Motorcycle speedway is a sport commonly known as “Speedway” and is a form of motorcycle sport which consists of 4 riders racing 4 laps anti-clockwise on an oval track made of dirt or loosely packed shale. Typically the tracks are between 300-500 metres long. The bikes are of specialist design and run on a 500cc single cylinder engine, have only 1 gear and have no brakes. The riders are highly skilled and powerslide their machines sideways in order to navigate the bends. The riders have a metal plate on the base of their left boot and they put their left foot down as they go round the bend to help balance themselves and the metal plate allows the foot to slide across the surface. They reach speeds of approximately 70 miles per hour (110 km per hour) on the straight sections of the track.
A typical race consists of 4 riders, 2 from each team and the whole race from start to finish is normally about 1- 1 minute 30 seconds long.
Speedway, as a sport, originated in Maitland, New South Wales, Australia in the 1920’s but there are now both domestic and international competitions in many countries. It is most popular in central and northern Europe although it is quite popular in Australia and North America. The Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) is the controlling body for international speedway. The Speedway World Cup is one of the larger events which takes place each year. Top riders from 8 countries compete in 2 qualifying heats and the 2 winning teams are placed directly in the final. The 2nd and 3rd teams from each qualifying heat take part in a “race off” and the 2 winning teams join the other 2 teams that are already in the final. The winning team receives the World Cup Trophy.
There is also a Speedway Grand Prix series comprising of 11 meetings which are hosted in different countries.16 riders compete in this, 15 of which are regulars and the 16th is a ”wild card” nomination. There are also 2 reserve riders at each meeting numbered 17 and 18. The rider accumulating the most points over the whole Grand Prix season is crowned the World Champion.
The 2011 Speedway Grand Prix season kicked off on Saturday 30th April at Leszno, Poland. Three-times former world champion Nicki Pedersen scraped through into the semi finals and eventually went on to win the final ahead of defending World Champion Tomasz Gollob, Emil Sayfutdinov, and Jaroslaw Hampel. Pedersen admitted that he couldn’t have won if he hadn’t had the support of his team of mechanics behind him.
It wasn’t such good news for another three-times former world champion Jason Crump, who failed to reach even the semi finals. He admitted that his performance wasn’t up to scratch. He tried 3 different bikes during the event in the hope of getting the right set up but said that the choices he made were wrong and that he didn’t race well.
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