What Is Speedway?

The best way to discover all about speedway is to go along to a meeting. It is genuinely a family sport and you will find people standing beside you will be happy to talk you through the meeting.

However, a few basics:-

The majority of speedway meetings are team meetings, between two sides comprising 7 riders apiece over 15 races or heats. Each heat comprises of two riders from each team.

The riders will wear team race jackets, numbered 1-7 with the top two riders on each side wearing no's 1 and 3 and the lowest averaged two riders in each team wearing 6 and 7 and being referred to as reserves. Each rider has four programmed rides and must take a minimum of 3 rides. A reserve can be brought in to replace another rider at any time as long as that other rider still takes the minimum 3 rides. The maximum number of rides any one rider can take in a meeting is 7.

Team positions are determined by 'averages', these being based on the number of points riders score in meetings. The averages are re-calculated by Speedway's governing body once a month.

Points scoring itself is quite simple. On winning a heat a rider scores 3 points, second place scores 2 and third place scores 1. The individual points scored by a teams riders are added together for the team score and the team who score the most points after 15 heats wins.

The rider line up in each race is determined by a set formula which is printed in the match programme although an example of the scorecard can be seen here.

In addition to the team race jackets, another aid to tell which rider is with which team is by helmet colour. During the meeting the home team riders will always wear red of blue coloured helmets with the visitors wearing green or yellow.

Each of the 15 races comprises of 4 laps of the track. The bikes themselves are 500cc and run on methanol but have NO BRAKES, NO GEARS and NO REAR SUSPENSION. It is purely down to clutch control and the skill and bravery of the riders. The bikes can accelerate quicker than an F1 racing car and even on a track of a little over 300m like Ashfield they can reach speeds in excess of 60mph.

With four riders on track giving their all, speedway is a very exciting and often breathtaking sport to watch.