The Redcar Bears are a British motorcycle speedway team who compete in the SGB Championship (second tier of the British speedway leagues). The club was founded in 2006. Their major team honours to date are the SGB Championship Knockout Cup win in 2019 and the British Speedway Network (BSN) Series win in 2025. The team have also run a junior side called the Middlesbrough Tigers (which is not to be confused with the former Middlesbrough club).
History Origins and 2000s Speedway in Middlesbrough began at the Cleveland Park Stadium and with a Middlesbrough team (later the Bears) that first competed in the 1929 Speedway English Dirt Track League. The racing took place from 1929 until 1996, when the Cleveland Park Stadium was demolished.
It was not until 2006 that speedway returned to Middlesbrough, with a new team name by the name of Redcar Bears, racing at the purpose built South Tees Motorsports Park (a former quad bike practice area). The team were promoted by Chris Van Straaten and Gareth Rogers, managed by Brian Havelock and captained by his son Gary Havelock (the 1992 world champion) and entered the 2006 Premier League speedway season, the Premier League was division 2 at the time. The Bears raced their first home fixture on 13 April 2006 against Sheffield Tigers and finished the season in a solid sixth place.
In 2007, the Bears won the Premier League consolation tournament known as the Young Shield, beating the Birmingham Brummies.
2010s From 2010 to 2016, the team continued to compete in the Premier League but experienced season of mediocrity. In 2017, the team joined the SGB Championship (the new name for division 2) and finished in 5th place. The Bears were awarded the 2017 Championship Track of the Year by the Speedway Control Board, an award voted for throughout the season based on referee's match reports.
In 2019, Jitendra Duffill became co-promoter replacing Kevin Keay, with Jade Mudgway continuing as the team manager and co-promoter. Gary Havelock also re-joined the club as the rider's coach.http://c.newsnow.co.uk/A/966103820?-17473:2778:most_read_top#out Race nights switched to Friday from Thursday and the club were branded as the Redcar Agilia Bears after London based company Agilia Infrastructure Partners Limited became the club's main sponsor. During the 2019 season, the Bears long-awaited search for major silverware ended when they beat Newcastle Diamonds in the Championship Knockout Cup final. Additionally Bears' rider Charles Wright became the 2019 British Speedway Champion after winning the final at the National Speedway Stadium in Manchester and Erik Riss won his first Championship Riders' title at Sheffield.
2020s For the 2020 season the Bears retained five of the previous years team but the season was cancelled due to the COVID-19.
The 2021 season saw the Bears lose their reign as Knockout Cup holders in preliminary round defeat to the Birmingham Brummies and despite qualifying for the end of season play-offs, were beaten in the quarter-finals by the Edinburgh Monarchs. In 2022, the South Tees Motorsports Park became the ECCO Arena, after long-time sponsor ECCO Finishing Supplies took up the opportunity to take over the stadium naming rights.
The first silverware of the SGB Championship 2022 went to the Redcar pairing of Charles Wright and Lewis Kerr, who lifted the SGB Championship 2022 Pairs Championship held at Oxford on 12 August. Also in August, Katie Gordon who rode for the Redcar Cubs, won the inaugural NORA Women's British Championship. The following year in 2023, Charles Wright won the Riders' Championship at the Ecco Arena.
In 2024, the Bears won the Pairs Championship with Charles Wright and Danny King and the following season repeated the success, with Wright and Erik Riss.
A successful season in 2025 concluded with the Redcar Bears winning the British Speedway Network (BSN) Series in the final against Poole Pirates 91-89 on aggregate.
Season summary
Year and leaguePositionNotes 2006 Premier League speedway season 6th 2007 Premier League speedway season 9thYoung Shield 2008 Premier League speedway season 7th 2008 Speedway Conference League 3rd Redcar Cubs 2009 Premier League speedway season 5th 2010 Premier League speedway season 14th 2011 Premier League speedway season 10th 2012 Premier League speedway season 9th 2013 Premier League speedway season 6th 2014 Premier League speedway season 10th 2015 Premier League speedway season 13th 2016 Premier League speedway season 13th SGB Championship 2017 5th SGB Championship 2018 10th SGB Championship 2019 3rd Play offs SGB Championship 2021 4th SGB Championship 2022 6th Play offs, pairs winners SGB Championship 2023 5th Play offs SGB Championship 2024 6th Pairs winners SGB Championship 2025 3rd Pairs winners / BSN Series winners
Season summary (junior team)
Year and leaguePositionNotes 2024 National Development League speedway season 6th Middlesbrough Tigers 2025 National Development League and National Trophy speedway season tbc Middlesbrough Tigers
Notable riders
Previous seasons
2006 Team
2007 Team
Also Rode:
2008 Team
Also Rode:
2009 Team
2010 Team=
2011 Team
2012 Team
- No.3 was previously Gary Havelock but Wilkinson signed due to Havelock's injury.
- Replaced Robert Branford
2013 Team
2014 Team
Also Rode:
2015 Team
Also Rode:
2016 Team
Also Rode:
2017 Team
Jason Garrity Ben Barker Charles Wright Jonas B Andersen Tobias Busch Danny Ayres Ellis Perks
Also Rode: Coty Garcia Replaced Tobias Busch on a 28-day loan period. Richard Hall Replaced by Danny Ayres 17 May 2017.
2017 Competitions & Results
2018 Team
Ben Barker Thomas Jørgensen Dimitri Bergé Jonas B Andersen Mikkel B Andersen Jordan Stewart Nike Lunna
Also rode: - Replaced 31 May 2018 by Thomas Jørgensen - Replaced 3 June 2018 by Dimitri Bergé - On a 28-day contract replacing Tobias Busch 3 June 2018 – 5 July 2018 - Replaced 9 August 2018 by Nike Lunna
Jade Mudgway deputised for Team Manager Jitendra Duffill.
2018 Competitions & Results
2019 Team
Erik Riss (2019 Championship Riders Champion) Kasper Andersen Jordan Stewart Charles Wright (2019 British Speedway Champion) Michael Palm Toft Nathan Greaves Tom Woolley
Also Rode: Ben Barker replaced 4/6/19 by Ulrich Ostergaard Ulrich Ostergaard replaced by Erik Riss 3/7/19 Tom Bacon replaced by Kasper Andersen 3/7/19 Jack Smith replaced by Tom Woolley 3/7/19
3 July 2019 changes
2019 Competitions & Results
2020 Team
Charles Wright Erik Riss Michael Palm Toft Jordan Stewart Kasper Andersen Joe Lawlor Jordan Jenkins
2021 Team
Charles Wright Michael Palm Toft Jake Allen Jordan Stewart Anders Rowe James Sarjeant Jordan Jenkins
2022 Team Charles Wright Erik Riss Lewis Kerr Kasper Andersen Jordan Jenkins Jason Edwards Kyle Newman
Also Rode: Adam Roynon Replaced by Kyle Bickley 4/7/22. Kyle Bickley Replaced by Kyle Newman 11/8/22.
2023 Team Charles Wright Connor Bailey Erik Riss Danyon Hume Danny King Jason Edwards Jake Mulford
2024 Team Charles Wright Connor Bailey Jonas Knudsen Danny King Jason Edwards Jake Mulford Ben Trigger
2025 Team Charles Wright Erik Riss Danny King Jason Edwards Jake Mulford Ace Pijper Jody Scott Also Rode: Tom Spencer
References