Humans of Speedway

Hans Nielsen has been recognised by the FIM as an icon for very good reason..! In his career he won 22 World Championship medals in all competitions, including 4 individual World titles. It could however have been so many more were is not for the fickle finger of fate, as he claimed many more silver medals, missing the top step by the smallest of margins. We discuss Hans' stellar career which saw him dominate British speedway through the 80's and 90's, in fact we was the top averaged rider from 1983 to 1990, NO rider delivered more. We also look at what is next for Hans, having stepped down from Danish national management and heading to Polish league management! Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

He's a title winning Captain of the Belle Vue Aces, a former Australian Champion and has raced in Speedway GP in his homeland as a wildcard..! We get to know more about one of Australia's top young stars, Brady Kurtz! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Craig Ackroyd is one of the World's top speedway referees, and one of the few on the Grand Prix circuit in addition to officiating across British Speedway's leagues. Craig himself had ambitions of being a speedway rider, and was involved in Grasstrack alongside the likes of Carl Stonehewer and Garry Stead. However he eventually followed in his Dad's footsteps and entered the referee's box and hasn't looked back since. He has taken charge of some of World speedway's biggest clashes, including the Speedway World Cup and title deciding Grand Prix rounds. In this podcast learn more about his journey to the top, handing massive situations involving the world's best riders, and what is required to become a top referee in speedway. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A rising star in the speedway world, Ben Cook has already won 5 trophies in his 3 years with the Poole Pirates, and in 2024 will captain the side. He follows in a long line of speedway greats who have made the journey from New South Wales to Dorset, basing himself with Middlo. In this podcast we find out more about the journey and the standards required for a young Aussie to make it in the UK and Europe, why the state championships are so important, and his ambitions for the years ahead! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alun Rossiter is in a very select group of people in British Speedway, as one of the few to have won a top level league title as both a rider and manager. On the bike Rosco represented his home town club Swindon Robins through the 80s, with a spell at Coventry Bees in between, along with spells at Exeter, Weymouth, Wolves King's Lynn and Peterborough among a few. His most success as a rider came at Poole Pirates where he won 3 league titles and 2 cups, and remains among the club's all time top 50 points scorers. As a manager he took the helm of Swindon to begin with, but it was Coventry where he secured his first title in 2010, in that epic comeback at Wimbourne Road as Chris Harris picked himself up from the deck and dragged the Bees over the line. Rosco also claimed 3 further titles with Swindon, the most recent in 2019 which became the clubs final year. Alun talks about his journey from young fan to club legend, and he talks us through how his own dream speedway meeting would look including his all time 1-7 team. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Danny King has had a career spanning over 20 years, including becoming British Champion in 2016, beating Bartosz Zmarzlik in a GP, and representing GB in a World Cup. Much of his career has been spent with the Ipswich Witches where he is now Captain, and in 2023 will represent Redcar Bears in the Championship. But he's also ridden for a number of other great names of British Speedway, including Coventry Bees, Sheffield Tigers, Leicester Lions and most recently captaining Poole Pirates to back to back league and cup double titles. Hear about it all in his own words, and before the end he reveals his all time dream line up! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Steve Worrall rides for Wolverhampton Wolves in the British Speedway Premiership, and is the 2023 captain of reigning champions the Poole Pirates in the Championship. 2023 sees Steve celebrate his testimonial year, with a early season Champion of Champions meeting at Poole Stadium where the Championship title holders Poole face a Belle Vue Aces side featuring 5 of the 2022 Premiership winning team. Steve of course has ridden for both teams, 7 seasons with the Aces including the last year at the old Kirkmanshulme lane, and the first year at the National Speedway Stadium. He's also won a league and cup treble with Edinburgh Monarchs in 2014, back to back league and cup doubles with the Pirates, as well as time at Swindon Robins, Newcastle Diamonds, and Scunthorpe Scorpions. Steve along with his twin brother Richie started out in motocross, and a passive interest in watching speedway on TV or the occasional GP ended with him giving it a try at Scunthorpe and the rest is history..! Since then he's also represented Great Britain at the Speedway World Cup, and narrowly missed out on claiming a British Championship title in 2017. Steve tells us more about all of that and much more, plus of course letting us in on his dream 1-7 lineup, and other things which would feature in his dream speedway meeting..! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Paul Bowen is a well known face around speedway tracks, both from his time as a rider with the Belle Vue Colts, a presenter on BSN, YouTuber, pie supplier, 2024 BBC Apprentice contestant, and now as someone leading the charge of electric speedway into the UK. He's also putting on a demonstration day at Scunthorpe on March 5th where you can have a look at these bikes in action, all for free..! Find out why electric speedway is not something to be feared, why it is NOT coming to take over speedway as we know it, and why actually it could be the thing that helps bring on a whole new generation of riders. We also chat to Paul about his career in the sport, how he went from being a fan watching on TV to ordering a bike on Ebay and very soon finding himself on track..! Plus we have a look at how his dream meeting would look, and who would be in his all time 1-7..! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode we head down under to chat with Australian speedway star Justin Sedgmen. In 2023 Sedgy will be lining up in British Speedway's Premiership with newly promoted Leicester Lions, and in the Championship once again with the Birmingham Brummies. Over his career he's raced for some of the most respected teams in the UK including Swindon, Somerset, Sheffield, Glasgow and Edinburgh Monarchs where he won the treble in 2014 and back to back league titles in 2015. Speedway runs deep in the Sedgmen family and you'll also discover why they're responsible some giving speedway at least 2 of the sport's all time greats..! Plus Sedgy names his dream team, and dream track before the end too. