Ipswich Witches director of speedway Chris Louis has told Suffolk fans they won’t have to wait long before they find out the team’s No.1 rider for 2015.

Louis returned buoyed from a positive British Speedway AGM Conference at the weekend and promised Witches fans the rider to lead the charge for Premier League honours next year will be announced soon.

“I hope in the next week to tell our fans who the No.1 rider is, ” Louis said.

“The reason I am not able to now is because it depends on more than just personal contract negotiations.

“As I have said before I have a number of permutations in my head with the team but the AGM has left me with a more fixed idea, as the 42.5pt team-building limit remains.”

Whether Louis will go for a strong top end, or a more solid-looking 1-5 in the Witches team of 2015, he would not confirm. But Louis has admitted he would work with any of last year’s team again – and that includes current No.1 Rohan Tungate.

As regards the AGM, itself, Louis admitted it was the ‘most positive’ one he had attended.

“We are sorting out the doubling-up rule which has totally lost its way over the last few years. And everyone who knows me knows I’ve been a big critic of the Fast Track rider system which was introduced last year.

“This year it is being tweaked. Too much has gone wrong over the last 15 years in speedway and there was lots of debate about sorting the sport out over the next few years.

“It was the most positive AGM I’ve been to.”

The Witches have been drawn against Berwick in the first round of the Knock-Out Cup, the winners racing Rye House or Workington in the quarter-finals.

The League Cup will stay the same and the play-offs will be the top six teams, but with the top two going straight into the semi-finals – there will be no mini-leagues.