Ecstasy, emotion and pure relief - those connected with the Belle Vue Aces felt it all as they became kings of British speedway once more last week.
Despite being the most decorated club in the sport with 12 league titles, there have been plenty of times when it seemed the day of lucky 13 would never materialise. Nearly three decades had passed since their last win and the last six seasons had yielded five play-off defeats, three of them in the Grand Final.
After 29 years of pain and times when their future was in doubt, the Manchester men finally got over the line by the narrowest of margins to deny Sheffield their first ever top flight crown. The win at Owlerton sparked jubilant scenes amongst the travelling Belle Vue contingent, who made the short trip over to Yorkshire to support their side and were treated to a historic and unforgettable night.
“So many emotions just rushed over us all,” said team manager Mark Lemon. “It’s been so long and we’ve been so close previously, four finals in the last six years, that you just don’t think it’s ever going to come.
“It was in the balance, and to finally get across that line, it felt surreal, like disbelief, has this happened? To go over to the fans that have been anticipating a win for so long, and with the club steeped in such success in the past, to have a drought for so long, for such a big club, it’s probably unheard of.
“It meant a lot for a lot of people and I think so many lessons have been learnt and experiences we’ve had to feed off have helped us get there. If you work hard enough and try long enough, the success will eventually come and after the pain and lack of success for so long, I think the club can be proud to get to this moment.
“The relief, the enjoyment and the ecstasy was just overwhelming. The emotions were running wild.”
This is the story of the awakening of British speedway’s sleeping giant.
Glory years
From the moment British speedway took off in the 1930s, the Belle Vue Aces were the team to beat. Between 1930 and 1936, they won six league titles and attracted sell-out crowds at their purpose-built Hyde Road Stadium.
As the war threatened to derail the sport, Belle Vue stood firm and survived as the only track operating through the Second World War, bringing in nearly three million fans over the course of 176 events.
It paved the way for another golden age when normality returned and their new superstar, Peter Craven, burst onto the scene in 1952.
In 1962, an eight-year-old named Peter Collins started watching on from the terraces and was "immediately hooked". The Hyde Road experience "blew his mind" and, in 1963, he watched his new era Craven lead the Aces to the British League title.
Collins was left "broken hearted' when Craven was tragically killed in a track crash in September 1963, aged just 29, but went on to emulate his hero and become Belle Vue's next icon. He won the league as a teenager with Belle Vue in 1971 and 1972. Four years later, he became world champion and, in 1982, he again lifted a league title with the Aces as the glory days returned to Hyde Road.
The Manchester lad became one of Belle Vue and Britain’s greatest ever riders, emerging with plenty of stories to tell in his new autobiography, now available to pre-order from Retro Speedway.
“I’ve always been a big fan of Belle Vue Speedway,” Collins says. “They’re the biggest, most famous speedway club on the planet.
“In the 1930s when the sport first got going, they had a fantastic run of winning championship in those days, then in 1963 they won the league with my idol, Peter Craven, when I was just a fan who loved going to Hyde Road.
“They had Jim Yacoby also in the team that year whose grandson, Charles Wright, has just emulated his granddad by winning the league in this year’s team. I was so fortunate that I was born at the right time to be able to race at Hyde Road, because it was a special place to race.
“During my period, I started there in 1971 and of course I won two league championships with Belle Vue in 71 and 72, riding alongside the legendary Ivan Mauger. We won it again in 1982, and that made Belle Vue the greatest speedway team that ever existed. We were famous just like Manchester United is to the football world.
“After that, we had quite a lean spell. We won it in the 1990s, the last time, but this year, winning it again, it’s put Belle Vue back on he map. I’ve always felt Belle Vue was like a sleeping giant just waiting to wake up, and they’ve done so well to do it this year.”
Fighting for survival
Collins knows all too well that Belle Vue almost never survived to see this day.
Little did they know at the time, but tragedy at Bradford City in 1985 would change the course of their history. An inquiry into the stadium fire which killed 56 spectators rendered large parts of their Hyde Road home and its wooden stands unfit for purpose. The stadium was promptly sold for redevelopment in 1987.
The very future of the Aces was thrown into jeopardy and Collins stepped in to secure a move back to their original home, Kirkmanshulme Lane greyhound track.
He says: “I saved the club in 1987 when we had the Bradford City fire and Hyde Road was condemned and demolished in the aftermath. I moved the whole operation into the dog stadium. I left the management side after that and although there was a real dry spell, we saved the club.”
It was at Kirky Lane that the Aces won their last league title in 1993, but the majority of their time at the track saw the once-great club languishing towards the bottom of the standings.
There were changes of ownership along the way and financial concerns at various points during a period which has seen many speedway clubs sadly fail to survive the test of time.
Collins says: “There’s been a lot of financial issues over the years, the club nearly folded a couple of times, but to come out now and win the league, they’ve done really well.
“In the early 70s we were setting the pace for everyone else, historically everyone who knows about speedway knows that, and now hopefully it can be the same again.”
