TOP CLASS SPEEDWAY racing is to make a roaringcome back in the North-East for the first time in a decade.

Redcar and Cleveland Council has given the green light for a new purpose-built track at the South Tees Motorsports Park at South Bank, which should be up and running by March.

Teesside has a proud history of speedway. The town's Cleveland Park stadium opened in 1928 and more than 15,000 people regularly packed the venue to watch the high octane action.

The track closed in 1996 and the land was sold for re-development.

Officials behind the new plan hope to call their speedway team the Redcar Bears - a throw back to the halcyon days when the team to beat was the Middlesbrough Bears.

Redcar and Cleveland Development Agency, which runs the Park, has agreed a ten-year lease with leading speedway promoter Chris Van Straaten.

The promoter, who is behind the elite Wolverhampton speedway team, has also promised to set up a speedway training school, including four days of free training for the local community.

Mr Van Straaten is currently in Tenerife at the annual conference of the British Speedway Promoters Association and a decision on whether the team will ride in the sport's Premier or Conference League will be made on his return.

The day-to-day running of the club will be in the hands of Gareth Rogers, the former promoter of Eastbourne and the Isle of Wight.

He said: "Redcar Bears is the favourite name of the promotion - but we'll be open to suggestions. We're delighted to be bringing speedway back and we'll be announcing which league we'll operate in as soon as possible.

"We want to involve lots of people who were linked to speedway on Teesside in the past and we'll be holding a public meeting to discuss our plans, hopefully before Christmas."

The track will be sited between the Park's quad bike circuit and Middlesbrough Road, with access on Dormer Way.

Race meetings will be on 28 Thursday nights from March to October, the same as the old days at Middlesbrough's Cleveland Park Stadium, with attendance expected to be around the 1,000 mark.

The Council's cabinet member for economic development Coun Vera Moody said: "We're really excited about bringing speedway back to Teesside - and can promise the team a warm welcome.

"We need to make the most of the Motorsports Park, which is an under-used asset, and speedway will definitely help us to achieve that as well as giving the Borough a national profile in a sport which has always had a loyal fan-base on Teesside."