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave Rowe is one of the voices of Eurosport's speedway TV coverage working as a reporter on the British Premiership matches, and as commentator for the SEC series. You might also know him as a voice on Talksport as a voice of their football coverage during the season. He's also a journalist for the Speedway Star, head of the British Speedway official press office and a stadium announcer at for Birmingham Brummies. In fact in 2022 Dave was present at 88 different speedway meetings across the UK & Europe, and that's before the other matches he saw on TV. In his spare time, Dave is part of the campaign group aiming to save speedway at Coventry's Brandon Stadium. A 6 year fight against developers looking to turn one of speedway's historic venues into a housing estate. They received a major boost to their dream of seeing speedway return to Brandon, and we discuss the scale of the task up to now. As well as chatting about Dave's career, his travels around Europe, and life as a man behind the mic, we also take a look at who would make it into Dave's all time speedway team! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode not just 1, but 2 guests..! Berwick Bandits Team Manager and Co Promoter Gary Flint, and his son, British U21 & U19 Champion, Leon Flint. 2023 sees Leon take the proud role of captaining his hometown side under his Dad's leadership, whilst also taking the rising star position at Premiership side Wolves. We chat about the upcoming season an also a little about how the speedway life came their way. Gary is also himself a former rider who plied his trade mainly in the old conference league, but we'll also find out why speedway wasn't a forgone profession for Leon. Also discover why a modern day speedway hero is to thank for setting Leon off on his course to speedway stardom. The 2022 British Grand Prix in Cardiff saw the proudest moments for both Gary & Leon, and hear the story of how it felt to be heading to the tapes to line up next to Zmarzlik & Woffinden in his first ever GP race..! Plus we will discover who would make Gary & Leon's all time dream team as they create their dream speedway meeting's before the end of the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Adam Roynon has ridden some some of the biggest clubs in British Speedway over his 20 year career, including the Coventry Bees, Sheffield Tigers, Workington Comets and Rye House Rockets to name a few. A hugely popular and talented rider, he won the Premier League title with Rye House in 2007 racing as a young reserve alongside Tai Woffinden. He got to race alongside his idol Gary Havelock with Redcar, and won the Premiership Pairs title in Somerset with Workington. He has however suffered some devastating injuries some of which included a broken neck and took him to the brink of losing his life, but amazed doctors by not only making a recovery but also getting back on a bike to still be racing today..! In 2022 he took to the mic as a commentator with BSN winning over a new following as he brought his wealth of knowledge and experience in speedway to a new audience. We also find out who makes it into Adam's dreamteam line up, his favourite track and much more! Listen and don't forget to subscribe for more episodes as they arrive! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Peter Collins MBE is without doubt one of the most successful British riders of all time, and a Belle Vue Aces legend. He's finally put together his autobiography called Keeping It On The Tyres, and recently at his book launch at Longsight Sports on Social Club on Kirkmanshulme Lane, I managed to get some time with him beside his world title winning bike..! His book is over 500 pages and documents everything you could ever want to know, and you can get hold of it at retro-speedway.com An overnight sensation when he burst onto the Cheshire grasstrack scene as a 16-year-old, Mancunian PC quickly shot to speedway fame, too, as a Rochdale rookie in the early 70s and became the most famous graduate of the Belle Vue training school. His 16 loyal seasons with Belle Vue – the local club he supported from the age of eight when he dreamed of emulating his boyhood hero Peter Craven – brought him the highest league and cup honours and, thanks to his trademark thrilling bursts from the back, a permanent place among the pantheon of Aces and England greats. He was beyond compare, the supreme racer who took the breath away, admired by fans and TV audiences worldwide. No other rider in the history of speedway has dominated the front and back pages of top-selling English tabloid newspapers as Peter did the day after his biggest triumph in front of a capacity 120,000 crowd at Katowice, Poland in 1976. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stuart Robson hails from a real speedway family, his dad being a rider in the 70s and his brother also taking up the sport, it is perhaps little surprise that Stuart followed in their footsteps. Growing up in Sunderland, his first experience of racing was via the grass track scene, but later moving into speedway with Newcastle Diamonds, and then later the Coventry Bees. Indeed Stuart spent multiple seasons and eras at those 2 clubs in particular, but also with spells at Middlesborugh, Hull, Rye House, Lakeside and latterly Redcar. And it will be at Redcar where the Stuart Robson Farewell meeting takes place on April 1st 2022, featuring a top class line up for a meeting delayed 2 years by the pandemic..! Find out more about this event, and Stuart's career as a whole in this episode of Humans of Speedway! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Katie Gordon is a rising star in British Speedway, and aiming to be the first finale rider to race in one of the top 3 leagues in British Speedway. Currently racing for Redcar Cubs at youth level, she's already beating many of the boys, and is proving that speedway is not all about strength, but also skill and mental attitude. Speedway is a male dominated sport, and she reveals some of the obstacles and stereotypes she's had to face on her journey, but the tide is starting to turn. Denmark led by Hans Nelson have recently named a female in their national U23s side, and so is it a matter of time before we see more females taking on the men on the shale? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices