His name is synonymous with Workington speedway but Ian Thomas, who died last week aged 69, also achieved a lot within the sport across the world.

Mr Thomas, who died in hospital in Yorkshire on February 16 after a battle with cancer, brought speedway to Workington in 1970.

He managed the Comets in the early 1970s and played a major part in re-launching the sport in the town in 1999 after it had folded in 1982.

He was then team manager until 2005 and again from 2008 to 2010, before leaving at the end of last season.

In a career that took him across the world, Mr Thomas worked with some of the sport’s greatest riders including Barry Briggs, Ivan Mauger and Jason Crump.

Born in Ilkley in 1942, Mr Thomas left school at 15.

He became hooked on speedway at the age of seven and wanted to become a rider but never made the grade, so he decided to look into promoting teams.

In the meantime he had jobs as an apprentice bricklayer and salesman, through which he met his business partner Jeff Brownhut with whom he started the Comets as co-promoter.

In 1969 the pair travelled to Cumbria to find a suitable place to promote the Comets and eventually settled on Workington’s Derwent Park, where the team launched a year later in front of more than 8,000 people.

That was against Berwick when 2,000 people gained unpaid entry to the stadium by crawling over a pipe across the river where the ground had no perimeter fence.

The following week Mr Thomas greased the pipe, and hundreds of people who tried to cross fell into the river. This was a story that Mr Thomas told for many years.

He also brought entertainment acts to Derwent Park in the early years, including Ken Dodd, whose 1971 appearance sold out in four days.

He ran Hull speedway in 1971 alongside Workington and ran speedway at Brough Park in Newcastle in 1975.

In 1980 Mr Thomas became the first and only England speedway manager to win the Grand Slam of the World Pairs, World Individual Championship and World Team Cup final.

However, he nearly lost everything when Newcastle went under in 1984 after losing £40,000 in the season. He had to sell his house and received death threats.

Following this he became a professional magician and launched his own promotion company, promoting bands such as The Drifters and Showaddywaddy who played in Barrow last year.

As someone who knew the rule book inside out, Mr Thomas always managed to stretch the laws to the limit.

One such case was in 2000 when a promoters’ dress code was to wear a red blazer.

He was told it was compulsory to wear and would be fined if he didn’t, but he came up with the excuse that he was allergic to red and got a medical note from a doctor.

After co-promoting a successful indoor ice event at Telford for a number of years with Graham Drury, he came back into conventional speedway in 1998.

He was tempted back by former Comets owner Tony Mole, who had bought back the club after his track at Long Eaton closed down.

Mr Thomas became team manager of Workington for the re-launch in 1999 and signed some of the team’s best riders in recent years including James Wright, Simon Stead and Carl Stonehewer.

He introduced the Premier League Pairs and Fours, which Workington have won many times, but it was always a seven-man trophy that eluded the team.

He went to manage Belle Vue in 2005 and 2006 but returned to Comets in 2007.

In 2008 he won that elusive seven-man trophy by capturing the Young Shield in 2008 and went on to retain it for the following two years.

Mr Thomas is survived by his wife Dot, son Lyndon, daughter-in-law Sara and grand daughter Mia.

His funeral will take place at Rawdon Crematorium at Rawdon, near Leeds, at 1.40pm today.