Great Britain national speedway team

Great Britain
Team manager	Allun Rossiter
Team captain	Tai Woffinden
Nation colour	Blue
SWC Wins	9
Squad	Tai Woffinden (c) Simon Stead Chris Harris Daniel King

The Great Britain national speedway team (also known as Team GB) are one of the major teams in international speedway. The team is managed by former rider and Swindon Robins manager Allun Rossiter and the captain is the 2013 Speedway World Champion Tai Woffinden.

Speedway World Cup

The England national speedway team has won the Speedway World Team Cup on five occasions with the Great Britain side winning four times. They were a major force in the 1970s, winning five consecutive tournaments, three as England and two as Great Britain. Key riding members of the title wins include Peter Collins (five wins), Malcolm Simmons (four wins), New Zealand-born Ivan Mauger, Dave Jessup and Ray Wilson (all three wins). The cup has eluded them since 1989, although they came close in 2000, missing out when Mark Loram fell in a race-off, and 2004 where a team of Mark Loram, Lee Richardson, Gary Havelock, David Norris and Scott Nicholls missed out by one point. Both narrow defeats were at the hands of Sweden and both in somewhat controversial fashion.

Prior to 1974, the Great Britain team often consisted of riders from other Commonwealth Nations including Australia and New Zealand.

Wins as Great Britain

Year	Venue	Standings (Pts)	GB Riders and Pts
1968	Wembley	1. GREAT BRITAIN (40) 2. Sweden (30) 3. Poland (19) 4. Czechoslovakia (7)	Ivan Mauger (NZ)	12
			Nigel Boocock	10
			Martin Ashby	8
			Barry Briggs (NZ)	7
			Norman Hunter	3
1971	Wroclaw	1. GREAT BRITAIN (37) 2. Soviet Union (22) 3. Poland (19) 4. Sweden (18)	Ray Wilson	12
			Ivan Mauger (NZ)	10
			Jim Airey (AUS)	9
			Barry Briggs (NZ)	6
			Ronnie Moore (NZ)	-
1972	Olching	1. GREAT BRITAIN (36) 2. Soviet Union (21) 3. Poland (21) 4. Sweden (18)	Ivan Mauger (NZ)	11
			John Louis	9
			Terry Betts	9
			Ray Wilson	8
			Ronnie Moore (NZ)	-
1973	Wembley	1. GREAT BRITAIN (37) 2. Sweden (31) 3. Soviet Union (20) 4. Poland (8)	Peter Collins	12
			Terry Betts	9
			Malcolm Simmons	8
			Ray Wilson	8
			Dave Jessup	-

Wins as England

Year	Venue	Standings (Pts)	Eng Riders and Pts
1974	Chorzow	1. ENGLAND (42) 2. Sweden (31) 3. Poland (13) 4. Soviet Union (10)	Peter Collins	12
			John Louis	12
			Dave Jessup	10
			Malcolm Simmons	8
			Ray Wilson	-
1975	Norden	1. ENGLAND (41) 2. Soviet Union (29) 3. Sweden (17) 4. Poland (9)	Peter Collins	12
			Malcolm Simmons	11
			Martin Ashby	10
			John Louis	8
			Dave Jessup	-
1977	Wroclaw	1. ENGLAND (37) 2. Poland (25) 3. Czechoslovakia (23) 4. Sweden (11)	Peter Collins	10
			Michael Lee	9
			Dave Jessup	9
			John Davis	6
			Malcolm Simmons	3
1980	Wroclaw	1. ENGLAND (40) 2. USA (29) 3. Poland (15) 4. Czechoslovakia (12)	Michael Lee	11
			Chris Morton	11
			Peter Collins	10
			Dave Jessup	8
			John Davis	-
1989	Odsal	1. ENGLAND (48) 2. Denmark (34) 3. Sweden (30) 4. USA (8)	Jeremy Doncaster	13
			Paul Thorp	12
			Kelvin Tatum	12
			Simon Wigg	11
			Simon Cross	0

U-21 Speedway World Cup

Main article: Team Speedway Junior World Championship

Year	Place	Pts.	Riders
2005	-	-	3rd place in Qualifying Round 1
2006	-	-	3rd place in Qualifying Round 1
2007	2	36	Edward Kennett (14), Lewis Bridger (11), James Wright (6), Daniel King (5), Tai Woffinden
2008	-	-	3rd place in Qualifying Round 1

Titles

Preceded by Sweden	World Champions 1968 (1st title)	Succeeded by Poland
Preceded by Sweden	World Champions 1971 (2nd title) 1972 (3rd title) 1973 (4th title) 1974 (5th title) 1975 (6th title)	Succeeded by Australia
Preceded by Australia	World Champions 1977 (7th title)	Succeeded by Denmark
Preceded by New Zealand	World Champions 1980 (8th title)	Succeeded by Denmark
Preceded by Denmark	World Champions 1989 (9th title)	Succeeded by USA

Famous British riders

• Jim Airey
• Eric Boocock
• Nigel Boocock
• Barry Briggs
• Kenny Carter
• Les Collins
• Peter Collins
• Phil Collins
• Peter Craven
• Chris Harris

• Gary Havelock
• Dave Jessup
• Eric Langton
• Michael Lee
• Mark Loram
• Chris Louis
• John Louis
• Ivan Mauger
• Ken McKinlay
• Ronnie Moore

• Chris Morton
• Scott Nicholls
• Tommy Price
• Lee Richardson
• Joe Screen
• Malcolm Simmons
• Kelvin Tatum
• Tai Woffinden
• Simon Wigg
• Ray Wilson

External links

• BSPA Website