![Coventry Stadium - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Coventry_Stadium_-_geograph.org.uk_-_37694.jpg)
Brandon Stadium, also known as Coventry Stadium, is located 6 miles east of Coventry in
Brandon
Brandon may refer to:
Names and people
*Brandon (given name), a male given name
*Brandon (surname), a surname with several different origins
Places
Australia
*Brandon, a farm and 19th century homestead in Seaham, New South Wales
*Brandon, Q ...
,
Warwickshire
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...
, England. It was the home of the
Coventry Bees
Coventry Bees were a motorcycle speedway team that existed from 1929 to 2018. They raced at Brandon Stadium, Brandon near Coventry, England.
History
A Coventry team was first formed in 1928 and competed in the inaugural season of the Southern ...
motorcycle speedway
Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that use only ...
team. It also hosted
BriSCA F1 Stock Car Racing on the 1st Saturday of the month from April through to November. From 1978 until early 2016 it intermittently hosted
greyhound racing
Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around a track. There are two forms of greyhound racing, track racing (normally around an oval track) and coursing; the latter is now banned in most countries. Tra ...
. As of 2022, it is closed and has become dilapidated after several fires, including an arson attack.
Speedway
History
Brandon Stadium's first speedway meeting took place on 29 September 1928. The track was owned by Midland Sports Stadiums (who also owned Leicester Speedway) and Charles Ochiltree promoted the Speedway and Stock Car Racing until his death in 1998. His son Martin then carried on promoting duties until the stadium was sold to Avtar Sandhu in 2003. The stadium's capacity is approximately 12.500. The record attendance for Brandon stands at 24,000, and was set during a speedway meeting, the Brandonapolis of 1954 on a Thursday night, where they locked the gates and were turning away buses.
The shale speedway track, which is inside the dog track is in length while the greyhound track is in length.
Brandon Stadium has been a popular stop for many high-profile speedway events in its lifetime. Under the old format of the
Speedway World Championship
The World Championship of Speedway is an international competition between the highest-ranked motorcycle speedway riders of the world, run under the auspices of the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). The first official championsh ...
events including the
British Speedway Championship
The British Speedway Championship is an annual motorcycle speedway competition open to British national speedway riders.
The winner of the event becomes the British Speedway Champion.
History
Inaugurated in 1961 as a qualifying round of the Spe ...
, the Commonwealth and Overseas Finals as well as hosting the
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...
,
1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...
and
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...
Speedway Grand Prix of Great Britain
The Speedway Grand Prix of Great Britain is a speedway event that is a part of the Speedway Grand Prix Series.
Winners
Most wins
Jason Crump 5 times
References
See also
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the No ...
. The 'Brandonapolis' is an annual event at Brandon which features some of the world's best speedway riders. It was postponed in 2011 due to the BSPA dispute of the 2011 Elite League Season.
In
1991
File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...
, Brandon Stadium staged the
Under-21 World Championship Final which was won by
Denmark
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, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
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, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
's
Brian Andersen
Brian Andersen (born 13 March 1971) is a Danish former international motorcycle speedway rider.
Career
Andersen reached the final of the Under-21 World Championship in 1990 and then won the event the following year to become the 1991 Junior ...
who defeated fellow
Dane
Dane or Danes may refer to:
People Pertaining to Denmark
* Dane, somebody from Denmark
* Danes, an ethnic group native to Denmark
* Danes (Germanic tribe)
Other people
* Dane (name), a surname and a given name (and a list of people with the nam ...
Morten Andersen
Morten Andersen (born 19 August 1960), nicknamed the "Great Dane", is a Danish former American football placekicker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 25 seasons, most notably with the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons. F ...
in a runoff after both finished on 14 points.
