WHERE HAVE ALL THE GRAND PRIX RIDERS GONE?

Just less than two weeks to go until the elite riders of World speedway once again ready themselves for the FIM Speedway Grand Prix series; and the lack of GP riders in British speedway has never been more apparent. TotalSport Swindon’s Ryan Walker gives his analysis on the steep decline of Elite riders in British speedway and what could be done to help solve the problem.

Rewind ten years ago to the British Elite league of 2008 and you would have to pinch yourself at the realisation that only four of the fifteen Grand Prix riders on the World circuit weren’t racing in Britain’s top speedway league, Nicki Pedersen, Greg Hancock, Tomasz Gollob, and Rune Holta.   So in the space of just ten years, what has been the main reason for such a sharp decline in the elite racers coming to British speedway?

When interviewing GP riders over the years, you get the impression that for the majority of those that don’t race in our domestic leagues, there are normally a handful of the same recurring reasons for not wanting to come to Britain. And now with the sport in our country struggling to constantly adapt to the ever-changing circumstances in order to attract crowds and keep it’s head above water, the need for the elite to come back to British speedway is now more crucial than ever.

In contrast to ten years ago, there are now only four riders racing on our shores that will be competing in this years Grand Prix series, Craig Cook, Martin Vaculik, Chris Holder, and current World Champion Jason Doyle. But when compared to polish league racing the gap in class is apparent for all to see, with every rider on the GP circuit representing a club in Poland this season. 

When asked on what needs to change in Britain in order for the World’s best to once again commit to racing over here, the main elements appear to be similar with most. Tracks must be improved, fewer meetings must take place between sides, and more money must be invested into the sport. The problem however lies in putting the correct changes into place. 

When racing for the Swindon Robins, Darcy Ward was vocal in his opinion that track quality must improve if British speedway wanted to once again attract the best riders, however years later circuits around the Country are still struggling to promote top quality racing with many heats too often resulting in a gate and go situation, and overtaking becoming more of a rarity. 

However thankfully the efforts of clubs such as the Belle Vue Aces and the King’s Lynn Stars to name a few, have set an example with their tracks being lauded as some of the best in the World and even hosting events such as the World Cup Final in recent years. It appears clubs may be starting to invest more into their tracks in an effort to promote better racing and this can only be a positive.

The issue of over-riding also appears to a commonly raised point by those refusing to race in Britain and when analysing the statistics you notice that this is a valid argument. Contrasting to the Ekstraliga in Poland where each team will race under twenty meetings between the start of the season and the playoff stages, British Premiership sides will race over thirty meetings from the start of March till the end of August even though both leagues have the same amount of teams, eight in total. 

A solution would be to reduce the amount of times each side face one another and instead have teams race just one home and one away meeting each season similar to most sports. Therefore fans would remain interested in each clash and it would help Grand Prix riders be able to justify fitting British racing into their calendars.

Finally the money being offered by clubs in Britain to top-level riders doesn’t seem to be enough to tempt the majority of Grand Prix stars to Britain. Last season saw former Team GB Captain Tai Woffinden become polish racings top earner as he scooped just over £400k from his league appearances alone. 

Teams in this country simply can’t compete with that amount of money, and credit must be given too current promoters in Britain for putting so much of their own cash into the clubs just to keep them running. But the idea that riders could be tempted to race in Britain if previously mentioned other issues were solved first could be an option.

 If more Grand Prix riders come to race in England then crowd sizes would be boosted significantly.  In turn the more fans that come through the turnstiles would eventually result in riders getting paid more that could compete with other league racing around Europe. 

Despite the decline in Grand Prix riders now racing for British clubs, the observation that Jason Doyle won his first World Championship whilst racing for Swindon last season shows how important racing in this country can be to some riders. Changes must be made in order to attract those at the top back to our leagues, and hopefully for British speedway these can be made sooner rather than later.