I WRITE regarding the campaign to bring speedway back to Oxford Stadium (Oxford Mail, June 16). Sometimes you can’t, nor should you, let a false statement go unchallenged.

The chief executive of the Greyhound Racing Association Clive Feltham states that speedway “is past its heyday”.

But I wonder just how much he knows about the sport, as, if he had cared to take the trouble to research the subject, he would have realised very quickly that speedway is still very much alive and thriving in this country and abroad.

If he does not believe me, then he should have gone along to Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium last Saturday and joined the many thousands of spectators watching the thrills of this year’s Speedway British Grand Prix.

He could even have watched it on Sky Sport, together with the million or more viewers who tune in on a weekly basis to watch televised speedway.

Television speedway is good, but no substitute for being at the track watching and smelling the real thing. And that is why we want the Cheetahs back at Cowley.

Why should it lose money? Promoters want to make money, not lose it and speedway fans will pay good money to watch it.

Nobody will make a fortune, but then, they are promoting a community family sport, free from bad language and violence.

Many new tracks have opened since the last speedway race at Cowley in 2008. During the same period Birmingham has created a successful and viable speedway team promoted to the Elite league this year.

Leicester, out of action for nearly 30 years, has this year opened with a brand new track and stadium (I doubt that this investment has been made to lose money).

Manchester’s Belle Vue speedway is another example. They are not happy with their current track and are now in the last stages of planning for a multi-million pound new stadium of international standard. Again, this is not, I suspect, because they want to lose money.

Speedway, far from being in decline, is actually growing and, with some positive thinking by the Cowley stadium owners, Oxford can be part of that growing success.

For those who don’t know, in this country there are 10 Elite league tracks full of international star riders, 14 Premier league tracks with very competitive racing, and 10 teams competing in the National league. And from mid-March to the end of October, nearly every night, speedway riders are hard at work.

JOHN FRAY, London Road, Wheatley