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
's
Jason Lyons
Jason Rodney Lyons (born 15 June 1970 in Mildura, Victoria) is an Australian international motorcycle speedway rider. Jason is the son of former rider Rod Lyons. The younger Lyons was the winner of the Australian Pairs Championship in 1992 as ...
finished third, while the leading British rider
Joe Screen
Joseph Screen (born 27 November 1972 in Chesterfield, Derbyshire), is a former British international speedway rider. His major speedway honours include winning the World Under-21 Championship in 1993, the British Championship in 1996 and 2004, ...
finished in 5th place with 10 points.
The speedway also hosted the last
Speedway World Team Cup
The Speedway World Team Cup was an annual speedway event held each year in different countries. The competition started in 1960 and was replaced with the Speedway World Cup in 2001.
Format
From 1960 until 1985 each team consisted of four riders ...
Final in
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...
(won by
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
) after having previously held the Final in
1993
File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...
won by the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
.
Speedway World Finals
World Team Cup
*
1993
File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...
–
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
(
Sam Ermolenko
Guy Allen 'Sudden Sam' Ermolenko (born November 23, 1960 Maywood, California) is a former speedway rider. In 1993 he won the Speedway World Championship in Pocking, Germany.Bamford, R. & Shailes, G. (2002). ''A History of the World Speedway ...
/
Billy Hamill
William Gordon Hamill (born 23 May 1970, in California, United States) is an American international motorcycle speedway rider. He is a former Speedway World Champion, winning the title in 1996.
Career
Early career
Hamill began junior speedway ...
/
Greg Hancock
Gregory Alan Hancock (born June 3, 1970 in Whittier, California) is an American former professional motorcycle speedway rider. As of 2023, he was one of only six riders to have won the individual World Championship four or more times.
In addit ...
/
Josh Larsen /
Bobby Ott) – 40pts
*
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...
–
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
(
Tony Rickardsson
Tony Rickardsson (born on 17 August 1970) is a Swedish former professional motorcycle speedway rider. He competed in the Speedway World Championships from 1989 to 2006. Rickardsson is notable for winning six Speedway World Championship titles in 1 ...
/
Peter Karlsson /
Henrik Gustafsson
Henrik Anders (Henka) Gustafsson (born 14 August 1970 in Sköllersta, Sweden) is an international Motorcycle speedway rider who won the 1993 World Pairs Championship with Tony Rickardsson and the Speedway World Team Cup with Sweden in 1994 and 2 ...
/
Mikael Karlsson
Karl Mikael Karlsson (born 21 August 1973), who rides under the name Mikael Max, is an international motorcycle speedway rider who rode in the UK for the Wolverhampton Wolves in the Elite League.
After first riding a speedway bike at the age ...
/
Niklas Klingberg
Niklas Klingberg (born 6 February 1973) is a former Swedish motorcycle speedway rider from Sweden, who was a member of Sweden team at Speedway World Cups. He was Swedish Champion in 2002.
Career details
World Championships
* Individual ...
) – 40pts
Individual Under-21 World Championship
*
1991
File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...
–
Brian Andersen
Brian Andersen (born 13 March 1971) is a Danish former international motorcycle speedway rider.
Career
Andersen reached the final of the Under-21 World Championship in 1990 and then won the event the following year to become the 1991 Junior ...
– 14+3pts
Speedway Grand Prix
*
1998 Speedway Grand Prix of Great Britain
The 1998 Speedway Grand Prix of Great Britain was the fourth race of the 1998 Speedway Grand Prix season. It took place on 7 August in the Brandon Stadium in Coventry, EnglandJason Crump
Jason Philip Crump (born 6 August 1975) is an Australian international motorcycle speedway rider. He is a three-time Speedway World Champion, a World Cup winner and a former World Under-21 Champion.
In a 21-year career in Speedway, Jason Cr ...
*
1999 Speedway Grand Prix of Great Britain –
Tony Rickardsson
Tony Rickardsson (born on 17 August 1970) is a Swedish former professional motorcycle speedway rider. He competed in the Speedway World Championships from 1989 to 2006. Rickardsson is notable for winning six Speedway World Championship titles in 1 ...
