpose of raising funds for the club to help rebuild and restock the clubhouse.
There are only 5 available, Kev Keay will ensure that all bibs are signed by the team on press day.
We are inviting supporters / collectors / interested parties to submit there most generous of pledges privately, either to us here at S.F.Racewear by way of private message, or to Kev Keay of Redcar Speedway.
The 5 highest pledges that are submitted between now and Feb 28th will receive their signed Race Jacket, and either ourselves or Redcar Bears will arrange this with a private courier.
We are not taking a cut in this, we wouldn’t wish to. Our customers are good to us, and we like to give back when we can.
100% of your pledge will go to Redcar Bears.
Please do share this wherever you think it may do some good.
Cheers to you all
S.F. Racewear
A terrible sight confronted volunteers who turned up at the Media Prima Arena this morning to discover that the clubhouse had been broken into overnight. Having spent recent weeks refurbishing the interior and installing new equipment they were horrified to find that the culprits had gained entry by smashing their way in through a window and then proceeded to ransack the building removing anything of value, including the contents of the bar, loaded the goods into wheelie bins and making off over the adjoining Moto X track and finally across the go kart track.
Club promoter Kevin Keay was ” absolutely gutted ” and was devastated by the discovery . He said that weeks of hard work by volunteers to improve the interior had all been in vain as it will all have to be repaired and the loss of the newly acquired electrical equipment, including a flatscreen TV was a severe financial blow.
” I feel sorry for the individuals who have put so much effort in recently” said the promoter but states everything will be repaired and replaced ,where financially possible, before very long.
In an ironic twist a new alarm system was due to be installed tomorrow.
The offenders are shown on CCTV using the wheelie bins to remove the goods and Police have been informed .
