Real Race Bikes Don't Got Brakes

I love speedway, my father brainwashed me when I was about 3 years old and I've never gotten over it. To the best of my knowledge, Australia has only ever invented two sports of any stature, Aussie Rules and Speedway. Although we had the first World Champion, Lionel Van Praag (Who was also awarded the George Medal as a RAAF pilot in WWII.), we've only ever had two more, Bluey Wilkinson in 1938 and the great Jack Young in 1951 and 1952 (Still the only man to a}win the world title from the second division and b}hold the world solo championship, the world matchracing championship, the world pairs' championship and the world teams' championship at the same time.)
Since then the pickings have been pretty slim. Well, things are about to change. My prediction is that Jason Crump is going to go one step further this year than his second place for the last three years. Anybody who saw his heartbreaking, but deserved exclusion from the semi finals in the last round of last years championship, when all he had to do was make the final to win the title after Pedersen and Rickardsson both missed the cut will know just how close he has come. Well, this year he's off to a flyer:

Peter White's Speedway World:
"AUSTRALIA'S Leigh Adams swept

to a stunning victory in the

opening round of the 2004

championship.

Adams pushed fellow Aussie

Jason Crump into second place

in the Swedish Grand Prix with

home favourite Tony Rickardsson

third and Poland's Tomasz Gollob

fourth.

After one of the most exciting

Grand Prix meetings in the

competition's 10-years-old history,

Adams struck the first blow in

what promises to be an

enthralling nine-round series that

will conclude in Norway in October."

Those of you who watched the SGP on Fox will know that the final was all over in the first corner. Jason started from the inside gate and got a brilliant start, but rode wide on the track in an effort to keep Rickardsson (5 times World Champion and clearly the best rider of his generation ) at bay. All round nice guy Adams ducked behind and under Crump and from then it was a race for second place.
Crump - a third generation speedway rider who's father, Phil, was one of my childhood heroes - is claimed as a Queenslander even though he was born in England to a Victorian father (don't know about Mum). I think anybody who went to schoolies' is a Queenslander if they subsequently become a success. This is his best opening round result ever.
The other Aussies to watch are Adams (obviously), and Flyin' Ryan Sullivan. He didn't have the best year in 2003, but he got within a bees' dick in 2002 'til he broke his collarbone in Poland. Ryan, who raced for Peterborough for nine years in the Elite League until switching to Poole this season after he couldn't get enough money out of Peterborough; and Rickardsson, Poole's mainstay withdrew from the Elite League altogether in order to spend more time with his family.
Stay tuned for more updates, if you don't want to know the result of round two until it appears on Fox on June 5th at 1p.m., don't click any of the links.