COVENTRY Bees will be back on track for one night only at Leicester on Easter Saturday, April 11.
A team with strong connections to the world-famous, but currently homeless, club will contest the East Midlands Bowl in the first senior meeting of the season at the Paul Chapman & Sons Arena.
The clash is expected to attract significant interest from Bees supporters, the majority of whom have been without a team to support since the iconic Brandon venue was closed by developers at the end of the 2016 campaign.
The following year saw a number of Challenge matches staged, with extensive backing from fans for meetings at Peterborough, Wolverhampton and Leicester in particular.
But there has been no motorsport in Coventry since November 2016, despite the clearly existing need for both a speedway team racing in the area associated with its name, as well as the damage created to stock car racing by the loss of Brandon as its primary venue.
The Lions won the Championship league title last season, ironically under the captaincy of Coventry legend Scott Nicholls, although the seven-time British Champion is not part of their 2020 septet.
They do include two ex-Bees riders in Kyle Howarth and Nick Morris, and the intention will be to build a Coventry team which closely matches Leicester’s strength.
Work on that line-up will begin when the sport’s fixture list is confirmed, as it will then be clear which riders are required for official matches elsewhere on the night.
Campaign Group spokesman Jeff Davies said: “Marc Bates at Leicester got in touch before Christmas to float the idea of the East Midlands Bowl, and we were delighted to give it our support.
“We’re sure with the meeting being staged at senior level, it will attract lots of interest from Bees fans, and naturally we encourage people to travel in numbers on the night.
“It may have been three full seasons since a senior Coventry team took its rightful place in league competition, but the determination to see the club return is as high as ever.
“This sort of event keeps all the efforts in the limelight, and I can assure everyone that we are still working hard to find a solution.
“We’ve got to a position where it’s been independently proven that the existing planning application totally fails to meet the criteria for development, and that’s a big step forward even though there’s still a long way to go.
“In the meantime we’re looking forward to seeing the Bees race-jackets back on track on April 11, and we’d very much like to thank the Bates family, Stewart Dickson and all at Leicester for putting on the event.â€