Peterborough Panthers chief convinced his side would have been title contenders as he plans to keep the same team together for next season

Unfortunately Chapman’s confidence wasn’t put to the test as the coronavirus crisis caused the entire summer of speedway to be cancelled.

Chapman is now keen to keep the same side together for the 2021 campaign.

And if he’s successful he’s promising plenty of exciting racing around the East of England Arena.

“I know it took a while to get there with the team, but I liked the end product,” Chapman insisted. “And I think we would have made the play-offs and challenged for the league title if we’d been able to race.

“The team had balance with strength at the top and in reserve and it was all set up for an exciting season.

“It would be useful to keep the same team because we have seven race suits made and ready to go!”

Chapman insists he has no regrets about taking over the club when former owner Ged Rathbone was looking to sell up two years ago.

“I don’t regret it,” Chapman added. “I know we’ve had our problems and the team wasn’t strong enough last season, but we were all set to bounce back this year in my opinion.

“We’ll be ready to go again next season and I’d like to thank all our loyal supporters at Peterborough.

“It’s also good to have two main sponsors. Crendon came on board last season and stayed loyal to us for this year and we also have City Auction Group with us. We cannot thank them enough and with a new TV deal in place we are looking forward to getting next season started now.

“Peterborough is a great venue for speedway and as long as everything falls into place in the next few months the fans have a lot to look forward to next year.”

Panthers signed an experienced line-up for 2020 of Niels-Kristian Iversen, Hans Andersen, Michael Palm Toft, Chris Harris, Scott Nicholls Rohan Tungate and Ulrich Ostergaard.