LATEST NEWS ~ FEBRUARY 2006

LITTLE DEAL FOR BEARS
Wednesday 22nd February 2006
REDCAR have finalised their team plans by snapping up the experienced Kevin Little for Bears' debut season in the Premier League. Little joins on a 4.91 average after previously racing for Workington, Berwick, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Coventry.

Co-promoter Gareth Rogers said: "Kevin has ridden all the Premier League tracks and his feedback to the younger riders will be invaluable."
 

BEAR LOOK TO FINALISE LINE-UP
by Martin Neal Evening Gazette Friday 17 February 2006
The final piece of Redcar Bears' jigsaw should be slotted into place next week. That is the message from the Premier League newcomers' promoter Chris van Straaten who has revealed negotiations are at an advanced stage with the rider he wants to fill the final slot in the Bears' team for their debut season. Van Straaten's target will take the third heat leader berth and further talks will be held this weekend - though the Bears boss won't enter into any deal unless the rider himself is fully committed to the cause.

"It's important that the rider wants to ride for you first and foremost," said van Straaten, who is also promoter of Elite League big guns Wolves. "I have got a lot of experience in contacting riders and their first answer is so important. It sets the tone of what type of rider he is. I never persuade people because the first time they have a bad meeting, they turn round and say 'told you'."

Van Straaten was talking at the Riverside Stadium after a well-attended public meeting to launch the team where he also revealed that, because of the timescale, no season tickets will be sold for the team's debut season. Admission prices will be £11 for adults, £7 concessions and £2 for children. A £2 quality programme will also be available on racenight.

Press and practice day on April 6 will not be open to fans as a safety licence will not have been granted by then - but a meet-the-riders night is planned in the evening, possibly at the Riverside. Van Straaten also revealed that Steve Harland and Jason Pipe, who ran the Boro Bears junior team, would look after the second half action with the aim of nurturing up-and-coming riders. And he said he hoped to also enter a second team in the Conference League next year.
 

KERR-FECT MOVE
by Martin Neal Evening Gazette Wednesday 15th February 2006
Exciting young American Chris Kerr has become the Redcar Bears' first outright signing. The Premier League newcomers had already snapped up Gary Havelock, Matt Tresarrieu, Daniel Giffard, Jack Hargreaves and Tomas Suchanek - but they all arrived on loan deals.

Now 21-year-old Californian Kerr has become their first asset, after agreeing a three-year contract. He will be based permanently on Teesside and will stay with manager Brian Havelock in Yarm.

Kerr has not raced league speedway in Europe before, but was the major star of last year's American Dream Team tour of the UK, scoring double figures in all but one meeting. He also reached the semi-final of last year's World Under-21 Championship and scored seven points in the US National Championship.

He arrives on an assessed eight-point average and therefore goes straight in at the deep end as a heat leader. That represents something of a gamble by the Bears management, but they are convinced it will pay off. "He is one of the new breed of Americans and is an exciting young talent," said co-promoter Gareth Rogers.
 

TAYLOR MADE FOR SUCCESS!
February 14th 2006 By Evening Gazette
For the first time in nearly ten years, Teesside will echo to the sound of a speedway bike hurtling around the track later this month. That's the confident prediction of Glyn Taylor, the man hard at work building the Redcar Bears' new track and stadium. Work is continuing apace at the site in South Bank's South Tees Motorsports Park and the first competitive action will take place there in mid-April. But Taylor - a former Australian international - expects the track itself to be finished this month.

And he's earmarked Tuesday, February 28 as the day he plans to dig out one of his old bikes and christen the track. It won't just be for fun of course - he needs to make sure the months of hard graft he has put in have produced the best possible racetrack. Then it's a case of overseeing the rest of the stadium work before its grand opening.

The first job was to remove a huge mound of earth from what will become the back straight, and spread it over the stadium site. "There was about 50,000 tons to move," explained Taylor, "and the result is that the whole site is three metres higher that it was to start with." Once that job was completed, Taylor was able to mark out the track and some 600 tons of shale - the racing surface - are due to be delivered this week. "It should soon look like a speedway track," said Taylor, "and on February 28 I want to ride a bike around it."

Work on the drainage system and the track's inside curb is due to be done this week and the floodlights are due to be put up too. The safety fence is scheduled to be erected in early March. The oval track will be 311 metres long - and Taylor predicts it will be the most exciting circuit in the country. "It will be a fast track with a lot of different racing lines," he said. "There will be plenty of scope for passing. And it will be unique because bends two and three will be different to bends one and two. There will be banking at both ends - but more of it on turns three and four. "That gives the riders more options," he explained, "and it means they can build up speed going down the straight.

"It also means that there will be a home track advantage - there's nothing else in the league like it. It will be like a cross between the old Halifax track and Sheffield." Spectators will enter the stadium at the first and second bends. To begin with the stadium will be all-standing although the management hope to add seating in the future. A covered hard standing area - a metre higher than the track - will run the length of the home straight and there will be uncovered standing around the first and second turns.

An access road will run alongside of the back straight and the pits will be on bends three and four. Bar and catering facilities will also be included. It is envisaged the stadium will hold around 2,500 people and there will a free-to-use 500-space car park within the perimeter fence. The first meeting at the new track will take place on Thursday, April 13 when the Bears entertain Sheffield in the Premier Trophy.

A PUBLIC meeting to launch the team takes place in the Legends Suite at the Riverside Stadium this Thursday (7.30 for 8pm start). Recruitment forms will be available for anyone interested in being involved on race nights as track staff, stewards and turnstile operators. The Bears management will discuss admission prices, fixture details and team news.
 

BEARS READY TO SWOOP
Tuesday 14th February 2006
REDCAR are set to make a major team announcement this week as they close in on a second heat leader for the 2006 Premier League campaign. The sport's newest club have already snapped up former World Champion Gary Havelock, and have signed four other riders leaving two more heat leaders to complete the Bears' line-up ahead of their April opening.

FIRST news will be on Redcar ClubCall at 9am on Wednesday February 15 - call 09068 555 801, cost 60p/min.
 

CZECH BOUNCES INTO TEESIDE
Friday 3rd February 2006
The Redcar Bears speedway promotion have announced their fifth signing in readiness for the 2006 Premier League campaign. He is 21-year-old Tomas Suchanek. Tomas has already won the Under-21 National Championship in the Czech Republic on two occasions and could have joined the team as the second World Champion in its ranks. For Tomas lost the World Under-21 title to former Poole team-mate Krzsztof Kasprzak of Poland on the toss of a coin after torrential rain brought a premature end to that event last Autumn.

Tomas was first brought this country by Laurence Rogers, younger brother of Gareth - who is a leading member of the Bears' management team. Laurence was co-promoter of the Kings Lynn Stars at the time in 2003. Tomas was acquired as an asset of the Isle of Wight Islanders from 2004 but bought by Elite League club the Poole Pirates in 2005.

Tomas fits into the Bears' septet on a 4.21 average without bonus points and so joins another up and coming international, Matt Tresarrieu in the second string department. The club now have their two second strings, their two reserves - Daniel Giffard and Jack Hargreaves, and their number one - former World Champion Gary Havelock in place.

The remaining heat leaders may be unveiled in time for the public meeting at the Legends Suite, the Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough on Thursday February 16th at 7.30pm for an 8pm presentation by the Bears' management team.