Redcar Bears

Origins and 2000s

Speedway in Middlesbrough began at the Cleveland Park Stadium and with a Middlesbrough team (later the Bears) that first competed in the 1929 Speedway English Dirt Track League. The racing took place from 1929 until 1996, when the Cleveland Park Stadium was demolished.^[2]

It was not until 2006 that speedway returned to Middlesbrough, with a new team name by the name of Redcar Bears, racing at the purpose built South Tees Motorsports Park (a former quad bike practice area). The team were promoted by Chris Van Straaten and Gareth Rogers, managed by Brian Havelock and captained by his son Gary Havelock (the 1992 world champion)^[3] and entered the 2006 Premier League speedway season, the Premier League was division 2 at the time.^[4] The Bears raced their first home fixture on 13 April 2006 against Sheffield Tigers and finished the season in a solid sixth place.^[5]

In 2007, the Bears won the Premier League consolation tournament known as the Young Shield,^[6] beating the Birmingham Brummies.

2010s

From 2010 to 2016, the team continued to compete in the Premier League but experienced season of mediocrity. In 2017, the team joined the SGB Championship (the new name for division 2) and finished in 5th place. The Bears were awarded the 2017 Championship Track of the Year by the Speedway Control Board, an award voted for throughout the season based on referee's match reports.^[7]

In 2019, Jitendra Duffill became co-promoter replacing Kevin Keay, with Jade Mudgway continuing as the team manager and co-promoter.^[8][9][10] Gary Havelock also re-joined the club as the rider's coach.^[11] Race nights switched to Friday from Thursday and the club were branded as the Redcar Agilia Bears after London based company Agilia Infrastructure Partners Limited became the club's main sponsor.^[12][13] During the 2019 season, the Bears long-awaited search for major silverware ended when they beat Newcastle Diamonds in the Championship Knockout Cup final.^[14] Additionally Bears' rider Charles Wright became the 2019 British Speedway Champion after winning the final at the National Speedway Stadium in Manchester^[15] and Erik Riss won his first Championship Riders' title at Sheffield.^[16][17]

2020s

For the 2020 season the Bears retained five of the previous years team but the season was cancelled due to the COVID-19.^[18][19]

The 2021 season saw the Bears lose their reign as Knockout Cup holders in preliminary round defeat to the Birmingham Brummies and despite qualifying for the end of season play-offs, were beaten in the quarter-finals by the Edinburgh Monarchs. In 2022, the South Tees Motorsports Park became the ECCO Arena, after long-time sponsor ECCO Finishing Supplies took up the opportunity to take over the stadium naming rights.^[20]

The first silverware of the SGB Championship 2022 went to the Redcar pairing of Charles Wright and Lewis Kerr, who lifted the SGB Championship 2022 Pairs Championship held at Oxford on 12 August.^[21] Also in August, Katie Gordon who rode for the Redcar Cubs, won the inaugural NORA Women's British Championship.^[22] The following year in 2023, Charles Wright won the Riders' Championship at the Ecco Arena.^[23]

In 2024, the Bears won the Pairs Championship with Charles Wright and Danny King^[24] and the following season repeated the success, with Wright and Erik Riss.^[25]

A successful season in 2025 concluded with the Redcar Bears winning the British Speedway Network (BSN) Series in the final against Poole Pirates 91-89 on aggregate.^[26]

Previous seasons