Speedway
In 1929 Elvin decided he wanted to operate a speedway team from the stadium. With the help of speedway promoter Johnnie Hoskins, he constructed a speedway track at a cost of £250,000. Elvin announced that the Wembley Lions would enter the new Southern League. The Speedway World Championship was held at Wembley Stadium from 1936 until 1960 and then seven times more afterwards. The ashes for the speedway track were supplied by Richard Biffa Ltd who's operating base at the time was in Wembley Hill Road. Richard Biffa later became Biffa Waste Services.
The stadium saw a crowd of 85,000 for the first World Final in 1936 while the largest crowd was for the 1981 World Final when some 92,500 saw the last final held at the great stadium. For one Lions' league meeting in 1948, against the West Ham Hammers, it witnessed a crowd of 85,000 inside and another 20,000 outside unable to get in.
Read more about this topic: Arthur Elvin
Famous quotes containing the word speedway:
“The improved American highway system ... isolated the American-in-transit. On his speedway ... he had no contact with the towns which he by-passed. If he stopped for food or gas, he was served no local fare or local fuel, but had one of Howard Johnson’s nationally branded ice cream flavors, and so many gallons of Exxon. This vast ocean of superhighways was nearly as free of culture as the sea traversed by the Mayflower Pilgrims.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)