Reading's first ever home match at their old Tilehurst Stadium
The READING RACERS were born at Plymouth on 7th June 1968, when they went down 42-36 in a British League Division 2 match as Pennycross Stadium.
Prior to 1968, there had only been one division of the British League, so Reading, under the promotion of Allied Presentations Ltd (fronted by Reg Fearman) and nine other tracks, founded a brand new second division of British Speedway.
Ten days after the Plymouth defeat, the Reading Greyhound Stadium at Tilehurst opened its doors to speedway for the first time, when the Racers hosted the NELSON ADMIRALS for their first ever British League Division 2 fixture.
The first ever Racers team saw Oxford-born John Poyser captaining the side. Poyser was joined by Australian pair Dene Davies and Joe Weichlbauer, plus British riders Ian Champion, Ted Spittles, Phil Pratt and Stewart Wallace.
Admission prices on that first night were five shillings (25p) for adults and three shillings (15p) for children - programme was one shilling (5p). An estimated 6000 people were packed into the Tilehurst Stadium on that June evening to witness the berth of the Reading Racers
When the tapes finally went up for the first time in heat 1, Nelson's Fred Powell romped away for a comfortable win over Racers number one Ian Champion. Paul Sharples was third for the Admirals, which gave the visitors an early 4-2 lead. The first ever race at Tilehurst came at a cost to Reading though, as Racers number two Dene Davies crashed through the fence, and the resulting two broken toes he sustained put him out of the remainder of the meeting and a few weeks after as well.
Poyser won a shared heat 2, and then heat 3 was also drawn 3-3 when Spittles and Weichlbauer were second and third behind Nelson race winner Dave Schofield.
Nelson then raced to a 5-1 in heat 4 and a 4-2 in the next race, saw the Admirals open up a 19-11 lead after just five races. The Racers hit back with a Champion (tactical substitute) and Poyser 5-1 in heat 6, but a 4-2 in heat 7 from Scholfield and Powell over Champion, saw Nelson hold a 24-18 advantage going into heat 8.
Gary Peterson won a drawn heat 8 for the Admirals, but the Tilehurst men reduced the arrears to 28-26 with a Poyser/ Ted Spittles 5-1 in heat 9.
Poyser was straight back out in heat 10, which he won ahead of Scholfield and Peterson, and then a 4-2 from Racers duo Champion and Stuart Wallace, levelled things up at 33-33 with just two races remaining.
Reading finally got their noses in front for the first time on the night in heat 12. Spittles and Poyser both made good starts and were able to hold off the efforts of Powell and Schofield, in what proved to be a match-winning 5-1 for the Racers. However, the match was to end in somewhat of a farce. Referee AW Day ordered a re-run of heat 13 after Peterson of Nelson had won it. Peterson, programmed at reserve, had already had four rides and the referee decided that he had been ineligible to take a fifth ride in the final race.
Despite the fact that the Reading team manager Dick Bailey had not protested, Mr Day ordered a re-run with the original programmed riders, which meant that Gerry Birtwell took the place of Peterson.
When the race finally got underway again, there was a three man pile up involving Nelson's Terry Shearer and Birtwell, along with Reading's Weichlbauer. The race was stopped and Shearer was excluded, however, Birtwell was unable to take his place in the next re-start, and was replaced by......Peterson!
Ironically Peterson went onto win the race, with Champion and Weichlbauer second and third for the Racers.
So the Reading Racers had won their first ever home match as a speedway club by a final score of 41-37. Poyser top scored for the Racers with a 13 (paid 15) maximum, and was subsequently presented with the rider of the night award at the end of the evening proceedings.
Reading went onto finish eighth out of the ten teams in that first season, although they did also reach the Division 2 KO Cup final, before losing to Canterbury over two legs (112-80).
So it was a mixed debut season in the sport for the Berkshire club, but better things were to follow for the famous Reading Racers in the years ahead.
