HOME ADVANTAGE FOR BRITISH WILD CARD WORRALL?

FIM Speedway GP of Great Britain – Cardiff wild card Steve Worrall believes being on home soil will even the playing field as he takes on the world’s best riders for the first time at Principality Stadium on September 2.

Worrall makes his Speedway GP debut after finishing second to triple SGP winner Dan Bewley in the British Championship Final in Manchester on August 14 to earn the wild card for Britain’s biggest indoor motorsport event.

The St Helens-born racer, who competes for Wolverhampton in the Sports Insure Premiership and Poole in the Cab Direct Championship, served as a track reserve in the 2016 Cardiff event, but did not get a ride.

Now he is guaranteed at least five heats against the best in the world alongside British Speedway GP stars Tai Woffinden, Robert Lambert and Dan Bewley on the 273-metre Principality Stadium track, which tests a rider’s skill and technique rather than their speed and power.

Worrall hopes this will level the playing field for the biggest meeting of his career to date and he can’t wait to take on the Speedway GP elite in the Welsh capital. 

He said: “I get the opportunity to go to Cardiff. There are not many British riders who have that on their resume. What an opportunity, and it’s an absolute honour. It’s one of the best GPs on the calendar, if not the best, so to be going there as part of the whole event is a dream come true. There is no pressure on me. It is a one-off event. I’ll just have some fun and see where it takes me.

“My speedway career has been based around riding the small British tracks. One of my strong points is my gating and the way Cardiff is set up, it is a smallish track, and you need to make good starts. When I’m in front, I am just as fast as most people. You don’t really need the super-fast Polish engines that all the guys seem to have.

“There are things working in my favour. There are not really any expectations on me. It’s a one-off meeting.

“I will just go as far as I can. I don’t really want to put anything on it; I can’t come away disappointed either way. I am against 15 of the best riders in the world. I don’t race them on a regular basis and in reality, I don’t have access to some of the equipment that they have – like engines and whatever else. But Cardiff is a bit of a leveller. It makes things pretty even for everyone. Some of the guys don’t like the smaller indoor tracks, so we will see what happens.”

Worrall came agonisingly close to winning the Cardiff wild card in 2017, finishing second to Craig Cook at the British Final in Manchester in a season when he represented Great Britain in Poland at the FIM Speedway World Cup Final in Leszno and the World Games in Wroclaw.

He looked set to emerge as one of the nation’s top riders, before suffering a badly broken leg in a meeting at Scunthorpe on April 6, 2018.

Worrall admits this crash stunted his progress, but he has played a pivotal role in the Poole Pirates winning back-to-back Cab Direct Championship league and cup doubles in 2021 and 2022, as well as helping Wolverhampton reach the Sports Insure Premiership play-offs last year.

Having also returned to the Polish Second Division with Latvian club Daugavpils, he is pleased to be stepping up his fightback by making the trip to Cardiff.

He said: “The 2017 season was a breakthrough year for me. Really, 2018 should have been the one where I just kept going up. But I broke my leg and it just set me back massively.

“I feel like getting back into the Polish leagues this year gave me a bit of a leap. I went over there, and I haven’t found it easy. It has been quite tough. It’s a different sport over there and you need fast equipment.

“It has taken time to try and figure it out; to access the engines and the different things I need. But as the season has gone on over there, I feel I have slowly got better and better. Here in the UK, I feel things have moved forward a lot for me.

“I am on the right path. Finishing second in the British Final and getting the opportunity to go to Cardiff are two massive stepping stones in getting me back to where I want to be.”

Catch Worrall in Cardiff as he takes on the Speedway GP stars. Tickets for the FIM Speedway GP of Great Britain – Cardiff on September 2 are still available online. Be part of Britain’s top speedway event and book HERE NOW.

INTERVIEW: PAUL BURBIDGE