By Henry Chard

Ipswich ‘Tru7 Group’ Witches promoter Chris Louis gives his thoughts on the recent British Speedway AGM which saw few changes made ahead of the 2025 season.

“I’m really happy with decisions made, little change was needed, and little change has been made,” said Louis. “I’m happy that we have got the status quo, the same clubs and looking at the teams that have been announced and I know about, it is going to be hugely competitive. I don’t think we will see the weaker teams we saw on occasions last year.

“As a league, it is going to be very entertaining and quite difficult. There are teams that are built quite differently so that will add a bit of intrigue and generally I was pleased with the outcome. Premiership decisions were made very early, way before the AGM so we could go about our business and rubber stamp everything on that front.”

In the BSPL’s post-AGM statement it mentioned a new initiative at Ipswich on the subject of development, and the promoter revealed the plan at Foxhall.

“There’s a bit of work to be done which is why there was no detail in the initial press statement from BSPL, but we’re looking to run an under-19 individual event along the lines of a Grand Prix meeting. It’s all about giving the British youngsters the experience of a big meeting, everything is to be confirmed at the moment, but we’re hoping that Great Britain Speedway will be present to do a bit of a presentation to the young lads and we will have our own senior riders involved to help them with track walk and advice.

“Again, to be confirmed, we’re hoping that BSN will have an involvement so that they can learn a little bit about talking to the media, pre, during and post event. It’s just to give them a whole experience that they don’t ordinarily get, and all the prizes will be based around helping them and equipment and stuff for speedway. Ultimately, the prize for winning is a sort of a scholarship with Ipswich to give them a hand with advice from riders and mechanics. A one-on-one training session and that sort of thing, so it’s really exciting. It’s still in the planning stage but as soon as we’ve got all the definite details, we’ll obviously be putting it out there.

“It’s something that I would like to develop.  I would like to trial it at Ipswich and then develop it further as we go in coming years because the youngsters are the future of the sport and, to be honest, it’s where the sport at the moment is failing. That is the only word you can use, and a lot needs to be done.”

Louis says that building the Ipswich side for the new season was easy and hopes to see Keynan Rew back in Suffolk in the future.

“Team building was actually very easy. There’s a definite feeling I’m getting from the team that there’s unfinished business from last year and they all wanted to come back and complete the job. So, I don’t think you can get a better grounding for a team coming into a season than that.

“I’m quite excited to be going back into battle with the same guys. Obviously, Keynan is one change, for his reasons mostly, which is fine and it’s certainly not closing the door on his Ipswich career. I like to think we gave him his chance and helped his first couple of years development, and he did make big improvements last year. I certainly don’t see that as the end of his Ipswich days that’s for sure.”

The former captain also confirmed that changes to the track at Foxhall will take place this winter to improve the banking.

“We’ve got the go ahead and it’s something that we wanted to do last winter. It wasn’t given the go ahead locally but we’ve changed how we’re going to do it which is more favourable, and we’ve got the go ahead to crack on with that.

“We’re going to wait for the last car event, which is at the end of this month, so that is very soon now. We’ll start digging into the ground and we’re effectively lowering the inside of the track, so that we can improve the banking all the way out which will make a huge difference to the racing.

“It will entice riders to race more and will certainly give us better entertainment and I think it’ll be a little safer as well. So, I’m happy to be doing that.”

The club hope to communicate news on 2025 Season Tickets in the coming weeks.