Phillips planning to keep Speedway running but seeks commercial help

AFTER A TOUGH YEAR FOR GLADIATORS AND BRITISH SPEEDWAY, PROMOTER WANTS TO CONTINUE - BUT SEEKS SPECIALIST HELP

-  STUART JAMES

DESPITE missing out on this season's Championship play-offs, Plymouth Gladiators promoter Mark Phillips says it is his intention to run the club again in 2024, despite a challenging summer on and off the track at the Coliseum.

The city-based speedway club only won three meetings all year with the campaign ending with successive defeats at Birmingham, Edinburgh and Berwick, where they were again dogged by injuries and the make-up of the side was dominated by guest riders.

Phillips admits that mistakes have been made this year, but he has not been helped by an inconsistent fixture list and an unforeseen eight-week break caused by the wet weather in June and July. It seemed that rain would fall on every Tuesday in Plymouth, while tracks elsewhere were also hit, resulting in the club having an unprecedented 12 successive postponements.

Reflecting in the year, Phillips said: "It was all a bit messy to be fair and I am not sure if I am coming or going really. We had a very short season with only nine teams involved and the fixtures would have a gap of two weeks, then a meeting, then a gap, then a meeting - and we had rain as well, which meant no racing, so it definitely wasn't good for continuity. It really affected it.

"The team we put together at the start of the season looked excellent on paper but, unfortunately, when the tapes went up, so did all of our aspirations. It was not a team effort at all, it was more a case of four individuals there and three riding for the team, which is quite sad really.