SHEFFIELD Tigers will race into a new era of Sunday Speedway at Owlerton next season.

And club chiefs have revealed how they considered to prospect of promotion to the Premiership to preserve their traditional Thursday night racing.

The move signals a new era for the club who are aiming to make race-day a more family friendly occasion and a better all-round experience for fans.

Tigers bosses believe the time isn't quite right to make the step up a level - but they insist they won't rule it out in future.

Co-promoter Damien Bates said: "The Premiership now have Thursday as one of two set nights for racing.

"We considered applying to join that league but we feel after the tough season we have just had we need to consolidate and rebuild for a season.

"We are confident we can build a team to challenge for honours and to that end we are talking to our targets right now.

"The move to Sunday as a home race-day represents an exciting new challenge.

"It's something we have considered for the last two seasons anyway because we want to make home meetings more of a complete entertainment package and an occasion.

"We will be working on the entertainment side of things, rider signing sessions, Q&A sessions, things like that and the intention is to have a start time which means families can get young children to bed in good time for school on Monday.

"The challenge is to now raise awareness of our new race-day and we have plans in place to push the name of Sheffield Speedway out there."