Sweden's Ove Fundin, who won the last of his five world titles as an Aces' rider in 1967, and 1976 champion, Peter Collins, were the main attractions.
A thousand cameras clicked and pictures going back to the 1960s came out of fans' collections for autographs.
Fundin, bettered only by another former Ace Ivan Mauger and Tony Rickardsson who each six world titles, signed autographs and posed for pictures for more than two hours as, unlike the equally popular Collins, he is a rare visitor to Manchester from his St Tropez home.
He joined Belle Vue midway through the 1967 season as a replacement for the injured Soren Sjosten and, unbeknown to him, Aces' mechanic Harold Gardner and tuner Guy Allott, prepared him a special bike when he qualified for the world final at Wembley.
Fundin, whose fifth title meant he won one for each of his children, said: "I didn't know anything about this bike until I got to Wembley.
Great
"They brought two others for me as well, but I chose this one, won the world title on it and never saw it again afterwards. It belonged to Belle Vue and I don't know what happened to it. It probably went for spares."
Fundin renewed old acquaintance with former Aces' team-mate Jim Yacobi, of Stockport, whose grandson, James Wright was racing last night.
Yacobi said: "I rode against all the great riders at that time like Peter Craven but the best was Ove. I was a good friend of Craven but track for track, big, small, rough or smooth, he was the best."
Yacobi wasn't the only ex-rider with a grandson in action, Belle Vue's Swedish youngster Billy Forsberg, met his grandfather Dan - a star of the 1950s at Birmingham.
Forsberg senior, now 74, came from Spain for the meeting. He said: "I have great memories of riding at Belle Vue when they raced at Hyde Road. Now that really was a speedway track."
It was a real festival of speedway with a strong flavour of the old Belle Vue with a fairground, clowns, face painters, vintage bikes and even four number 53 buses taking fans to Hyde Road.
More than 40 former Belle Vue riders were among more than 100 guests. It was pure nostalgia and, at the heart of it was a little lady from nearby, 84-year-old Muriel Hutchings with her husband, Fred.
She was at the first Belle Vue meeting on July 28, 1928 and she joined the former riders on the pre-match bus parade.
Australian Leigh Adams won the Peter Craven Memorial Trophy, beating Great Britain's Scott Nicholls in a run-off after both riders had finished on 14 points.
Belle Vue's Charlie Gjedde was third with 12 points. Tweet
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Brilliant meeting!Lots of nostalgia and a fantastic crowd.Well done to the management and keep up the good work.
What a fantastic night of entertainment, well done to all those involved, your efforts certainly paid off!! Heres to the next 80 years!
What a brilliant night. What a brilliant meeting. What a brilliant crowd. What a brilliant atmosphere.
And brilliant full page coverage from the MEN today. Well done!
Harold Gardner and Guy Allott were two unsung heroes of Belle Vue Speedway.I have a picture on my desktop with both of them with the late great Peter Craven with his 1955 World crown, they were on the tractor that used to even the gravel out between races.Can anyone remember the little chap who drove that famous tractor around Belle Vue - ted.knott2@ntlworld.com
adding to my previous posting it is great to discover they still hold a PETER CRAVEN memorial trophy meeting here was a legend of the sport who like Ove will never be forgotten.The king of balance as I seem to remember him being known he actually unknown to a lot of Speedway fans during the 50s up to his untimely and tragic death in 1963 he used to wear pyjamas bottoms under his leathers he was laid to rest in West Derby Cemetery in Liverpool R.I.P. PETER THE GREAT.......