What is Speedway?

Never been to Speedway? Don’t worry, it’s simple to follow. Four riders keep turning left over four laps on an oval track and each race is over in just over a minute. Easy….but not for the riders. Riders make a clutch start. Apart from emergency situations, the riders slow to a stop by easing off the throttle as the high gearing means engine breaking is rapidly effective. If a rider needs to stop in an emergency he will pull a cut-out cord, which is attached to his wrist, to kill the engine. They race with no brakes. It’s hectic, dangerous and exciting…

The Bikes: Speedway bikes have no brakes and are powered by a 500cc engine, single-geared machines manufactured by either Jawa of the Czech Republic or GM of Italy. The engines are single cylinder, fixed gear power units, fitted into the chassis of the bike frame horizontally and fuelled by methanol. The engine makes up the major weight of the bike as there are few other parts to the machine. They are not allowed to weigh less than 80 kilograms.

The Leagues: Speedway strongholds in Europe are the UK, Sweden, Poland and Denmark. All of these countries run a number of leagues and have regular fixtures throughout the traditional speedway season that runs from March to October. The domestic league matches traditionally consist of two teams of seven riders riding against each other with four riders in each race – two home team riders and two away team riders. At the end of each race the positioning of the riders determines how many points each team gets ie. 1st – 3points, 2nd – 2pts, 3rd – 1pt, 4^th – 0pts. The team with the most points at the end of the meeting is the winner. As well as Europe, speedway on a smaller scale operates in Argentina, Australia, Czech Republic, Italy, Russia, Slovenia and the USA.