Plymouth Gladiators Speedway

Plymouth Speedway is unique for many reasons, but don't estimate south west based club. The Colosseum is an apt name for the Gladiators to battle; sometimes, size doesn't matter.

Date Visited
Tuesday 19th May 2022
Fixture
Plymouth Gladiators v Leicester Lions

I was awoken by yet another siren buzzing passed my window on a pleasant Tuesday morning. It was the last day of my 4-day mad dash to take in 5 speedway matches. I started in the far North East and slowly travelled across the country. Now I'm parked up in Wolverhampton after consuming a terrific double header between the Wolves and Aces.

The world had returned to work after the Easter weekend, not me though! I booked a few extra days off to travel south to visit Plymouth, the last leg of my epic journey! I didn't get a great night's sleep, but I was re-charged enough to get on the road towards Devon. The track was closer to Wolverhampton than my home East of London, although it was still a Trott at 208 miles.

I set off after my bang average breakfast and headed down the M5 at a leisurely pace, stopping at the Farmshop service in Gloucester for some lunch and a drink. It's a lovely service station, but I should have checked the prices first. I could have got a cooked lunch for what I paid for a sandwich and drink! After getting screwed by the Farmshop, I hopped back on my bike to be greeted by a Red Light, which was not a good sign. After 10 minutes of panic, thinking I was stranded in Gloucestershire, I realised my Imobolizer was playing up! All I had to do was take the key out, turn everything off, re-start everything and hey-presto, it's alive!

I didn't dare stop again, especially as I drew closer to the remote parts of Devonshire! I was making good time as I passed Exeter and thought, why not check out the site where the County Ground used to be? So, I headed into Exeter and made my way to the former home of the Exeter Falcons. It's incredible how I recognised the area as soon as I got there, the local shops and the Church, it was all so familiar! It made me melancholy while exploring the housing estate now sitting on the site. If you didn't know speedway was there, you would never know, not a trace of it anywhere! Enough of that; it's time to head to Plymouth!

I stopped in my hotel on route to drop my gear off, a vast upgrade to my poor choice in Wolverhampton, and then headed down to the Colosseum! I was excited! This would be my first experience of professional speedway racing at Plymouth, my previous visit was rained off, and I was at the St Boniface Arena with Ride'N'Slide many years ago! At first I struggled to find the track, I could see it as I exited the A38 but couldn't find the entrance! It turns out you loop away from the track and go under the road towards the entrance. The stadium was happy for me to park up with the rider's vans seeing as I was on a bike!

The Colosseum is purpose-built for speedway and has been done on a small budget. It's the kind of venue with a communal charm to it. Everything around you results from many individuals' hard work to build the club from nothing. You feel like you've entered a friends home for afternoon tea, that's the vibe you get. Once you've paid to enter you're greeted by the programme selling shed and the raffle ladies.

I was delighted to be featured in the matchday programme as a guest writer for the evening. Programme Editor Helen Charlesworth featured me, the speedway ramble and talked about my tour across the country.

Once you've entered, you walk left and come up to the track at bend one, just by the pits. There is a grandstand which costs an additional £2 to sit in, and if you sit at the top, you can spin round and peer into the pits. There are various viewing facilities and terraces around the entire circuit, and you can get close to the action. I'm pretty sure you could reach out and pull someone's goggles off on the backstraight!

There's a portacabin on the second bend with the usual fast-food offerings and a polish grill just next to it, offering some cuisine fit for our brothers in the Extraliga! The track shop is actually behind the stand on the first bend. Watch out for it, I completely missed it on my way in! It's worth visiting as they've got some cool merch for the Gladiator's faithful.

What makes Plymouth's home so unique is the size. It's tiny in length and width! The official length is 216 metres, although the inside curb is around 203 metres long, only 5 metres bigger than New Romney's Lydd Speedway in Kent. I've heard many riders describe it as a big track shape in miniature. That's because Plymouth's turns are not sharp like traditional small tracks such as Edinburgh or Wolverhampton. The straight-to-corner ratio is 55% putting it on par with the likes of Glasgow and Redcar. Plymouth is also incredibly small in width. The straights are less than 8 metres wide, the smallest in the country, and the turns average 10.5 metres. Only Sheffield's turns are narrower. As you would expect, the average speed is low at 39.1 Mph, just faster than Kent and 2.4 Mph faster than Lydd.

