Swaffham Raceway

Swaffham Raceway, originally Swaffham Stadium,[4] is a stock car and banger racing circuit in Swaffham, Norfolk,[5] which also hosted greyhound racing from 1987 until 2000.[6]

Swaffham Raceway under floodlights, 2016
LocationDereham Road, Swaffham, Norfolk
Coordinates52°39′17.41″N 0°37′51.52″E
Capacity3000[1]
Opened1975 (1975)[2][3]
Former namesSwaffham Stadium
Length0.205 mi (0.329 km)

Greyhound racing
Disused greyhound track at Swaffham, which borders the active oval motorsport track.

Swaffham became a new track on the National Greyhound Racing Club permit scheme in 1987. The 416 circumference circuit was constructed just south of the Dereham Road on the east side of Broom Covert. The track location was remote and relied on the catchment area of the market town of Swaffham to the west and some clientele from the further afield Kings Lynn and Norwich. It ran parallel to the closed Great Eastern Railway Lynn & Dereham line which ran through an area that separated the track from NRM horticulture laboratories.[7]

Maurice and Anne Kirby opened the track to the public on 16 November 1987,[8] with Maurice Kirby acting as the Racing Manager on the race nights of Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Distances were 270, 480, 686 & 896 metres behind an 'Outside Sumner' hare. There was a large car park, 72 kennels and ten on course bookmakers but limited facilities in terms of structures with just one main stand.[9]

Because of a lack of greyhound racing in the area, Swaffham attracted significant trainers such as Kevin Cobbold, John McGee and Ken Peckham.[9]

In 1989 Tom Smith was brought into the track as the new General and Racing Manager and by 1992 he had acquired the lease.[10] Together with his son Gavin they were always looking to improve the mechanical workings of greyhound racing from hare systems to drainage and they produced a new hare that would change the industry. They came up with a hare that was modelled on the older outside 'McKee-Scott' but it had modifications that allowed the hare driver to use a simple turn switch and then an even simpler hare rail at ground level with the wire running on pulleys underneath. Within a ten-year period the popular 'Outside Sumner' and older 'Outside McKee' had all but disappeared within the industry. The hare was known as the 'Swaffham' and this allowed the Smiths to set up a very successful greyhound parts company.[11]

A dispute over security of tenure led to the cessation of greyhound racing at Swaffham on 14 July 2000.[12] Kirby planned to reintroduce greyhounds in 2007 after spending £60,000 on a new greyhound track[1] but Kirby died in 2012.[13]

Track records
Distance
metres		 Greyhound Time Date
270Glengiblin Rover16.7725.03.1988
270Surge Home16.4412.09.1988
270Curryhills Mike16.3202.12.1991
270Hot Hot16.3114.09.1993
418Killee Stranger25.5031.03.1989
440Hairy Head27.0206.03.2000
440Dims Favourite26.8524.04.1990
480Hit The Lid29.3229.08.1988
620Tarnwood Emperor38.3728.11.1989
686Denes Mutt40.5925.03.1988
686Allglaze Dixon43.3531.10.1988
686Decoy Cheetah43.5522.11.1994
834Mullawn Rip54.2213.02.1990
856Paradise Ash55.7302.12.1991
856Barefoot Queen55.5024.05.1993
1102Stir About Biddy74.0320.06.1992
270 HAshgrove Gift16.9729.10.1991
480 HRun On King30.2402.12.1991

Today

Stock cars still take place today.[5] In 2018 former Rye House Stadium promoter Eddie Lesley announced his plans to revamp the site; one of his companies owns the site outright and there are plans for a schooling track.[13]

References
  1. "Swaffham Raceway is going to the dogs". Lynn News. 1 February 2007. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
  2. "Swaffham Raceway season gets underway". Eastern Daily Press. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
  3. "History". Swaffham Raceway. Archived from the original on 4 February 2012. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
  4. Genders, Roy (1990). NGRC book of Greyhound Racing. Pelham Books Ltd. ISBN 0-7207-1804-X.
  5. "Swaffham Raceway Stadium". Norfolk Tourist Information.
  6. "Greyhounds: Swaffham could be back soon". The Racing Post. 11 September 2000. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
  7. "OS Plan 1979". old-maps.co.uk.
  8. "Closures and openings over the past 10 years, July 1993, page 18". Greyhound Star. 1993.
  9. Barnes, Julia (1988). Daily Mirror Greyhound Fact File. Ringpress Books. ISBN 0-948955-15-5.
  10. "Monthly Greyhound Star (Remember When 1992) February edition". Greyhound Star.
  11. Fry, Paul (1995). The Official NGRC Greyhound Racing Yearbook. Ringpress Books. ISBN 186054-010-4.
  12. "Lease blow blamed by boss Smith". The Racing Post. 26 July 2000. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
  13. "Swaffham Update". Greyhound Star.
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