Stoke

Stoke Stadium was opened in 1973 by Russell Bragg as a home for his new speedway team, the Chesterton Potters, later renamed as the Stoke Potters.

Mike Parker promoted F1 stock car racing in the opening year, but did not return the following year.

Hednesford promoter Bill Morris took over and made some changes. These involved moving the speedway track inwards and then installing a tarmac track for running Hot Rods. It was intended to be a sister track to Hednesford, but he only ran 3 meetings before he made a sharp exit. It has been suggested that the tarmac track extended all the way to the banking behind turns 1 and 2, although the photos found to date do not back this up.

Other people ran a few meetings the rest of 1974, including one for Midgets, and Trackstar of New Brighton held some meetings for their Modstox formula.

In 1975, the introduction of greyhound racing led to the track returning to shale for speedway, with the dog track added on the inside.

Mike Parker brought F1s back in 1976, but as in 1973, it was only for one season.

The dogs were hampered by to the unusually tight bends, so in 1979 the shale track and the dog track were swapped around to the more conventional layout of the dog track on the outside.

After over a decade of running just speedway and greyhounds, stock cars returned to Stoke in the early 1990s with Dave Mason at the helm.

In 1993, Stu Smith, now a promoter having retired from racing, brought the F1s back to Stoke for the first time since 1976. He installed a bar on the back straight made from shipping containers, which had been in use at Scunthorpe, his previous track.

After Stu Smith retired from promoting at the end of 1993, the next promoter was a consortium of Dennis Higgins, Tim Mann, and Vince Moody took over. They only lasted a year, with Dave Pierce of Buxton taking the reins. Like those before him, just one year was enough.

Steve Rees took the stadium on for 1996, and he remained until the stadium closed to cars in 2001. A change of plans saw stock cars back in 2012, again with Steve Rees in charge.

Having been up for sale for well over a decade, the stadium was sold off for redevelopment, with the final meeting taking place in November 2019. The stadium was demolished in early 2020.