Wolverhampton Wolves Speedway

Wolverhampton's track is tight and unforgiving, but the stadium's natural charm and charisma is indicative of a genuinely fantastic speedway experience, the essence of a great night out for the family.

Date Visited
Monday 18th May 2022
Fixture
Wolverhampton Wolves v Belle Vue

I arrived in Wolverhampton just after 6.30 pm after making the jaunt down the M6 from the earlier fixture in Manchester. I made my way to the hotel first to freshen up before travelling to Monmore. I'm not going to lie; I should have paid more for the hotel. The area I stayed in was a bit rough and ready, right of a central road in Wolverhampton, with constant Police sirens audible from the room. The hotel was a stone's throw from Molineux, home to Wolverhampton Wanderers Football team. Despite my reservations, I dropped my gear off, had a quick shower then got ready for the short trip to Monmore Green.

Monmore is well known for the Greyhound racing it hosts. It's become one of the country's central venues, especially as other big venues such as Walthamstow have closed in recent years. I got to the stadium a bit late, so it was already heaving at the gates, the central car park was nearly full, and there were plenty of patrons parking on the roads outside the stadium. The weather had taken a turn for the worst, with some rain sweeping in just before start time. It didn't appear to detour anyone going in. The queue to get in was still healthy even at 7.30, 30 minutes before tapes up.

I drove into the stadium car park and approached the entrance just to the left of the main turnstiles. They let you park up just behind the grandstand if you're a biker.

Similarly to Belle Vue, this wasn't my first visit to Wolverhampton this season. I was working in Birmingham on a Monday night a few weeks earlier in the year and sloped off to Wolverhampton for their league cup fixture with Sheffield, which was a cracker, by the way! The feel for this fixture was vastly different, though. There was a lot of additional entertainment inside the entrance aimed at the younger demographics. Dan Thompson has his bike kitted out at the gate with his twin brother Joe and their Dad, answering the fan's questions and allowing fans to sit on the bike for pictures. Where did they get that idea from, I wonder? Great to see some of these low-cost incentives being implemented by promotors.

Once you enter the stadium, you can either walk past the main stand to the right, where there are catering vans or walk into the grandstand restaurant, where there are viewing facilities behind the glass. The food service is excellent but very slow so allow plenty of time if you want to get something to eat before the speedway starts. It's worth the queue. I can't visit Monmore without my chips with Curry sauce! I took my wife and kids to Wolverhampton last year, and they both enjoyed the food while we watched the Olympique. 

Patrons can find the track shop in front of the grandstand on a few trestle tables, and the pits can be seen from the terracing near turn 1. You can't see a great deal of the pits. The Wolves' pit bays are visible from the terraces, but you are too far away to see anything interesting. The visitors are on the other side and entirely out of view. It's surprising how many tracks don't have good visibility for fans to see inside the pits during the racing. This is the fourth consecutive track I've been to where this problem has occurred!

The viewing is good at Wolves. You can get a good track view from the back of the terraces whilst being close enough to feel the speed. It's a slightly more compact version of Newcastle, with viewing restricted to the home straight. It's a bit of a shame you can't find other vantage points, but condensing the facilities to a small area does create a good atmosphere on the terraces. If you want to go higher up, there are a few spots in front of the restaurant, or you can go behind the glass. I've mentioned before that I don't particularly appreciate watching behind glass. It removes a big part of the experience for me, the smell and incredible noise. 

Monmore Green is one of the tracks we still have dating back to speedways origins in the 1920s. The tracks inside curb measurement are 253 metres, just 1 metre bigger than Iwade and 1 metre shorter than Edinburgh's Armadale Stadium, although the official track length is 264 metres. The official size makes it the sixth shortest in the country.

The track is nice and wide, measuring 11.6 metres on the home straight and 14 metres on the bends, so there's plenty of room to manoeuvre. The average width of the track is on par with Redcar. However, the bends are 46% the size of the straights, meaning the turns are very tight. This means the riders must turn very early and hard to reduce their speed, making the track very physical. The close turning ratio is the main reason for the skittle-like crashes we sometimes see at Monmore. It's a technical track to ride compared to the more extensive open circuits you see on the continent.

In my opinion, the Monmore green track gets an unfair rap, especially when Wolves are on TV. I believe a big part of the problem is the Wolves' experience is one you need to experience in person. They've got a sound P.A system, and Ian Jones is fantastic at keeping the crowd engaged. The racing is often close and riders are constantly searching for a pass, but completed passes can be more challenging, and the intensity of the racing doesn't translate to the big screens. I would argue/discuss that the issue is compounded by the slow manner in which televised meetings are broadcast, but that's a discussion for another day. Last year I here for the Wolves second home league encounter against the Panthers, a match screened live on Eurosport. I was surprised to see criticism of the match on social media when I got home. When I thought about it, a big portion of the entertainment came from just being there and getting soaked up in the heat of the moment.