The track record is 49.4, set by Zane Keleher, the only current track record in the UK to be under the 50-second mark, although I suspect Lydd would be under 50 if full-time professionals raced on it.

Programme editor and huge speedway fan Helen Charlesworth was meeting me at the stadium to watch the racing. She frequents the fourth bend with her partner so I joined them for the action looking down the home straight from behind. I got carried away chatting, so I didn't watch any racing from other vantage points, but I reckon the backstraight is worth a look! Plymouth's National League team manager Matthew Bates stopped by for a chat and, like everyone, was very welcoming. Apparently, he's a fan of my videos, nice one Matt!

The Gladiators hosted a strong-looking Leicester side who I fancied to give them a run for their money. The host's were missing Edward Kennett and Michael Palm Toft through injury, operating Rider Replacement for Tofty and drafting Richard Lawson as a guest for Kennett.

Plymouth opened the scoring with a 5-1 but Leicester hit back straight away with 1-5 of their own. Plymouth struck back hard with four heat advantages to open up a 10-point lead. Nick Morris and Ben Barker had a slight ding-dong in Heat 5. Morris hit the deck, was subsequently excluded and wasn't happy! Barker was tough but certainly fair, nothing I wouldn't expect from professional standard riders.

Leiciester took a 4-2 in heat 7 when Howarth just caught Andersen on the line. Brilliant race! It would be their last heat advantage and race winner, as Plymouth would tear the Lions to pieces, never looking back! The Lions used the tact sub in heat 5 and conceded a 5-1. By Heat 9, the contest was over, and they were racing for pride.

Nick Morris was trying but had a bad night for Leicester, and Connor Mountain failed to score. Kyle Howarth was his usual all-action self but wasn't getting the returns. Richie Worrall was scoring but couldn't win races, and the supporting cast couldn't match Plymouth's gating skills!

The rider of the meeting has to be the excellent Ben Barker. He always gives 100% and looked untouchable all night! I should mention Alfie Bowtell, Dan Gilkes and Kyle Howarth, who were all great to watch. I thought Leicester would make a good match and didn't expect such a one-sided affair! Their performance at the Colosseum was an isolated incident, as they went on a big winning spree after the defeat to Plymouth!

With the track being so small and thin, you would think that the racing would be limited, but it's not the case! Small tracks have an advantage that races rarely get spread out, meaning riders can severely punish minor mistakes just through proximity.

Once the racing finished, I said my goodbyes to Helen and her partner before heading over the road to McDonalds! There I was joined by the Thompson twins and their crew, who would make the journey back to Leicester after some grub. Tai Woffindon would disapprove!

I had a 20-minute ride back up the A38 to my hotel, the Dartmoor Lodge in Ashburton. It was a lovely hotel, and I had a good night's rest! My speedway addiction was well fed for the week! The following day I faced the 4-hour drive back to Essex, where I would remind my Wife and Kids I'm still alive! A thoroughly successful trip, 5 out of 5! Now to plan my next excursion, a Leicester trip, then onwards to Scotland for some derby action!

Parking
Plenty of Stadium Parking at the cost of £2 per vehicle. It's your only option as the stadium's industrial estate has private parking restrictions, and apparently, they clamp people.

Admission
Championship - £20 for Adults in the NHS Stand and £18 everywhere else, £12 for ages 11 to 15, 11 and under go free, which is great value. National League - £15 for adults across the site, 11 to 15 cost £10, Under 11 go Free.

Programme
£3 for the programme, and it's a good quality offering considering the size of the operation at Plymouth, plus it featured me, so that's an obvious 10 out of 10. Nice one, Helen and Matt!

Viewing Facilities
The main stand is seated for an additional £2, and there's terraces on the first bend and backstraight. The third and fourth bend is banked, and the view there is also good. You can get really close to the racing, which is fantastic!

Catering
A variety of traditional speedway food and a polish grill if you fancy some European flavour, classy!

Escaping!
The traffic is congested outside the stadium but seems to move steadily. I stayed to watch the second-half riders, so the stadium was empty by the time I departed!  

Looking for an evening out in the South West?
 
Check out Plymouth's website for the latest fixture news for the Gladiators and Centurions, Plymouth regular race night is Tuesday.

https://www.plymouth-speedway.com/

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