Racers' last meeting at Smallmead will be on Sunday 19 October

There will be no speedway in Reading in the 2009 season because the Racers' new stadium will not be ready for March 2009, they have confirmed.

Reading leave Smallmead, their home since 1975, in October at the end of the current lease.

Team manager Tim Sugar told BBC Radio Berkshire it was "really bad news for the immediate future".

But he added: "Hopefully we'll be back in 2010 with a brand new stadium that has been promised by the developers."

Racers' promoter Malcolm Holloway said that he, Sugar and captain Mark Lemon would have to try to plan for the future.

We don't like it and the Reading Racers don't like it, but at the moment, we have no choice. Malcolm Holloway

He said: "It is upsetting that we're going to have to close for a year.

"They all go out on loan, try to get jobs or be out of work, which is upsetting as well.

"We've just built a team up, it has cost us an awful lot of money to do it and then all of a sudden we have to abandon it again.

"We don't like it and the Reading Racers don't like it, but at the moment, we have no choice."

The move is not without precedent as Reading Racers missed a season in 1974, after leaving their Tilehurst home, and before Smallmead was ready to open.

Sugar said they would keep this in mind over the next year.

"When Tilehurst closed in 1973 we missed a year and came back stronger and fitter in 1975 at Smallmead so I'm remaining, with my team manager's hat on, very positive," he said.