Why isn't speedway more popular?

I love many different types of motorsport – Formula 1, sports and touring cars (tin tops), rallying, Indy racing and NASCAR in the States, British and World Superbikes, drag racing, stock cars… If it has an engine, chances are that there’s a race series for it and I’d be happy watching it (with the exception of MotoGP, which, oddly I find incredibly dull).

For me, F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport – I love everything about it, the image, the history, the buzz of race circuits on qualifying and race days, the noise of an F1 engine – and F1 has probably never been in better shape with 5 world champions on this years’ starting grid. However, as good as F1 and the bigger motorsport series are, there is one sport that I haven’t mentioned, which in my view doesn’t get the recognition it should in this country – speedway.

To the uninitiated, speedway is simply four bikes going round and round, with nothing much happening. Oh, but it is so much more than that. I went to my first speedway meeting as a 12 year-old in 1978. Wimbledon Dons were my local team, racing out of Wimbledon Stadium (now just a dog track and stock car venue) and I immediately caught the speedway bug. The roar of the bikes, the smell of methanol, the aroma of Bovril and hot pies and the excitement of the racing completely drew this young boy in. It was, I suppose, my first real exposure to bikes.

Wimbledon Dons has always been a famous name in British speedway. They’ve won the league numerous times as well as various cups and have had many of the world’s best riders wearing their colours – Jim Kempster, Ronnie Moore, Barry Briggs, Dave Jessup, Gordon Kennett, Tommy Jansson, Kelvin Tatum, Malcolm Simmons, Ivan Mauger etc etc. My favourite rider was Eddie Jancarz (below) - sadly killed in the 1990s (somewhat incredibly, he was murdered by his wife!). Wimbledon's home track at Plough Lane has hosted internationals matches since as long ago as 1930, all kinds of riders' championships, as well as the famous Daily Express Spring Classic. 

Speedway was once the second most popular sport in this country behind football, with league crowds numbering in the tens of thousands. Wimbledon Dons actually closed their supporters club membership at 60,000 back in the 1950s – Wembley Lions were even better supported, posting a record league crowd of 83,000 (for, naturally, a clash with Wimbledon). Sadly, the 1970s were the last real heyday of this once great sport and, apart from a brief re-emergence at the start of the 2000s, Wimbledon Dons are no more. Many other famous teams from yesteryear have also gone by the wayside.

In today’s world, with big flashy stadia, the dominance of football, shiny high-powered machinery in motorsport, large-scale TV coverage and sponsorship, photogenic players, drivers and riders, celebrity culture etc, it seems that speedway is the forgotten sport. Single cylinder bikes racing round and round on shale circuits do not seem to capture the imagination like other sports (motor or otherwise). That said, there has been a renaissance (of sorts) in recent years. The advent of the Elite League in this country and the international Grand Prix series has raised interest and attracted TV coverage back to the sport and although crowds here remain modest, the league is probably Europe's strongest and the British GP at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium regularly attracts 50,000 – it’s a great event in a brilliant venue.

Speedway at the top level is an ultra-competitive sport nowadays, with Poland, Russia, Sweden, Denmark etc being the European strongholds. Current World Champion Tomas Gollob (Poland) may be slightly mad but he’s a great racer and every bit as good as the greats from yesteryear. 

If you’ve never been to a speedway meeting, try it - you might just like it.