Fortunately, the rain eased up just as start time loomed. The track was wet and looked grippy, especially on the third and fourth bend, although it's hard to tell from the terracing. They rushed the parade due to the suspect weather and moved straight into Heat 1. Wolves opened the scoring with a 4-2 in Heat 1, but notably, Jye Etheridge fell heavily at the back. We didn't realise it then, but Jye injured himself and would take no further part. The Aces were on the back foot straight away and conceded a 5-1 in the reserve race to compound their issues. The graders came out and did some work on turns 3 and 4. There was definatly a soft spot over there. It didn't take long for another big off! Ryan Douglas hit the same spot that caught Jye Etheridge and nearly joined us in the crowd. Fortunatly, he got the bike down quickly, and the oncoming traffic avoided the Aussie. There was a lengthy delay after Heat 3 to sort out this issue on the bends.

The meeting wasn't flowing well at all and the crowd were left for nearly 45 minutes while the work took place. Then in almost Laurel and Hardie style, the grader caught one of the Track Staff on the centre green, so they needed medical treatment after Heat 4. You couldn't make it up!

Once the track staff resolved the issues, Tony Steele brilliantly got the remaining 11 heats done quickly. Douglas's exclusion allowed the Aces to pull a few points back, which they did through a 2-4. Aces pulled another 2 points back in Heat 4 when Brennan passed Flint for third.
Heat 5, there was another delay when Brennan disappeared into the first bend air fence, the skittle effect we discussed earlier.  

Wolves pulled away after a 5-1 in Heat 6. Nick Morris did well to limit the damage in Heat 7, passing Jake Allen and nearly catching the flying Charles Wright. Heat's 8 to 11 were all shared, maintaining the 6-point advantage. There were some good battles between both teams, and Drew Kemp did an interesting dougnut mid race in Heat 11. Charles Wright came in as a tactical in Heat 12 and the Aces pulled the deficit back to 4 points, Becker doing well to capture second from Allen. But, the hard work was instantly undone by a Wolves 5-1 in Heat 13, the Aces pulled it back to 6 points in Heat 14 through the unbeaton Wright, but the Englishman's maxium was finally broken in HEat 15 with When Wolves due of Masters and Morris banged in a big 5-1, securing all the points.

Considering how Belle Vue was turned over in Manchester earlier in the day, I was pleased to see the Aces put up a good fight. Ultimately, Wolves had too much for them. My rider of the meeting has to be the visiting number 4 Charles Wright, who was so impressive, scoring 16 points, but was denied his maximum in the final race!

Wolverhampton speedway oozes class. I've always felt like it's one of the best places in the world to watch speedway. The technical shape of the track can sometimes limit the quality of 'pure' racing, but I think the live experience at Monmore more than makes up for this. If you've never seen the Wolves in action, I highly recommend visiting them. The television cameras can't do the place justice.

After Heat 15, fireworks went off, giving slightly more value to the supports as they headed for the exits. The Wolves came out to salute the crowd before the club allowed some junior riders to enter the circuit for crucial practice sessions. Although my previous visit to see Sheffield was a better match, tonight's action was enjoyable and I returned to the hotel satisfied with the enteraintment on offer.

I got back to the hotel, chained the bike up and took all the panniers off before saying my goodbyes, assuming it would be there in the morning. I needed a decent amount of sleep as my next stop was in the southwest to see the Plymouth Gladiators in action. Unfortunately, the constant hassle outside the hotel and police sirens didn't provide the relaxing backdrop I was hoping for. Never mind, next time I book my hotel I'll pay more!

Parking
Stadium Parking is available and is free to cars and bikes. There's also street parking in the area, so parking shouldn't cause any concerns.

Admission
£19 for Adults, £17 Concessions and Students, Junior (13 to 18) £8, Children (6 to 12) £1, Under 5 go for free.

Programme
£3 for the programme, which is standard A5 size with a gloss cover, not quite as polished as some others but does the job fine.

Viewing Facilities
Limited to the home straight, I recommend the back of the front terrace section for a balanced view. Close enough that you can feel the speed whilst still seeing the whole track.

Catering
Plenty of food options are available with the traditional burger van-style service on the back-straight or the more polished restaurant inside the grandstand.

Escaping!
The first 15 minutes is slow to get out, so make a move quickly if you've got far to travel. After the initial flurry, the traffic dies down fairly quickly, so not a significant issue.

Fancy a great nights family entertainment at Wolverhampton?
 
Check out Wolverhampton website for fixtures and ticket information, the Wolves regularly race on Monday Nights.
https://www.bellevue-speedway.com/

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