Tributes to Tim Stone

10:37am Tuesday 29th April 2008

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WASPS skipper Tony Atkin today paid his own tribute to Newport Speedway promoter Tim Stone who died at the weekend.

Stone's passing has come as a complete shock to everyone within the sport, and discussions are taking place at the British Speedway Promoters' Association to assess possible ways forward.

Atkin said: "Tim was, and is, Newport Speedway. He was a very clever man, and I remember him showing me everything he had done and was doing around the stadium. He built that stadium himself, he built the club. He's basically the last person to build a speedway stadium - all of the new ones now are in fields, but this is a real stadium and we just hope it can continue to run.

"Nobody really knows what will happen at this stage, it's up in the air and obviously the first thing is to find out what Tim's will says.

"It might be that we have to take time out, maybe even wait and come back next year, but we all love our speedway and want it to run. I just hope we can find a way of doing that, hopefully this year."

Their next opponents are scheduled to be Berwick this weekend, with Bandits promoter Peter Waite one of many within the sport to send their tributes to Stone.

He said: "All of us at Berwick Speedway send their most sincere condolences.

"We just hope everyone at Newport can re-group and adjust with their enormous loss, and continue in the manner Tim would have wanted."

Speedway meetings held on Sunday and Monday were opened with one minutes' silence in Stone's memory - including at Reading, where riders and officials wore black armbands. Racers' owner Mark Legg's son Billy rode for both the Wasps and Mavericks in recent years.

He said: "I'm very shocked and upset to hear this news. Tim was always a big help to Billy during his racing career and we became very good friends. He was a very dear friend and will be greatly missed."