SPEEDWAY OUR NATIONAL SPORT

Origins The early history of speedway race meetings is rather unknown. There is evidence to show that meetings were held on small dirt tracks in Australia and the United States before World War I. An American rider named Don Johns was known to have used broadsiding before 1914. It was said that he would ride the entire race course wide open, throwing great showers of dirt into the air at each turn.  The first meeting in the United Kingdom took place at High Beech on 19 February 1928. There are, however, claims that meetings were held in 1927 at Camberley, Surrey and Droylsden, Lancashire. Races at Droylsden were held in an anti-clockwise direction but it is generally accepted that the sport arrived in the United Kingdom when Australians Billy Galloway and Keith McKay arrived with the intention of introducing speedway to the Northern Hemisphere. The first speedway meeting in the UK to feature bikes with no brakes and broadsiding round corners on loose dirt was the third meeting held at High Beech on 9 April 1928, where Colin Watson, Alf Medcalf and "Digger" Pugh demonstrated the art for the first time in the UK. The first speedway meetings in Poland were held in the 1930s and league racing began in 1948.

Basic rules Speedway involves four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines which use only one gear and have no brakes; racing takes place on a flat oval track usually consisting of dirt, loosely packed shale, or dolomite (mostly used in Australia and New Zealand). Competitors use this surface to slide their machines sideways, powersliding or broadsiding into the bends. On the straight sections of the track the motorcycles reach speeds of up to 110 km/h. Races (known as heats) consist of four riders racing over four laps from a standing start.  Speedway operates a sliding scale for scoring (known as the 3-2-1-0 method). Three points are scored for first place, two points for second place and one point for third place. A rider does not score when finishing fourth, or failing to finish, or if excluded from a race. These points accumulate over the competition, with riders points either counting towards individual or team placings. In the event of a tie, the race is commonly awarded as a dead heat.

Tracks Speedway racing takes place on a level oval track consisting of two straights joined by two semicircles. Tracks must be between 260 and 425 metres (853 and 1394 ft) in length, this is measured at a distance of 1 metre (3.3 ft) from the inner boundary. Tracks may be banked, but the gradient must under no circumstances exceed 5% in the straight, 10% in the bends, and must remain constant and grow from the inner edge to the safety fence. A white start line is marked across the track approximately mid-way along one of the straights. 

Motorcycles As speedway bikes do not use brakes, the clutch is used as a release mechanism at the start of races. FIM regulations state that the motorcycles must have no brakes, are fueled by pure methanol, use only one gear and weigh a minimum of 77 kilograms. By using engine and rear wheel sprockets the gear ratio can be adjusted as required for track conditions. The use of methanol allows for an increased compression ratio to the engine producing more power than other fuels and resulting in higher speeds (approximately 130 kilometres per hour when cornering). Machines used must: *weigh no less than 77 kg (unfuelled) *use a four-stroke, single-cylinder engine with one carburettor and one spark plug and a maximum displacement capacity of 500cc *have guards fitted over moving engine parts where reasonable *use an additional chain guard to prevent a hand or fingers being cut at the nip point where the chain meets the sprocket by a chain *have a peg (Dutch Peg) fitted to prevent a broken primary chain flailing and injuring a rider or a fellow competitor *use shatter resistant plastics where reasonable *be fitted with a dirt deflector *be fitted with an approved silencer

Best riders in history Barry BRIGGS (New Zealand) Ove FUNDIN (Sweden) Ivan MAUGER (New Zealand) Ole OLSEN (Denmark) Erik GUNDERSEN (Denmark) Hans NIELSEN (Denmark) Tony RICKARDSSON (Sweden) Nicki PEDERSEN (Denmark) Jason CRUMP (Australia) Greg HANCOCK (USA)

Best Polish riders Jerzy SZCZAKIEL – individual world champion Tomasz GOLLOB – individual world champion (18 medals in world championships) Zenon PLECH Jarosław HAMPEL Edward JANCARZ Krzysztof KASPRZAK