*
2000 Speedway Grand Prix of Great Britain –
Martin Dugard
Sidecar Speedway
The three wheels where a regular visitor to Brandon Stadium with both team and individual meetings taking place. Th most prestigious meeting was te
Gold Trophy
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
, Sidecars World Cup in 2010 and the British Open Championship from 1996 to 1999.
Gold Trophy
*
1998 Gold Trophy
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...
– Mick Headland & Jesse Headland
British Open Championship
*
1996 British Open Championship
File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone on ...
– Roger Measor & Shane Lapham
*
1997 British Open Championship – Roger Measor & Shane Lapham
*
1998 British Open Championship
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...
– Paul Pinfold & Lisa Pinfold
*
1997 British Open Championship – John Halsey & Jason Glenie
Stock car racing
![Brandon Stadium Coventry Heritage Stock Cars 2014](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Brandon_Stadium_Coventry_Heritage_Stock_Cars_2014.jpg)
The speedway track was also used for
BriSCA F1 Stock Cars
BriSCA Formula 1 Stock Cars is a class of single-seater stock-car-racing in the UK with custom-built cars, with races conducted on walled oval tracks of either shale or tarmac of approximately a quarter-mile in length. The cars are of an open w ...
, having raced here continuously since 1954. The first meeting was held on 30 June, the first heat being won by Percy 'Hellcat' Brine, he also won the meeting Final. The
BriSCA Formula 1 Stock Cars World Championship The World Championship is an annual competition started in 1955 for BriSCA Formula 1 Stock Cars. It is the premier championship of the formula and the winner is granted the honour of racing with a gold roof and wing until the next World Final, and i ...
has been held here many times since 1960. The track was also used for
BriSCA Formula 2 Stock Cars
BriSCA Formula 2 Stock Cars is a class of single seater auto racing in the UK. Cars are custom-built and race on oval tracks of either shale or tarmac of up to a quarter-mile in length. The tracks they race on are surrounded by either steel pla ...
,
V8 Hotstox
V8 Hotstox is a British stock car racing formula that races on British short oval racing circuits. Drivers are members of the British Stock Car Drivers Association (BSCDA) and are affiliated to the British Stock Car Racing Association (BriSCA). ...
, and various other forms of oval Motorsport including Bangers, Saloon Stock Cars, Ministox and Sprint Cars.
The venue was set to host the BriSCA F2 World Championship for the first time in 2017, but this event had to be moved to The Adrian Flux Arena in King's Lynn due to Coventry Stadium's closure, which was poorly handled by the stadium owners.
Greyhound racing
![Coventry Brandon greyhound track c](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Coventry_Brandon_greyhound_track_c.1980.png)
Origins
The Sanderson family had the majority shareholding in Midland Sports since the end of the
war
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
. Charles Ochiltree was installed as the Managing Director of Coventry Stadium Ltd at Brandon despite only having a minor shareholding in the company. Alan Sanderson died in November 1968 resulting in Ochiltree becoming the dominant decision maker for the track and fourteen years after the closure of
Lythalls Lane Stadium
Lythalls Lane Stadium was a greyhound racing and Motorcycle speedway stadium in Coventry.
It is sometimes referred to as Foleshill Stadium or Coventry Stadium but should not be confused with Brandon Stadium.
Origins
In 1928 the Coventry Gr ...
greyhound racing returned to Coventry in 1978.
History
The racing arrived shortly after a failed Barratts Homes bid for sister track
Leicester Stadium
Leicester Stadium was a sports stadium on Parker Drive in Leicester. The stadium was initially used for greyhound racing with motorcycle speedway starting there five years later. It was also a venue for BriSCA Formula 1 Stock Cars.
Greyhound ...
fuelling speculation that it was to be a replacement for Leicester. The first meeting took place on 19 September 1978 and facilities included a restaurant, a modern computerised tote and bars. The circuit was all sand and the hare was an 'Outside McGee' and Ron Day was installed as General Manager with Geoff Hammond as Racing Manager. A competition called the
Eclipse
An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three ce ...
returned to its traditional Coventry roots one year later.