As a rider, Mark Lemon saw the challenges Belle Vue faced before he came in as team manager in 2014. By that time it was possible to see construction already underway on a new National Speedway Stadium at the heart of a £11m sports village just across the rode from their existing track.
“I was a rider in those times when the club weren’t winning anything and it wasn’t fun, but when I came in as a manager I felt I could turn it around and I knew what was missing,” Lemon says. “I think it was just a bit of a mentality thing and putting processes in place around the club to point everyone in the right direction.”
The National Speedway Stadium project was years in the making, proposed by Collins’ former teammate, fellow Aces legend Chris Morton, and David Gordon after the pair took over the club in 2006.
Their proposal was first submitted in 2007 and plans approved by Manchester City Council seven years later. The project ultimately threatened the future of the club after the opening meeting was called off in March 2016 moments before getting underway.
The late call-off forced the club to give refunds and, with the track requiring further work for a couple of months, there were enormous financial implications. At the end of the 2016 season, they were evicted from their new stadium and had their licence revoked.
There were days of uncertainty before new owners, Robin Southwell and Tony Rice purchased the club and salvaged their stadium situation. Since then, the club have been able to reap the benefits of a spectacular 347metre track, widely considered the best in Britain after being carefully designed by Collins and Morton with the old Hyde Road circuit in mind.
“Chris Morton came to me for advice about how we should build the track, because we both rode at the old Hyde Road which was a great circuit,” Collins reveals. “I was quite involved in the track design which doesn’t really get mentioned these days, but it’s great to now see the racing we see there.”
Under a new era of ownership, Lemon has been able to reap the benefits, but there was a visible injection into the team and club from the moment work started on the new stadium. They ended on a high at Kirkmanshulme Lane in 2015 before almost capping off their first year at a new home with title glory before their uncertainty that winter.
“When I came to the club as team manage in 2015, we lost the Grand Final by the narrowest of margins, two points,” Lemon recalls. “That first year we returned a team that finished bottom to nearly winning the league, and we were going in the right direction.
“I think winning the league that first year might’ve given that experience to carry on and continue at the top. But we used that, bounced back and fed off that. We got heavily beaten by Wolverhampton in 2016 which really, really hurt and we learnt big lessons from that.
“The ingredients were always there, it just needed a bit of direction and I’d like to think I brought something in that area, but we’ve got such great people at the club that deserve a lot of credit. Manchester City Council have been huge supporters of ours for many years, and so many people have come together and should enjoy this success.
“The fans, at the end of the day, they’re the ones that deserve it the most, they come in through the turnstiles week in, week out and I’m just glad they got their moment.”
Nervous viewer
Amongst those to make the move from Kirkmanshulme Lane to the National Speedway Stadium was Max Fricke, a young Australian talent being tipped for big things.
The Aces won the race for his signature as he moved from Edinburgh into the top flight and opted to link-up with compatriot Lemon in 2015. Seven years on, he is the only remaining rider from their days at the old track and has been there for every near-miss over the past few years before finally getting his hands on a gold medal.
“I started out back in the old stadium, then saw the changing of ownership and that new era into the new stadium,” he says. “It’s huge for me to finally win it with Belle Vue. Like I said, I’ve been there seven or eight years now, and it’s the only club I’ve ridden for since moving up to the top flight.
“There’s been a lot of near misses along the way, we’ve got to a few finals that just haven’t gone our way so to finally get there and deliver in the play-offs is amazing.
“It’s been a lot of hard work behind the scenes and over a number of years. Lemo (Mark Lemon) has done an amazing job taking on a pretty big role, and it was awesome for him as well as everyone else.
“You could see how much it really means to everyone. The amount of supporters who turned out at Sheffield was amazing, and to see them all celebrating was great. That feeling at the end when we'd accomplished what we set out to do makes it all worthwhile and makes you hungry for more.”
In a cruel twist of fate, Fricke suffered a broken sternum, bruised lungs, sprained shoulder, cracked shoulder blade and concussion in a crash in Poland on the eve of the play-offs.
“It was like déjà vu this year when we lost Max Fricke on the eve of the play-offs,” says Lemon, recalling when they lost Brady Kurtz before last year’s final having previously been favourites. “But we were lucky enough to bring in a great replacement, Robert Lambert.
“Then we ended up losing two riders to injury in the first leg and we were thinking, ‘this can’t happen again, but it’s happening’.”
On the night they finally won the title, Fricke was resigned to being a frustrated spectator cheering his teammates on from the pits.
“It’s a little bit heartbreaking to have to sit there and watch,” he admits. “It’s definitely not the position you want to be in, and it’s always more nerve-racking watching than riding.
“It was very tense in the pits and seeing the meeting unfold, but as soon as heat 14 was over and mathematically we’d won, there was a lot of relief around the pits and the whole team.
“It’s been a massive season for everyone, super successful and to be able to lift that trophy together, you could see it on everyone’s faces, they were so pleased and it means a lot to a lot of people. Hopefully we can get back next year and I can experience it out on track myself as well.”
