Ipswich Witches boss Chris Louis reveals his race day routine

Ipswich Witches race on a Thursday evening, and owner Chris Louis talks us through the planning for a race day at Foxhall Stadium.

"Generally, the fixture list is done in the winter," Louis said. "As long as you don't get rain offs and don't have to shift things around, that's when it gets a little more difficult with riders' individual calendars. But the fixture list is there and you know what is coming up.

"During the week you have to name your team to the opposing club first and they tell you what their team is. As the staging promotion, you put both teams up on the SCB website so the referee can log in and check both teams are legal. If there are any changes he makes sure there is a legal reason and checks the replacement rider fits the criteria.

I check with Bob Ellis, the trackman, to see if he has any problems and then if I'm busy with engine preparation I go to the workshop and spend a few hours there. I always report back to the track before midday

"Then in the run-up to the meeting, that gets updated as-and-when people drop out with injury or illness. So that's pretty well organised and straightforward, it's just more of a problem if you get rained off and you have to rearrange. You get involved with individual riders' calendars and that is more of a problem."

Louis has been in speedway for over 25 years and although he has made the switch from rider to owner, raceday still remains the focus of his week, and the 46-year-old talked us through his routine on a Thursday, a day that sees him take on various roles throughout the day.

"I get up and go to the track, check my emails and check there are no team issues, either with us or the visiting team," he added. "If there is, at any point during the day, I let the referee know that someone will be missing. I check with Bob Ellis, the trackman, to see if he has any problems and then if I'm busy with engine preparation I go to the workshop and spend a few hours there. I always report back to the track before midday to check with Bob and his wife Chris and normally go to lunch. During that time Bob is constantly watering and making sure the track is how he wants it.

"After lunch I come back to the track and stay there for the rest of the day. I help with the watering if it's needed on a hot day but my track duties don't start until 4pm when we start to move the track around and make sure the top surface is how we want it, so I stay involved with that until 6pm. Then I go into a telephone box, spin around and turn into a promoter! I greet visiting teams and managers and then basically watch the meeting.

"Since I stopped doing the team manager job I'm very strict on myself at not interfering with what the team manager does but of course if they want any advice I'm always in the pits or on the centre green to help riders or the team manager. Then I always go to spend a bit of time with the team sponsors, who have two areas of hospitality.

"It's a long day on a Thursday, obviously the track is the main laborious part. The fence has to come up and go down every week after the speedway. That goes up on a Monday and then the track preparation is literally done from the Friday after a meeting to the following Thursday for the next one."

The busy life of a speedway owner does not stop there. Louis is part of Sky Sports' panel at live broadcasts and also keeps himself involved in the mechanical side of the sport.

"I do a few engines, I have that side of the business to take care of," he said. "I do Mondays for Sky Sports, so there's a little bit of homework for that to see what the teams are, what changes there are and then I go to do that. Then maybe there is a BSPA meeting on a Tuesday, they don't happen very often but they do happen on occasion. Then there is away meetings, I go to all of the away meetings, so there is more than enough to do during the week."

As the season ends in October and riders pack up for the winter, the owner begins to plan for the next gruelling campaign.

"In the off-season week-by-week it's not busier than the speedway season but it's different. From the season's end until December, it's about making sure we get a competitive team together and making sure we've got the sponsorship advertising, meeting sponsors all of those things to pay for it."