Country England Team manager Peter Adams League SBG Premiership | Founded 1928/1951 Team captain Fredrik Lindgren | |
Track address Monmore Green
Wolverhampton | ||
The Wolverhampton Wolves are a British speedway team based in Wolverhampton, England. They are sponsored by Parry's International Travel, and have signed a new deal with owner Dave Parry (previous speedway rider for the Wolverhampton Wolves) for the 2008 season onwards. The team is managed by Peter Adams and the promoter of the club is Chris Van Straaten. They were the Sky Sports Elite League Champions in 2002. The Wolverhmapton Wolves regained the Champion status in the 2009 season, beating the Swindon Robins 95-90 on aggregate in the 2009 play-offs. Their most recent title success happened in 2016 beating the top of the table finishing Belle Vue Aces. After winning by an 18 point margin at home in the first leg by beating the Belle Vue Aces 54-36, the second leg was actually a win for Belle Vue of 50-42 meaning victory for the Wolves by a 10 point margin with the aggregate scores 96-86.
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History
The club was founded in 1928 racing at Monmore Green, and after a brief flirtation with speedway, saw its last pre-war meeting in 1930. It was 20 years later that the sport returned to the town.
During 1948 and the post-war optimism, record crowds were attending speedway events up and down the country. With towns keen to cash in on the boom, Wolverhampton's stadium owners applied to the local council for a track to be re-built at the original site. Australian Arthur Simcock set the ball rolling and was granted permission to promote speedway in Wolverhampton and finally his dream came true on 14 October 1950. The first to test the new track were some visiting Norwich riders, en route to a meeting. They declared themselves satisfied. Officially once again founded in 1951, known as the Wolverhampton Wasps, the racing keen fans saw a Wolverhampton team defeat Sheffield 58-26 (old 14-heat formula). With all parties happy, Wolverhampton were admitted into Division Three of the National League of the same year.
However the winter of 1952/3 was a tumultuous one for speedway in the Black Country. Cradley Heath had endured a tough season in the Second Division, but meanwhile Wolverhampton had enjoyed a solid Third Division campaign. Due to the events at Cradley, a merger took place between the two promotions and saw a new formed team racing in the Second Division at Monmore Green. (Dudley Wood closed and didn't hear the roar of speedway bikes until 1959). Wolverhampton were pleased with this 'promotion' and saw the only meeting where supporters had been 'locked out'. It was reported 12,000 fans turned up with many more scaling the walls. The first meeting against Stoke in their new form saw the Potters demolished 52-32.
This was however short lived and the side was thumped home and away in the early part of the 1954 season. A decision was made by the promotion and in early May of the same year, Wolverhampton closed its doors to speedway. It wasn't until 1961 when the sport returned to the venue again. Since 1965 Wolverhampton have competed in the top tier of British speedway with the exception of 1981 (second tier) and 1982/3 (inactive). Today, they race in the Elite League with a 15-heat formula. On 10 August 2015 Swindon Robins rider Darcy Ward broke the track record time held by Tai Woffinden. Darcy's new record time 53.45 seconds.
Olympique
Wolves host the Olympique annually. The current holder is Jacob Thorssell.