I missed the odd sniff of the methanol on Friday night - but what encouraging news to emerge this week.

If all goes to plan with the interest shown by 26-year-old Jonathan Chapman, speedway should be up and running soon.

If he gets the licence, Chapman will be the youngest promoter to take over at Cowley.

Perhaps that's what it requires.

He already shown his promotional talent by dreaming up the successful Super Seven series for British speedway and, if some of that can rub off if and when he gets the all-clear, it augers well for a bright future at Cowley.

Talking this week, Chapman says he wants to start afresh, and that probably means there will be no place at Cowley for promoter Aaron Lanney.

It would be a real shame for the south coast businessman, who has tried his hardest for the club.

Lanney came in last year as a new promoter, but found the costs of running such an enterprise too much.

He sold out to Colin Horton, but remained as a co-promoter, and really, was the only identifiable member of the new backroom team.

And it was certainly a highly-complex set-up.

Oxford Ceetahs had an owner who also the chief at Peterborough, a general manager who was the team manager at Peterborough, and a team manager who also had an interest in Mildenhall.

That left Lanney as the front man - and also the fall guy.