Speedway fans will be celebrating the 70-year history of the sport in the area at an event next week.

Racing may have finished at the Abbey Stadium, Blunsdon in 2019 but supporters of speedway racing, which started in the town in 1949, are celebrating the club’s seven-decade history.

On Sunday, October 29 at Blunsdon House Hotel, former Robins rider Barry Duke and a group of enthusiasts have organised a reunion event for riders and supporters.

400 have applied for free tickets online and the event has completely “sold out” and will mark the closure of speedway at the stadium.

Guest invites have gone to former Swindon Robins riders Martin Ashby, Mike Broadbank, Clive Hitch, Mike Keen, Geoff Bouchard, and Alun Rossiter, the team manager of the 2019 Swindon league-winning side.

The event, fully sponsored by local businesses, will include: rider interviews, an audio-visual show of riders through the ages, and the launch of a long-awaited book “The Story of Abbey Stadium - Swindon”.

All profits from the event are being donated to the Speedway Riders Benevolent Fund charity.

Displays of racing machinery, memorabilia, and a one-off exhibition of team pictures covering the club’s 70-year history will make it a memorable day for all speedway supporters.

A memorial to the sport in the form of a large, framed set of historical pictures will be presented to the Blunsdon House Hotel and will join other Swindon historical items in the hotel corridors to act as a permanent memory of 70 years of speedway racing in the town.