Belle Vue Aces
| Belle Vue Aces | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Track address |
National Speedway Stadium Kirkmanshulme Lane Gorton Manchester |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Founded | 1928 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team manager |
 Mark Lemon
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team captain | TBC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| League | SGB Premiership | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website | www |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club facts | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Colours | Red, White and Black | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Track size | 347 meters | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Track record time | 58.2 secs (4 laps) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Track record date | 29 July 2016 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Track record holder | Niels Kristian Iversen | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Major team honours | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Belle Vue Aces are a British speedway team from Manchester in the north west of England.
Racing first took place in 1928 at the Belle Vue greyhound stadium in Kirkmanshulme Lane before moving the following year to a specially built stadium nearby on Hyde Road. The club raced there until 1987 when the stadium was demolished. The club moved to a new track at its original home and remained there before moving to the National Speedway Stadium in 2016.
Hyde Road had a 40,000 capacity with a track length of 382 metres (418 yards), and was built around an existing athletics and cycling track. It is alleged that Britain’s first open grass-track event took place here on 25 February 1928. Later, with the grass gone, it was claimed to be the first purpose built speedway track in Britain. The opening speedway meeting here was staged on 23 March 1929, when Arthur Franklyn won the Golden Helmet.
Belle Vue resigned from league racing (English Dirt Track League) in 1929, stating that it wasn’t popular enough. In 1930 they were leading members of the uncompleted Northern League. In 1931 Belle Vue reserves took over Harringay’s fixtures, after they had withdrawn from the Southern League. This meant the Aces had a team in both the Northern and Southern Leagues although they were often referred to as Manchester in the Southern League.
Belle Vue again had two teams in 1934, one in the National League and the other, known as the Goats, in the reserve league. Liverpool transferred their provincial league operation to Belle Vue in 1937, so again, Belle Vue had a team in both leagues.
Belle Vue was the only track to continue operating throughout the Second World War, running a total of 176 meetings during the war years, which were attended by a total of 2,816,000 people. The winners of the wartime British Individual Championships were:
After the war, team racing resumed, with the Aces taking their place in the 1946 National League, and subsequently Division One the following year. There was sadness on 13 September 1947 however, when manager E.O. Spence died. Johnnie Hoskins took over from Alice Hart as promoter in 1953.
...
Wikipedia