LEICESTER Speedway have taken a difficult but necessary decision to switch the venue for this Friday’s (November 4) Grand Final double-header.
The deciders against Poole in the Championship and Mildenhall in the National Development League will now take place at KING’S LYNN, with a 7pm start time.
This is due to further heavy rain at the Paul Chapman & Sons Arena since Monday’s track work, which has put our ability to run Friday’s meeting at Leicester in considerable doubt.
The track has been inspected again on Wednesday morning, and bearing in mind that further rain is due before Friday, we have had to take a safe and sensible decision to ensure these matches are run.
We would like to place on record our thanks to Keith Chapman and other track curators who have given up their time over the last week in a bid to make our circuit raceable for these Grand Finals. Whilst the main cause of the problems has been the extreme weather, we plan to make further investment over the winter to ensure we go into the 2023 season with an improved infrastructure.
As a club, we are gutted that we cannot stage the Finals on our own track, and purely in sporting terms we realise we are having to sacrifice home track advantage – but when the best in the business have advised us that it would be nigh-on impossible, we have had to take the best option available to have the titles decided on-track.
We apologise to all our supporters, and hope you can understand we have faced an unprecedented situation.
We can confirm the Watling JCB Lions will have a full-strength team for the Grand Final against Poole, with Nick Morris having delayed his flight back to Australia and skipper Kyle Howarth also returning.
We would like to place on record our thanks to Poole for their understanding, and to Keith Chapman for making the Adrian Flux Arena and his staff available at short notice. There is a good weather forecast for Friday.
All online tickets already purchased will be honoured on the night, and pay on the gate will also be available at King’s Lynn. Supporters who have already purchased tickets but are unable to make it to King’s Lynn can obtain a refund by e-mailing lions@leicesterspeedway.com .
Once again, our sincere apologies for having to make this change, but we thank everyone who has helped, and we look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at King’s Lynn on Friday.
