FIM Women's Speedway Academy at Belle Vue

[KK62 68]

On 8/13/2023 at 10:30 AM, truthsayer said:

In a sport that needs as many new competitors as it can get, it is encouraging to see this forum encouraging 50% of the population to take up speedway.

Again, speedway's obsession with 'team' racing sees it miss an opportunity. Women's speedway could easily be a thing and bring welcome numbers into the industry and publicity to the sport.

Not every competitor needs to challenge to be a world champion, sometimes being a participant is all that matters. Speedway's lack of inclusion is just one of things that will lead to its demise.

Three ladies in Redcars Amateur meeting yesterday and all scored good points.

Katie Gordon was third in the Open Class, Rachel Hellowell on the rostrum in her class and Morgan Leonard scored good points.

[MassMarauder 22]

Women race against men all the time in the States, at least in New York.  And yes, you can comment on track size but the women I have seen race and have spoken to were not worried in the slightest about racing blokes.  It's not a physical one on one combat sport.  Bike control and riding ability counts.  I admit in the  top leagues/GP level, elbows on corner 1 are important.  Personally I think it would be great to open up the National league (d3) to women in teams.  If they want to race, let 'em.

[*JJ 512]

14 hours ago, MassMarauder said:

Women race against men all the time in the States, at least in New York.  And yes, you can comment on track size but the women I have seen race and have spoken to were not worried in the slightest about racing blokes.  It's not a physical one on one combat sport.  Bike control and riding ability counts.  I admit in the  top leagues/GP level, elbows on corner 1 are important.  Personally I think it would be great to open up the National league (d3) to women in teams.  If they want to race, let 'em.

There would be nothing stopping them, if they were good enough.

[truthsayer 234]

20 hours ago, MassMarauder said:

Women race against men all the time in the States, at least in New York.  And yes, you can comment on track size but the women I have seen race and have spoken to were not worried in the slightest about racing blokes.  It's not a physical one on one combat sport.  Bike control and riding ability counts.  I admit in the  top leagues/GP level, elbows on corner 1 are important.  Personally I think it would be great to open up the National league (d3) to women in teams.  If they want to race, let 'em.

There is nothing stopping women racing against men here in the UK either, it's happened a few times with little success.

There will always be a debate about 'women's only' motorcycle racing. I am not a woman, and to be honest different women will have different opinions to each other, but one could see a demand for a female category.

Why, because any woman coming into the sport today will be handicapped not by their physicality but by the fact they have less experience than competitors and by prejudice. There are women who want to race motorcycles, but they so often quit because they've not felt welcome in a man's world. This has happened often in superbike racing. Speedway has a chance to make a 'safe space' for female competitors by making a 'women only' competition. It takes time, but it can evolve into a serious championship which would help attract a different audience too.

Speedway's formula of relying on spectators paying to watch team racing is unsustainable. If speedway is to survive in the UK, it needs to find ways to create a product where competitors pay to play - as is the case in almost every other sport in the world. That probably means categorisation: youth racing, classic racing, Over 50s, uprights, sidecars, flattrackers, women... making the sport more inclusive. Women would seem to be an obvious place to start and would be symbolic, if nothing else, of throwing off the chains of speedway's stubborn reluctance to change.