Speedway: Why departing promoter Peter Mole is confident Sheffield will field a team again in 2026

Mole, and co=promoter Damien Bates have announced they are stepping down and putting Sheffield speedway club up for sale, after 11 years.

And after Sheffield’s victory over Ipswich at Owlerton brought the season to an end, he said he was confident of new owners taking over.

He told The Star he was optimistic there would be speedway at Sheffield next season.

He said: “I'm optimistic. We only put the announcement out last night that we were thinking of maybe stepping down and already we've had interest in the club.

“Sheffield is a massive Speedway club. We've got a good fan support. The stadium are supportive to us.

“The infrastructure with volunteers, track staff, turnstile operators, across the board track officials, everything's there. So whoever takes over is taking over a well-oiled machine and I'm sure they'll have new ideas maybe to put in to improve the product even further.”

He said he had mixed emotions about leaving.

He said: “We've had a fantastic time at Sheffield. It's been a privilege to be in charge of such a big club. I've always been a Speedway fan at heart from a young age. So to actually be involved in the running of a club, dealing with riders, fans, it's been a privilege and it's fantastic to have brought some silverware to the club as well.

“ We'd have liked some more success this season obviously, we just missed out there. But from a Championship level to come up to Premiership level, we won everything going in the Championship, we won the Premiership, we won the Knockout Cup in the Premiership.

“We've had individual successes along the way with Josh Bates in the early days in the under-21s and Simon Stead in the Premiership, as it was then, the League Riders Final Championship now. So we bought silverware, we're happy with that.

This season the club were knocked out by Leicester in the play off semifinal, before beating Ipswich to top the table.

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Mole said of the club’s 2025 season: “It's a success that tonight we finished top of the league. It's a success we've got for another season, which is an achievement in Speedway sometimes. It's a fantastic group of riders we've had here. Stead has gotten together.

“It didn't start well with the injury to Tai (Woffinden), but we regrouped, we changed and made more changes. And I think looking tonight, now we've got a fantastic team there. They've bonded well and it's just a shame we haven't ended up with some silverware this year to show for it.”

He says he plans to return to Owlerton as a fan, having a carvery and watching a team out there.