STOCK car boss Steve Rees has welcomed the New Year with tremendous optimism, despite the doubts that the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic could present for his proposed re-opening meeting at Odsal on Easter Saturday.

Rees commenced ticket sales for the April 3 date in the early hours of this morning.

The Lytham St Annes based businessman reports being hugely encouraged by the interest shown in both individual entries and his innovative Patrons of Odsal 140 VIP Club memberships, which offer guaranteed “best seats” and numerous other benefits over a five-year period.

“We had orders for a quarter of those (140 Club) available before they officially went on sale,” said the man who promoted the sport when it was last held at the Bradford venue in 1997 and also still runs stock cars at Owlerton Stadium in Sheffield.

“The 140 Club is, as the name suggests, limited in numbers and will work like a debenture seat at Wimbledon.

“That means the seat is yours but you don’t necessarily have to occupy it, so companies are showing interest in buying them and using them for corporate hospitality.

“You get the best view in the house - balcony seating in the hospitality block at the south end of the stadium, access to a warm bar and food inside, plus other benefits.

“We can only work around Covid and that’s why we’ve had to limit individual ticket sales to 2,000 at the moment.

“We hope we’ll be in a position to accommodate many more than that.

“However, should things work against us and we have to postpone and run later in the year, we will do that, and tickets will obviously be valid for whenever the new opening night is.”

Rees’ company Startrax are preparing to begin work on the infrastructure throughout this month and hope to have a shale track laid by the end of February.

Full details of tickets for both April’s planned meetings and 140 Club membership are on the Startrax website: www.startrax.info