Leading trainers Geoff DeMulder, Barbara Tompkins and Natalie Savva all became attached to the track and DeMulder went on to win the
Trainer of the Year. During 1980 Iskagh Ruler (Tompkins) reached the
English Greyhound Derby
The English Greyhound Derby is the most prestigious race on the British Greyhound racing in the United Kingdom, greyhound racing calendar, with a history stretching back to 1927.
It was first held at White City Stadium, but moved to Wimbledon ...
final. General Manager Ron Day died whilst in South Africa in 1981 and Sean Doyle (son of trainer Paddy Doyle) the young Racing Manager who had joined Coventry at the end of 1980 from
Cradley Heath
Cradley Heath is a town in the Rowley Regis area of the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, West Midlands, England approximately north-west of Halesowen, south of Dudley and west of central Birmingham. Cradley Heath is often confused with the ...
lost a battle with cancer.
Mick Wheble Michael John Wheble MBE (born 1949) is a retired Racing Manager, marketing executive, author and charity advocate.
Career
He held the senior role, that of a Greyhound Board of Great Britain licensed Racing Manager at Leicester Stadium and Coventr ...
the Racing Manager at sister track Leicester was brought in as Racing and Operations Manager. Barbara Tompkins won the
1983 English Greyhound Derby
The 1983 Daily Mirror Greyhound Derby took place during May and June with the final being held on 25 June 1983 at White City Stadium. The winner was I'm Slippy and the winning owner John Quinn received £25,000. The competition was sponsored by t ...
for Coventry when Im Slippy was victorious at
White City Stadium
White City Stadium was a stadium located in White City, London, England. Built for the 1908 Summer Olympics, it hosted the finish of the first modern marathon and other sports like swimming, speedway, boxing, show jumping, athletics, stock car ...
.
First closure
Midland Sports finally sold sister track Leicester in 1984 to Barratts Homes and another Derby final appearance by a Tompkins trained runner (Murlens Slippy) was overshadowed by the imminent closure of the stadium to greyhound racing. It finished on 24 October 1986 but Ochiltree remained the
Speedway promoter.
Re-Opening
Greyhounds returned in 2004, Simon Harris the
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
Racing Manager was recruited at the end of 2003,the track was relaid in time for an April 2004 start. New kennels were built for the racing schedule of Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evening racing. The track received more good news when it was awarded the 2004
Trainers championship. Matt Dartnall trained two hounds through to the
2009 English Greyhound Derby
The 2009 Blue Square Greyhound Derby took place during May with the final being held on 30 May 2009 at Wimbledon Stadium. The winner Kinda Ready received £100,000.
Final result
At Wimbledon (over 480 metres):
Distances
Neck, 3, 1½, 1¾ ...
final.
Subsequent closures and re-opening
After Boxing Day 2009 the company went into liquidation and closed. Just three years later the well-known professional gambler and owner Harry Findlay re-opened Coventry until 2014 when it shut once again. Independent racing (unaffiliated to a governing body) then took place until January 2016.
Track records
Arson attack
In May 2022, the stadium caught fire, causing substantial damage to the grounds, with firefighters taking four hours to extinguish the fire. The cause was revealed as arson.
Several months before the incident, an anonymous urban explorer had noted security concerns at the site that left it vulnerable to attack, and Brandon Estates had been previously accused of failing to keep the site secure.
References
External links
The Official Coventry Bees websiteThe Official Coventry Stox website*
The Official BriSCA F1 websiteThe Official BriSCA F2 website
{{English greyhound tracks
Sport in Coventry
Speedway Elite League teams
Sports venues in Warwickshire
Defunct speedway venues in England
Defunct greyhound racing venues in the United Kingdom
Buildings and structures in the United Kingdom destroyed by arson