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   FEATURES  •  CLUB HISTORY

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INTRO

1929-39

1940-49

1950-59

1960-69

1970-79

1980-89

1990-99

2000+

Newcastle Speedway began life at it's Brough Park (now Newcastle Stadium) base on Friday 17 May 1929 as the sport of Dirt Track Racing, which had been introduced to Great Britain in 1928 and really began to take hold. During that initial spell, the sport ran for two seasons - 1929 and 1930 - before the action ceased at the East of the City venue.
 
It was 1938 before the bikes returned, and it was in that year that the name of the Newcastle Diamonds was launched. Once again it was a two year spell of action that took to the track, though this time the closure was down to something much more serious - namely the Second World War.
 
The sport returned to Brough Park in the year the war ended,1945, for the start of a seven year spell that saw the action being branded with four different names in five different spells.
 
In 1945 it was Newcastle Speedway, in 1946 Newcastle Brough Park, 1947/1948 Newcastle Diamonds, 1949 Newcastle Magpies and 1950 and 1951 it was back to the Newcastle Diamonds.
 
The next re-incarnation began in 1961 when Mike Parker ran the club until the end of 1969 before Allied Presentations took over in 1970 for one year only.
 
So at last a span of double figures continuous action was achieved - 10 years to be precise - ironically the same amount of time achieved by the next spell of Brough Park action.
 
In 1975, Ian Thomas and George Graham revived Speedway on Tyneside, and although Graham was to leave early on, Thomas stayed on board and surpassed Parker as the longest serving Newcastle promoter as he ran the show for the ten year period of 1975 - 1984, a hugely successful period in the club's history, discounting the last year of that era.
 
After a disastrous sojourn into the top flight in 1984, the sport was lost on Tyneside for a year, before a re-launch as a second tier team in 1986 - though the newly acquired name of Federation Specials wasn't too popular!
 
1986 was the start of a nine year continuous run of action, with different promotions and consortia, until 1994 when it became clear that there would have to be another barren spell. This time the gap saw two blank seasons before the sport was relaunched in 1997, where it continues to this day - the longest continual run of Speedway that the sport has achieved in the City.
 
2008 will be the 12th successive season of action with George English extending his position as the longest serving promoter in the club's history, having surpassed Ian Thomas in 2007, while Darryl Illingworth will soon be challenging the position of third placed Mike Parker and Brian Larner in the long standing list.
 
 
The story of Newcastle Speedway's history will build up here throughout the 2008 season ...