Eastbourne Eagles could be ready to give Sunday afternoon racing at Arlington another whirl if the fans turn out in force.

Eagles revert to their old start time of 3.30pm on a Sunday this weekend when they host rock-bottom Oxford Cheetahs.

The match has been pushed back from the usual Saturday evening slot to avoid a clash with the World Team Cup final at Reading.

The Arlington club are hoping racing on a Sunday helps tempt back a few lapsed fans.

Eagles old-timers will happily tell you about long, hot, dusty Sundays spent at the track in years gone by.

It might be a bit less dusty and bit faster moving these days but Cook believes a few Sunday meetings will appeal to the Eastbourne section of speedway's army of lost fans across the country.

There is no suggestion the club will move away from Saturday nights as their prime racing time.

But, if the public respond this time, the Eagles promoter could stage more Sunday meetings on Grand Prix weekends, especially with the powerful Polish Ekstraliga starting to move more fixtures away from their traditional Sunday afternoons.

Cook said: "I believe we've got a major turnover of support.

"People become mad keen on speedway for a period of years but then find it easy to drift away.

"Hopefully racing on Sundays again jogs a few people's memories.

"It's a sport people become very attached to and we want to make it easy for them to pick that attachment back up.

"After all, lapsed fans liked the product for some reason in the first place so we hope we can bring them back.

"If you go back many years, speedway has been a traditional working class person's sport.

"There is a tradition of watching football in the winter and speedway in the summer.

"It's too easy to see people drift away from the sport and not try to win them back.

"Friday remains relatively well-supported for us on a Grand Prix weekend.

"But, if Sunday proves better and is easier for our supporters to get to and still get the kids to bed at a reasonable time, we will look into having more Sunday meetings.

"We are well aware our competitor tracks are having a miserable season at the turnstile.

"We have bucked that trend, apart from a couple of meetings during the football World Cup.

"But you have always got to be learning in this business."

Eagles started as a Sunday team in 1928 and generally stayed that way until 1993, when Cook and his colleague Len Silver suggested the move to Saturday.

They had to let Bradford, Coventry, Cradley Heath and Kings Lynn have first choice of prime Saturday dates in those days.

Now they are the only Saturday track in the Elite League, with Coventry running on Fridays and the other nine clubs during the week.

Cook added: "We still had Sundays at the start and end of the season. In fact, Sunday figured quite large until the turn of the century, when there seemed to be more and more engagements in Poland.

"Now Poland seems to be chosing whatever day they like so Sunday might prove to be good for us."

Eagles go to Oxford on Wednesday and will look to pick up at least a home win and bonus over the next few days.

Oxford have been hit by the loss of ex-Eagle Davey Watt, who suffered a wrist injury in a re-arranged Swedish meeting this week. They call in Coventry's Billy Janniro as guest.

Janniro was due to guest for Arena-Essex at Arlington recently but pulled out at short notice amid fears he was going to retire due to a crisis of confidence.

Cheetahs operate rider-replacement or Ales Dryml, who is making progress after horrific head injuries suffered in a recent crash.