When the old Tilehurst stadium closed down at the end of the 1973 season, a lot of people thought they would never see the Reading Racers back on track ever again.
Thankfully, along with promoter Reg Fearman, and a consortium which included Bill Dore, Frank Higley and Len Silver, they never gave up and with the help of the local council, a new site was eventually found. A new stadium was built from scratch on the site of a rubbish tip on the Bennet Road in the Smallmead district of Reading.
The club had hoped to move into the new stadium for the 1974 season, but as the new-year approached hopes faded of the project being completed on time, partly because most of Britain was working a three day week. As a result, Reading applied for their British League licence to be put on hold for a year, and their riders were loaned out for a season.
Building Smallmead was a nightmare, with heavy equipment having to come over a tiny humpback bridge. Underpinning buildings on a former rubbish tip meant going down 50 feet or more, but while that was financially impossible, the project went ahead.
So come 1975, speedway was back at Reading, in the brand new Smallmead Stadium.
Lining up in that first year at Smallmead, was Anders Michanek, who returned as reigning World Champion, while the early Division Two discoveries Mick Bell, Richard May and Bernie Leigh were all back. John Davis joined the club from Oxford in a swap for Dag Lovaas with new signings Bob Humphreys and Bengt Jansson, who was nearing the veteran stage.
An estimated 10,000 descended upon Smallmead Stadium on Monday 28th April, 1975, when the new look READING RACERS took on the HULL VIKINGS in a British League Match. The match was due to start at 7.30pm, but eventually started over half an hour late to let the huge crowd in. T he meeting officials for the Smallmead opener were: Tony Silk (Referee), Dick Bailey (Clerk of the Course), Frank Higley (Team Manager), John Homer (Time Keeper), ‘Diddy' David Hamilton (Master of Ceremonies) and David Lanning (Announcer).
When the tapes did eventually rise, Hull's Jimmy McMillan inflicted a rare defeat over Michanek in heat 1. Bell was third for the Racers ahead of Alan Cowland, and the first ever competitive race at Smallmead had resulted in a draw 3-3. Unfortunately that was to be the last race of the night for Michanek, as he pulled out of the remainder of the meeting, as he was still feeling the effects of a foot injury sustained in a grasstrack accident the previous day.
Humphreys and Leigh put Reading in front with a 5-1 in heat 2, only for the Vikings to strike back with a 4-2 in heat 3 from Bobby Beaton and Tommy Johansson.
Jansson and Humphreys then stretched Racers lead with a 5-1 in heat 4, and then May inflicted the only defeat of the night over McMillian in heat 5. Davis beat Cowland for third place, so the 4-2 increased the lead to 19-11.
With Michanek injured, Humphreys was called upon to take extra rides from the reserve berth, and he responded brilliantly. He linked up with skipper Mick Bell for a 5-1 in heat 6 over Mitch Graham, and once again with Jansson in heat 7, which put the Racers into a 29-13 lead after seven races.
Hull responded with a 5-1 in heat 8 from McMillian and Johansson, but Reading replied with successive 4-2's in heats 9 and 10 to lead 38-22.
McMillian defeated Jansson and Leigh in a shared heat 11, but a 4-2 in heat 12 from Humphreys and May over Bobby Beaton and Graham, put the Racers into a 45-27 lead going into the final race of the night.
Heat 13 saw McMillian take the chequered flag once again for Hull, but with Davis and Jansson second and third for the Racers, it meant Reading had won the first ever fixture staged at Smallmead Stadium by a score of 48-30.
In those days there used to be a full programmed second-half called the ‘Snowball'. The Snowball Final scores were accumulated throughout the year at Smallmead, and at the end of season the winning rider would get a ‘massive' prize fund of £250.
The first every Snowball Final staged at Smallmead, was won by Davis, from McMillian, Beaton and Humphreys.Scorers from the Smallmead opener:
Reading: Anders Michanek 2, Mick Bell 8, Bengt Jansson 8 (paid 10), Richard May 5, John Davis 8, Bob Humphreys 12 (15), Bernie Leigh 5
Hull: Jimmy Mc Milllan 14, Alan Cowland 0, Mitch Graham 4, Tommy Johansson 8 (9), Bobby Beaton 3, Robin Amundson 1, Brian Clark 0
