Chris Louis is a sportsman that will forever be etched in the history of the town.

Born and raised in Ipswich, Chris was born into the speedway world, ‘the son of Tiger’. He will tell you stories himself about running around the grounds at Foxhall with a Coke can on his foot pretending to on a bike from the age of three. I guess it is easy to say now but he was destined to follow in his father’s footsteps.

Chris made his full-time bow for his hometown club in 1989 after a few meetings for the Witches in 1988. He would then dedicate the rest of his life to the club. Chris won the lot as rider, and was captain of the all conquering treble side of 1998.

On the world stage, Chris was a World Under-21 champion and competed regularly in the Speedway Grand Prix/World Final formats, proving himself to be one of the world’s best. I can remember buying a model bike of his from the Track Shop, the black and grey Hagon Shocks kevlars and racing it around the speedway-track shaped carpet. I still have it, Chris is in better shape than the model, both of his arms have broken off making holding onto the bike tricky!

He wasn’t just one of the best in Britain, he was the best, twice, in 1998 and 2000. The time came in 2008 to hang up his kevlars, but being a Louis, there was no chance that was the end of his story at Ipswich. Chris followed in his father’s footsteps again and became promoter at the club, with a stint as team manager thrown in for good measure! I highly doubt there is a job Chris has not done at Foxhall over the years, be it, cleaning the toilets, track curation or manning the turnstiles, his work ethic is unmatched and he would do anything for Ipswich Speedway, he even lives as close as he possibly can to the track, I never did get round to asking if that was intentional or not!

As promoter, Louis has brought the club back to the top of the British Speedway, overseeing the club lift the Premiership Knockout Cup and most recently the Premiership league title. On track, I don’t think you can argue that he has consistently put competitive, exciting teams out for our enjoyment. He has worked his nuts off and taken risks to bring some of the world’s best to Foxhall, see Emil Sayfutdinov most recently. You will be hard pressed to find many riders that did not enjoy riding at Ipswich under Chris Louis and the professionalism of the club under his stewardship.

Our enjoyment is the focus of everything he does. You might think the winter is a break but you will all have seen the track changes that have taken place over the years. Rock up to Foxhall on a freezing, cold winter’s day and he will be down there mucking in, to try and make the entertainment better for us. And his hard work pays off by the magnificent support the club receives every Thursday at Foxhall, that is what he did it for.

Off the track, he has made us into the model club to follow, (yes, obviously we are bias). Team suits, matching bike covers, matching teamwear pre-meeting, backed by sponsors who shared Chris’ desire for professionalism. Those sponsors do not fall onto laps, it is down to Chris’ hard work that the likes of Tru7Group, RN Euston and Scott Properties have loyally backed the club consistently for years. I know he is so proud and thankful of all the sponsors who have supported him throughout the years and always looked to keep them engaged with the club.

You might be able to tell from my model bike reference that I was a bit of a fan of Chris Louis as a kid. I’ve been going to Foxhall since around 1996 and so after I had graduated from university with my journalism degree I thought it would be great to help out my club with the social media side of things. Chris replied and was keen, I was only supposed to be doing a few tweets and yet 11 years later I have been press officer doing all aspects of the media side of things. He is good at that! But that is why me, and so many others do it. A love for Ipswich Speedway of course but a love for Chris Louis. He is a man who you want to work for and a man who you almost instantly feel a deep loyalty for, there is a reason we all keep doing what we do.

Like Ritchie, Chris is someone I speak to as much as my mum, he had a great knack of calling me and making team changes when I was away on holiday, I will tell you that! But holiday is a rare word is his world, he genuinely does not stop working. We know that speedway is a bit different to a lot of sports in the way they are run, there is not an army of departments in speedway taking care of each of their specific subjects. I touched on it earlier, Chris does it all, every time you start the call with ‘how are you?’, it is met with a sigh of tiredness unsurprisingly. Driving up and down the country watching fixtures, attending meetings, flying across Europe doing commentary, ensuring the track is prepped, running the financial side of the business, sourcing sponsors, fuelled by service station sandwiches and black coffee! I could go on and on. And he will hate me for making it sound like a one-man band because of course it is not. From his wife Julie to the team of volunteers supporting him, we all play our part but believe me he has put every ounce of energy into making Ipswich Speedway what it is today.

Rarely have I been as speechless as when he called me to inform me of the news. Ipswich Speedway is the Louis family to me and thousands of others. To say it would have been a difficult decision would be the understatement of all time, I can’t imagine how hard it would have been but you earned the right to make it and we support you. Time to enjoy a bit more time off I reckon, and you won’t have any more emails from me chasing the opposition’s team for the preview anymore at least!

No sentence a silly press officer like me says is going to do you justice with my attempt at words above but thank you Chris Louis, your family, friends and Ipswich is proud of everything you have done.

An extended video interview is available on YouTube with the departing promoter.