Barbara Horley and UK Speedway

Sport in History Podcast

“I have had two thrills today. One racing at Newmarket this afternoon. The other here at speedway. And this is by far the greater”. Why did speedway become so phenomenally popular in the late 1930s and 40s? Very little historical research has been carried out on speedway racing yet it was a sport which attracted 12.5 million attendances in Britain in 1949 and regularly attracted football-sized crowds to its league meetings. The World Speedway Championship Final at Wembley in 1938 was attended by 93,000 spectators and commentary from it was broadcast by the BBC. As the sport had only been introduced into Britain in 1928, its rate of growth was spectacular. Making use of newspapers, the speedway press and minutes of speedway’s controlling authorities at the time, this paper will examine some of the reasons why speedway became so popular in the late 1930s and 40s. It will consider its coverage in the press and broadcasting media, its reputation as a family sport, its particular appeal to women and to working people, its affinity with ideas of modernity and the inherent excitement of the sport. Barbara Horley is a PhD student at ICSHC at De Montfort University