Sky Sports was granted all access at the Ipswich Witches

We were granted access all areas at Premier League club the Ipswich Witches, which is owned by Sky Sports' pundit and former rider Chris Louis.

The majority turn up to a meeting, watch the action and go home and don't know what goes on to make that meeting happen.

There are many aspects involved in a speedway club but at the end of the day it is like any other sport. The most important part is the competitive side of it and what the team are doing on the track.

Ipswich Witches owner and Sky Sports' Chris Louis takes us through the process of assembling a team for success.

The owner never stops thinking. Always thinking and plotting future success and progression, like any business it's the only way to operate to avoid becoming stale and being left behind. Louis reveals that preparation for the new season that starts in March of each year starts while the previous season is still in full swing.

He told Sky Sports: "It varies when you start planning but it's something you never stop thinking about. The fact that now we've named our 1-7 for 2016, does not mean to say that I'm not thinking about what 2017 will hold. I have to say right now there is little thought on that as we are concentrating on how we get the best out of the seven that we've got.

"In earnest you start seriously thinking and talking to your riders or asking permission to talk to other people's riders in August and September in our sport. The AGM is traditionally in November, this year it was October but nothing can be certain until then anyway.

"One good thing about the Premier League over the past few seasons is that we've had the same points limit and it's been in place for three years and so in that respect you've had a good start to know come September what you can do within the rules. There might be something like 'must have a National League three point rider' in the new rules and then you have to change things but generally the consistency in the rules does give you a good start."

With the riders in the sport riding all over the world from day to day, how do clubs keep an eye on their targets? How do they find the next Tai Woffinden? There is no set scouting structure in the sport but that is not to say that clubs do not have eyes everywhere on the globe.

"Scouting isn't really done in the same way as at a professional level like it is in football and other field sports. But you do have people that regularly travel to Australia in the winter who you know well or you have friends in Australia that did race here and you are always asking them to keep you well informed on who is winning races and if there are any new kids around. And that's the case with me and I'm sure many other clubs.

"Also your own riders - either [the ones] you're friendly with or your assets - are your scouts because they are doing a lot of riding in Danish leagues, Swedish leagues, Polish leagues and they'll often come back and say 'there's this kid etc'. I effectively did the same thing with Jarek Hampel.

"When he lined up at number two at Pila and I was number one, he shot off the start and we had 5-1 after 5-1 and I was amazed at how good this kid was that I'd never heard of. I came back immediately and said 'there's this kid Jarek Hampel, we've got to sign him'."

What are bosses looking for in a rider? You may think it's as simple as looking at who is winning the most four lap races round an oval track but there are a number of factors that come into Louis' thinking as an owner when it comes to signing a rider, be it as an asset for the future or just on loan, like the majority clubs do in the sport from season to season.

If you see someone who is going quick and beating reasonable opposition and hasn't been riding for long then you think 'hang on, how far can this kid go?'

"We are looking for someone that is obviously going quick enough relative to how long they've been riding for," said Louis. "You see someone who is reasonably good but they've been riding for five or six years, you kind of get the feeling that's where they are. If you see someone who is going quick and beating reasonable opposition and hasn't been riding for long then you think 'hang on, how far can this kid go?' So it's age and experience relative to how they are doing on the track.

"And attitude, if they look like they've got the right attitude on and off the track, you can get a feel for that quite quickly. There's also natural ability, it is something I always look for, 'do they look comfortable on the bike?' or 'are they man handling the bike and making it do what they want?' There's only so far you can go with that style and technique if you just sit on the bike.

"There's people like Darcy [Ward], who is someone who was very natural with the bike and people like Savalas Clouting, going back through my time of people who had all the natural ability but didn't progress. People look at me like I've got two heads when I say Sal but he was that good but didn't go forward."

Once targets for the Suffolk club are identified, what's the next step? You won't see multi-million transfers in the winter as clubs play the transfer merry go round. Speedway has a somewhat different transfer policy. Clubs build up a number of assets over years and years and own that rider until another club buys them off them. Around 99% of speedway transfers are loan deals. The nature of the sport means year after year teams are forced to change riders and Louis tells us how you start to approach targets.

"If it's a rider that you know is an asset of a club in this country then you need to get permission from them to talk to before you start. There's an official BSPA list that the office hold, that once a year we get sent to check to see if its correct. We have that on file so we are aware. If Poole decided they wanted to sign Jarek [Hampel] for 2016 then they have to phone me and ask.

"We have a list at this time of year that starts as soon as the season finishes of availability. So you list all of the riders that you are not intending to use from your asset base, so clubs know they are available and just pick up the phone and ask you for permission to talk to them."

Having approached the rider, then come contract negotiations. Deals in the sport are somewhat less complex than your footballers who come with an entourage of agents who you battle for hours over such things as 'image rights' and 'sell on clauses' but the former two-time British Champion says that deals can still be complicated.

"All riders are different, down to their expectation to your entry level. If they are not very far apart then the deal is done quickly. If their expectation of what they think they should be earning and your opinion of what you're prepared to pay is miles apart then it's going to take a bit longer."

Speedway is unique in the fact that the majority of deals are performance related. You are not tying down a rider on a long contract with a set wage per week, for the most part if you don't score points you don't get paid.

Louis explains: "Every rider's deal is done differently, there's no official way you should pay a rider. It's between a rider and the club. There is a respect for where they are at. Obviously sometimes the rider views himself as a little higher than others but the way I always do my teams and pay my teams is I refuse to pay a rider more than another rider that is effectively above him in the team just because of his demands and just to get him in the team. It's just a moral thing with me that he does not deserve to be paid more than someone who is better than him.

"I guess I get that from being a rider, I just feel strongly that's how they should be paid. They tend not to talk about their deals with each other, it's something that the club asks riders to keep to themselves and the riders generally want to do that. In my team there should be no problem with that, should they talk, because they are all paid relatively to where they are at."

With Louis being a former rider that made it to the highest level, he knows that every rider has to start somewhere but as the boss he admits he has had to start making tough decisions on axing riders from the team.

"It's the toughest thing I have to deal with, many people will say 'You haven't had to deal with it as much as you should have done' and maybe I have been guilty of sticking with teams and people for too long, I don't doubt I have.

"It is hard but that side of the business has got even more cut throat, people feel the need as a club to keep the people coming through the terraces. Equally the choice out there to replace a rider if you are going to sack someone is getting more and more limited so sometimes it's very difficult to make a change because if there are only so many options to make that change and neither want to come then you don't actually have an option."