Sport In Profile UK Issue 14 | Page 46

Belle Vue Aces FOLLOW US ONLINE twitter.com/sportinprofile Belle Vue Aces Speedway Article provided by Hayley Bromley T here is no question that the National Speedway Stadium is one of Manchester’s brightest gems and after changing ownership over the winter, the vision for its future is starting to come to life. Since taking control of the business in February, the new management team have tackled an exciting few months in their quest to keep the world’s oldest, most famous speedway team racing. Now, just half way into the season, their efforts are starting to bear fruit with both the Belle Vue Aces and the Belle Vue Colts on track towards the strongly contested end-of-season play offs. It cannot be overstated how the overall morale of the club has contributed to this early success, something which Aces captain Craig Cook says is half the 46 Issue 14 battle for a team chasing a gold medal. But behind the scenes the hard work continues, for the enormous potential of this state-of-the-art stadium means it can handle far more than just weekly speedway as CEO Adrian Smith explains. “We’re indebted to both the Eastland’s Trust and Manchester City Council for getting us to where we are today,” he said. “It’s been a superb challenge but there’s still lots to be done going forward. “With the speedway, we want to develop a great family environment and enhance our dedicated fan base; the race night experience remains high on the agenda of things we’re working on. “We secured a brilliant Director of Speedway in Mark Lemon, who’s put two good teams together in a very short period of time and we’re delighted to see just how successful they’ve already been. “I’ve got so much appreciation for all our volunteers who helped lend a hand to get everything up and running. They’re the life blood of this club and