Category: Bears News

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 .

Many thanks to you all for your responses on Facebook and Twitter over the last few days, with your suggestions for our new mascots name.

If you head over to our Front Page, there is a poll to select your favourite from our ten name shortlist.

This poll will close on Friday 24th February – so get voting for your favourite!

The S.G. Petch Bears can finally confirm their opening fixtures of 2017 with the news that they will open the season on Thursday 30th March with the ‘Julie Lewis Memorial’ Meeting to be followed by a challenge match on the 6th April against a select side with a major ex Bears connection.

The full details of the meetings have yet to be finalised but the memorial meeting will return to it being a ‘ senior’ rider event with all the 2017 Bears appearing and invitations being sent to other unattached riders who may wish to remind teams of their availability.

As Redcar have been unable to set up a two legged challenge fixture with another championship club it’s been decided to put a select side together and hope to include primarily ex Bears riders which should make for some interesting comparisons with the new look Bears team.

An overjoyed Charles Wright would like to thank all the Bears fans who attended the Media Prima Arena bar last night and send him home with a very pleasing lump sum to add to his racing budget for this season.

Charles didn’t get the chance to say it personally but told the organisers he was overwhelmed with the total and couldn’t thank the club’s fans enough for what was nearly a club record sum raised from such an event.

The likeable lad from Manchester added to the total by raffling off some of his own personal racing attire and he even received an early valentines card from one very young female fan who made it personally as the evening went on.

The club house was once again packed to capacity as fans were kept informed of the latest developments within the club and the issues surrounding trying to get the early season fixture’s confirmed by the promotion. Season ticket sales are now 50% up on 2016 and there’s still time to apply for one by downloading the form from the club’s website.

Fantastic news for all at Redcar Speedway is that the Bears will once again be backed by S.G.Petch (Middlesbrough) in conjunction with Hyundai for the 2017 season.

Promoter Kevin Keay has revealed that negotiations have been going on for several weeks but thanks to stirling work by the clubs commercial manager Ian Drinkel and input from James Boothby (website co-ordinator) the deal was finally sealed today.

“We are delighted to have the backing of such a major company as S.G.Petch and we would like to thank Ian Noble and Shaun Burke for willing to come back on board on what promises to be an exciting season at the Media Prima Arena. Ian and Shaun liked the new positivity surrounding the Bears and to have their support shows that things are definitely moving in the right direction both on and off the track. We look forward to a closer working relationship with the company which we hope will not only benefit S.G.Petch but the Bears fans as well” said a delighted Kevin this evening.

There was a massive turn out at the Bears Bar on Thursday evening to say goodbye to former two times Bear of the Year Hugh Skidmore and his family.
Infact the attendance was so large emergency rations had to be sent for as the Pie ‘n’ Peas ran out.
The crowd were entertained to stories by Hugh of his years as both a Bear and a Tiger at Sheffield plus his plans for the future back down under.

Fans were also kept updated to the latest club news from both team manager Jitendra Duffill and promoter Kevin Keay as Kevin revealed a very welcome sponsorship deal had been struck with long time backer Keith Miller of Ecco Finishing supplies who will sponsor the pit area and also back the junior side, the Cubs, in their assault on the Northern Junior League. Ecco will also back the season long second half racing in a Grand Prix style format to encourage more competitive racing for the Bears stars of the future.

Stand by for more sponsorship news coming shortly.