Rob Godfrey: Fours spectacular can be flagship

BSPA Vice Chairman Rob Godfrey hopes the revamped Premier League Fours Spectacular Weekend can become a flagship event on the British speedway calendar.

The reformed competition will feature 72 heats spread across Saturday, July 23 and Sunday, July 24 involving all 13 Premier League clubs at the East of England Showground.

With an odd number of clubs, the difficult decision has been taken to seed host club Peterborough directly to the final this year, although the plan from next year onwards is to award the defending Champions that place.

Ticket prices have been set at £20 per day individually or £30 for a two-day pass, with under 12s free and kids over 12 £7.50 per day or £10 for both days.

Camping, which can be booked via Peterborough Speedway for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday, will cost £10 per night although hook-ups for a motorhome or caravan will cost extra.

A bumper Saturday night of entertainment will also cost £5, but Godfrey hopes their competitive pricing structure will see the event become a huge part of the speedway season.

“We’ve put together a pricing structure which we believe provides great value, and although we are relying on lots of people coming we certainly hope they will turn out in numbers,” Godfrey said.

“We’ve tried to price it in a way to encourage people to come for the weekend so they’ll get better value for money, and Peterborough will be releasing a press release with more details on how to sort out camping.

“We know it’s a gamble, but we very much believe it’s worth it because it’s an attractive event and we are going to put 100% into it.

“We are expecting every single Premier League promoter to have an input, and I know the Peterborough promotion are certainly getting behind it fully and coming up with new ideas.

“The East of England Showground have been very helpful with us, it’s probably the only venue in the country where we could do this sort of thing and we are delighted to have their support.

“Collectively I believe we can make this an absolutely brilliant event in the first year, and following on from that we can improve on any mistakes we make to ensure it gets bigger and better as the years go on.

“It’s a starting point for us. It includes every single team, it’s unique to British speedway at this time and we certainly feel it has the potential to be a fantastic event.”

(BSPA Press Release)