The season got off to an early scare for Exeter because of an earlier ruling that said a team who finished bottom of the Premier League twice in succession needed to seek re-election. However, the idea was eventually put into the dustbin and Exeter could begin plans to team build.

First on the shopping list for Colin Hill was cradley star Simon Cross who had put in a transfer, but that eventually fell through.

The long battle to bring back Mark Loram continued, whilst in the meantime, Exeter try to Lure Tomasz Gollob who had been targeted as a sure crowd pleaser. However, fixture problems were to rule him out and hence the arrival of Simon Wigg who came in on loan fron Bradford, after a somewhat dissaponting season at Long Eaton in 1995.

Of the four Czechs who rode in 1995, Petr Vandirek was the man Hill wanted to keep. Toni Svab had got the move he wanted to Middlesbrough, while Bo Hadek and Vaclav Verner were both below the levels required to obtain a work permit. Scott Pegler had announced he was quitting to take up road racing, yet not long into the season he was riding for the Swindon Conference League side.

Hill also made the move to buy Michael Coles and bring the local man back home to join up with Paul Fry in the middle order. Also in were mark Simmonds and Graeme Gordon who made up the reserve places.

Then the breakthrough came along and Exeter bought Mark Loram, who began his spell with a month's ban following a contreversial retirement at the end of 1995. He made a huge impact on his return to the County Ground when he immediately broke the track record, lowering it 64.1 and dropped just a single point in the meeting.

Exeter hold talks with Hans Clausen of Peterborough as a possible replacement for out of form Petr Vandirek but talks break down. The injury Jinx was soon to hit Exeter, with Mark Simmonds being ruled out through shoulder injury before Vandirek returned home with an on going wrist injury problemsand wasn't to ride again for a long time.

The results were not going Exeter's way and the cause was not helped when Simon Wigg missed three meetings, supposedly through injury yet he was found to be riding in Germany and the club threatened disciplinary action.

To help plug the gaps, German Jorg Pringel was brought into the team, but the big County Ground was not to his liking, and when Alun Rossiter became available, Jorg moved on to Reading where he did improve. Roger Lobb and Paul Fudge also had a few outings before Peter Jefferey was tempted into making a comeback afyer showing promise in the late 1980's. Whilst they finished the season fifteenth out of 19 teams, they did have a good run in the KO Cup which included a good win at Poole and a draw at Swindon to reach the Semi Finals before going down to Peterborough as injuries decimated the side.

Action shot (Right) shows Peter Karlsson leading Mark Loram and Simon Wigg during a Bank Holiday Monday meeting at the County Ground

November sadly saw the passing away of former track manager Ted lethbridge, who had first taken over the role back in 1982 and whos son, Tony, later became Team manager.

Prompters voted for a three league system for the 1997 season, namely the Elite, Premier and Conference Leagues. To ensure racing continued at the County Ground, Colin Hill opted to take the Falcons into the Premier league for the coming season.

Elsewhere in 1996

Tthe Premier League Title was won by Wolverhampton with second place going to Peterborough, third were Eastbourne and Swindon Fourth. Wolverhampton went on to clinch the double by winning the Speedway Star Cup, beating Peterborough 100-92 on aggregate

Pictured Left, Sam Ermolenko (Centre) won the P.L.R.C from runner up Jason Crump (Left), Leigh Adams (Right) third and fourth place going to John Louis.

The Junior Battle of Britain was won by M.Willis (14pts), L.Richardson (14pts) D.Mason (13pts) and S.Pegler (13pts).

Exeters Simon Wigg won the Grand Prix Challenge in Prague to secure his placing in the 1997 Grand Prix series by beating Leigh Adams (after run off), Mikael Karlsson and Andy Smith

Joe Screen ended a run of "Almosts" to take the British Final ahead of Chris Louis, Carl Stonehewer and Neville Tatum who was excluded for breaking the tapes. But it was to be Billy Hamill who became World Champion winning the series from Hans Nielsen, Greg Hancock and Tony Rickardson.

Poland (27) were crowned World Cup Champions from Russia (22) Denmark (21) Germany (20) Sweden (14) England (12) Hungary (9).

Savalas Clouting (13) wins the British U21 Final ahead of Scott Nicholls (13) Paul Hurry (12) and Stuart Robson (11), but it was Piotr Protasiwicz who won the world U21 Final in Olching, Germany. He scored an unbeaten 15 pont maximum to beat Ryan Sulivan (11), Jesper Jensen (11) and Scott Nicholls 4th on 10pts.

Chris Manchester won the Overseas Final after much controversy regarding the latest solid block tyres that riders refused to use, and the dispute almost caused a halt to the event. But his joy was short lived when 6 of the 8 qaulifiers were thrown out of the World Championship by the FIM for refusing to use the tyres n question. The whole Grand Prix series was threatened as top riders refused to use the tyre and it was some time before the FIM eventually climbed down.

Jimmy Nilsen won the Intercontinental Final and Tomasz Gollob the Continental Final, whilst it was GerdRiss who won the World Long Track Final this year beating Bernd Diener and Robert Barth.

In the Conference League Riders Final, Justin Elkins beat Mike Hampson, Graeme Gordon and David Mason, Oxford win the Four team Championship from Peterbrough, Hull and Ipswich and Phil Crump (Peterborough) scored 12pts to win the PL Riders Championship from Chris Louis (Ipswich) 11 and Leigh Adams (London) 10.

Promoters vote in favour of a three league system for 1997 and for Exeter, that means Premier league racing.