TIM SUGAR’S FULL ROLL OF HONOUR Time served: (1988-1999, 2000-2001, 2005, 2007- present) League Champions Division 1 – 1990, 1992. KO Cup Winners Division 1 - 1990. Fours Champions Division 1 - 1993. Premiership Winners - 1991, 1993 BSPA Cup Winners Division 1 - 1992. League Champions Division 2 - 1997. KO Cup Winners Division 2 - 1998.
PRIOR to his latest stint in the Smallmead hot seat Tim Sugar had been working as a pundit for Radio Berkshire on their live broadcasts of Reading matches in recent seasons.
Sugar first took on the role with the Racers at the start of the 1988 season where he enjoyed an unbroken spell until he stood down at the end of the 1999 season because of work commitments.
During that period he led the club to no less than nine trophies, which included the sport’s top honour of Division One British League Champions in both 1990 and 1992 (equivalent to today’s Elite League Championship). 1990 was an excellent year for Reading as they were also crowned KO Cup winners.
Sugar stood down at the end of the 1999 season with former Racers skipper Dave Mullett taking over. However, he was soon back at the helm and took over from Mullett when the rider returned to racing after a year out injured towards the end of the 2000 season.
Sugar carried on as Racers team manager for another twelve months until the end of the 2001 season, but cited increasing work commitments as for finally giving up speedway management at the end of that campaign.
Sugar said at the time, “After a break I may feel I would like to return to team management should an opportunity arise."
Well that opportunity later arose.
Promoter Pat Bliss and loyal Racers supporters/ programme contributer Nick Dyer doubled up in the role for the 2002 season, but then Ivan Shears, son of then co-promoter Chris Shears, took over the managerial hot-seat at the start of the 2003 season. However, in May 2005 Shears took the decision to stand down from the job due to work and personal commitments.
Initially Sugar had been temporarily standing in for Shears for a few weeks before the announcement whilst the Club considered their options, but promoter Mrs Bliss felt that she didn’t have to look too far for Shears replacement and offered the position to Sugar on a full-time basis, which he gladly accepted.
Speaking after that appointment Mrs Bliss said: “We’re glad to have Tim back and we’re looking forward to working with him once again. Hopefully he can lead us to as many successes as we had in his last reign as team manager.”
Sugar remained at Smallmead for the remainder of the 2005 campaign, but at the end of that season long-standing promoter Mrs Bliss sold the club to Benfield Sports International (BSI), the rights holders of the Speedway World Championship Grand Prix series.
BSI’s owner John Postlethwaite brought in his own management team to run proceedings, which saw former Peterborough promoter Jim Lynch linking up with Reading as co-promoter and team manager. Former World Champion Sam Ermolenko was appointed as Sporting Director. Lynch led the team all the way to the 2006 Elite League Championship play-off final, where they cruelly lost out to Peterborough on the last race of the season.
Unfortunately during June 2007 BSI announced huge financial losses and finally decided to put the club up for sale. A deal was quickly agreed for the change of ownership of Reading Speedway, with the new promotion team of Mark Legg and former Racer Malcolm Holloway taking on the running of the club mid-season. As well as being co-promoter, Holloway was also installed as team manager.
However, with Holloway realising that a lot of his time was going to be taken up as the new promoter of the Reading Racers, he quickly realised he needed to appoint someone else to handle the team managing duties.
Tim Sugar once again answered the call.
His first match back for the Racers was on Monday 9th July for a home Elite League match against Eastbourne Eagles. Sugar had double reason to celebrate as not only did the Racers beat the Eagles 46-44, he also celebrated his birthday on the same night.
Further victories were hard to come by for the remainder of the season for the Racers boss, but with a fresh hungry team to manage in the Premier League in 2008, the Reading legend will no doubt be using all his experience to ensure it's a memorable one for all concerned.
TIM SUGAR’S FULL ROLL OF HONOUR