Raw emotion
With Fricke a frustrated spectator, Belle Vue’s latest young star, Tom Brennan, was in the thick of the action.
The 21-year-old was a star performer across the two legs and, when it mattered, was part of the heat 14 which clinched victory for the Aces and sparked wild celebrations.
“We’ve now managed to finally let it sink in and it’s just such an awesome feeling when you’ve accomplished something you’ve worked really, really hard for,” Brennan says.
“Belle Vue have worked tremendously hard for that. They’ve had to wait so many years for it to actually come true, and there’s been massive heartache over the years. For us to finally win it and show all the hard work paid off, it’s a fantastic feeling.
“We had a few things go our way, a few things not go our way and you just have to try and take things as they come which I think we did in a pretty good way. We managed to stay calm, and that’s the main thing in those meetings where every point counts.
“We knew it was going to be a pretty tough job going away to Sheffield, but we had to stay calm, fight to get every point on the board and it was fantastic that we managed to do it. I really hope this pushes the club on even more to go and get it again next year.”
Recalling the moment he wrapped up the title, he said: “It was pretty cool that me and Norick Blodorn managed to get the race where we won the title. We started out at reserve together, moved our way up and we’re good friends off the track so it was a pretty special moment for us to clinch that.
“We knew what we had to do beforehand, Lemo told us pretty briefly what the circumstances were and what we had to do. I was leading the race but got passed by one of their riders and it was one of those where I kind of sat back and knew were were in a good position.
“As soon as it was done there was a bit of confusion, wondering whether we had done it or not or if something had gone wrong, but as soon as I saw Lemo and everyone else run onto the track it all sunk in.
“It was all of that hard work and all of those nerves and everything all just come out at once. You can see the reaction from the fans and it was such an amazing feeling. I’d never ridden in a meeting like that before where the tensions feel so high and you can feel all the passion like that.
“We definitely celebrated which I’m glad about, because you can get it taken away from you just as fast so you need to enjoy those moments.”
For Brennan, the win meant more than most. He lost his “biggest inspiration”, mum Sarah, after a battle with cancer earlier this year. After everything he’s been through away from the track, success on it means even more.
“It’s been a pretty hectic year for myself, it’s been very up and down and I’ve lost a few people in my life that were the main things in my life,” he says.
“Sometimes it was pretty difficult to go racing, but for me it was just trying to keep that dream alive. My mum, who sadly passed away, she was my inspiration for racing. She was the one that pushed me on and it was just trying to keep that alive even more so.
“It gave me even more hunger to make her proud, and it was such a fantastic achievement because I know she’d be proud.”
Bright future
After their 29-year wait for glory, it is hard to envisage a scenario where Belle Vue are left waiting a similar period of time again.
The draw of the exciting National Speedway Stadium track has helped them attract top talent and also develop the next generation of stars.
Fricke says: “You see a lot of riders coming through there and progressing on the world stage which is great to see and shows they’re doing a lot of great things. Moving forward, I think it’s a great place to be and a really positive place to be around.”
Fricke is far from alone in developing from a highly-rated prospect into a world class performer in Manchester. He is joined in the Grand Prix series - the pinnacle of the sport - by Cumbrian racer Dan Bewley, who graduated from Belle Vue’s junior team into the Aces side before a season away from British speedway this year.
“What I would really, really like to see for next season is to get Dan Bewley back,” Collins says. “I’d love to see him back in the team.
“He won the British championship at Belle Vue and its a travesty he’s not riding for Belle Vue. Being English, just 100 miles up the road in Cumbria, I think his future should lie with Belle Vue, he should spend his whole career there, and I’d love to see him back in the team.”
Brennan, meanwhile, also hopes he can achieve more big things at the club.
“I grew up on a track, Eastbourne, that’s a completely different track, very tight and very small which is where I started racing,” he explains.
“As soon as I made the move to Belle Vue, it was a massive shock and completely different to what I knew but I was lucky to have help from some fantastic people and they stuck by me when I was struggling.
“We joined this year with a different attitude, showed what I could do at the end of last year and wanted to kick on. That track has been absolutely phenomenal, every week we turn up and it’s perfect and the work they put in to make the best track in the UK is incredible.
“It’s pushed me on massively, and I can never thank the club enough for what they’ve done. At the same time, I hope we can continue that relationship.”
Whilst riders inevitably come and go, the crucial aspect is that Lemon believes they have found a sustainable formula for success off the track as well as on it.
“I think it’s important for British speedway to have Belle Vue being successful,” Lemon says. “And even though the big one, the league, has alluded us the last few years I don’t think we’ve defined our success by the trophy cabinet.
“What we’ve got at Belle Vue at the National Speedway Stadium, we’ve turned it around and got a sustainable business model, the great facility is getting used properly and we’re challenging consistently at the right end of the Premiership.
“We’ve got good teams, good backers and I think our success is more so in what we’re doing at Belle Vue and what we can do for British speedway. To now have that league title in our trophy cabinet is just the icing on the cake.”
