Plymouth Devils commercial boss Brian Cave welcomes start of a new era for speedway club

PLYMOUTH DEVILS commercial boss Brian Cave believes the club are entering a new era – but he has revealed some people don't even know there is speedway in the city.

Despite the fact that the Devils have been in arguably as much trouble as Plymouth Argyle, the revelation came as a surprise to Cave.

The club's commercial manager found out the Devils were a blank to some Plymouth sports fans when he was doing a leaflet drop advertising the club in the city.

Cave said: "The fact is that some people in Plymouth don't know about there being a speedway club.

"We found out about it during the leaflet drop and the number of people who said they didn't know about the Devils was surprising.

"However, that's something we have got to put right, by promoting the club."

The city speedway club were in danger of folding until a consortium stepped in to buy the Premier League outfit.

A move by the new consortium to lease the Devils' circuit, St Boniface Arena, stalled when they were unable to strike a deal with the owners of the land, St Boniface College.

At the same time, Devils were working against a tight deadline for registering the team in time to take part in this season's Premier League campaign.

With the deadline almost expired, it looked like curtains for the club until an intervention by high-ranking British Speedway Promoters' Association officials helped to broker a deal.

Commercial manager Cave left the club, then came back after the takeover and negotiated the Devils' biggest sponsorship deal in their eight-year history.

With the start of the first season under the new regime a matter of weeks away, he is enthusiastic about the 2013 campaign.

Press and practice day, where the riders get to strut their stuff in public for the first time, is next Saturday, and Cave said: "There's a lot of work gone into our track (St Boniface Arena).

"The encouraging thing is that there's been a lot of volunteers helping with the work – it couldn't have been done without their help.

"The new stand along the back-straight has been delivered, there's new toilets on the site and the whole place looks different.

"I'm really looking forward to the season. There's a real buzz about the place and so much work to improve the circuit has already been done.

"Of course, it's an ongoing thing, but the new consortium pledged to improve things at the circuit and they are certainly honouring that pledge.

"It's absolutely a new era for the club with the new people (the consortium) coming in.

"Lee (Trigger, team manager) has put together a good, solid team with a strength in depth.

"Signing (Australian team manager) Mark Lemon was a good move.

"As well as being a good rider, he's going to bring a lot of experience and know-how to the side and that's got to help the rest of the riders."

Only three riders from a disappointing 2012 season have returned to St Boniface for 2013.

Devils, in their second year in the Premier League, finished dead last in the division despite the best efforts of an under-strength team.

In their first season the previous year, the city side were second-bottom.

This year the talented Ty Proctor leads the side, which includes with new signings Lemon, Chris Schramm and Ricky Kling.

The returning three are captain Cory Gathercole, Todd Kurtz and Ben Reade.