Who are the new owners of Plymouth Devils speedway?

CHRISTMAS has come early for Westcountry speedway fans with the news that the Plymouth Devils have been saved from closure.

That is the message from Mark Phillips and Laurence Rogers, the two men that have won the race to acquire the assets of the financially-troubled club.

Just two months after it was said the club would be liquidated, former Trelawny Tigers rider and promoter Phillips and Laurence Rogers have revealed that they are the men that will take speedway in the city forward.

Phillips and Hare had an undisclosed bid for the assets of the club accepted by property consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton's (LSH).

And their bid was preferred to that made by former Devils promoter Mike Bowden, the man responsible for bringing speedway back to the city in 2006 and who publicly declared his interest in taking over the club.

Now, subject to approval from the British Speedway Promoters' Association, the Devils will ride in the National League in 2017.

A statement released by the new promoters read: "On Monday morning (November 21) the new promotion received an e-mail from the BSPA that the management committee were happy with their request and invited the new promoters to attend an interview prior to the league's AGM. They will then, subject to final acceptance by the members of the National Development League, be permitted to join the meeting to agree the rules for the 2017 season.

"Following this they met with the St Boniface College representative to agree terms for the continuation of speedway and came away with everything agreed."

Bowden, the man responsible for bringing speedway back to the city in 2006 was also in the running, but missed out to Phillips and Hare. Phillips' partner, Gillian Wheeler, is a director of the company who will run speedway at Plymouth.

Phillips said: "This is an early Christmas present for the Plymouth fans. We have gone about things quietly but today everything fell into place and the Devils should hopefully be lining up at the start of the 2017 season in the National League.

"We have our plans in place and now the work really starts for us as we commence work to find a team sponsor and other backers and advertisers. We are also undertaking some work at the arena so things will start to get really busy from now on."

Rogers added: "I have known Mark since he rode for me at Somerset back in 2000/01 and we have remained good friends.

"He approached me to see if I would become involved in this venture and here we are now just needing the member teams of the National League to rubber stamp our league spot at the AGM in December and I am very hopeful they will welcome the Devils back into the league.

"A lot of planning has already been put into this and we are determined to succeed

Story taken from Brent Herald

if these new owners learn anything from the previous lot then they will work on actually promoting the club and trying to bring in new blood to watch meets. Starting with social media and flyers would be a start.