Sheffield Tigers speedway: Three times World Champion Tai Woffinden makes UK return with Sheffield

Tigers have confirmed Woffinden, who has not ridden in the UK for several years, will ride for the club as an injury replacement for the Tigers regular number one, Jack Holder, after Holder broke his wrist in the sport’s world cup final at the weekend.

The rider rode one meeting for the Tigers as a teenager – his first senior meeting in speedway – before making his name as one of the sport’s biggest names.

Officials at Sheffield have described it as one of the club’s biggest ever signings as the Owlerton outfit remain focussed on booking their place in the Sports Insure Premiership Play-Offs.Co-Promoter Damien Bates said: “For Sheffield to sign a rider like Tai Woffinden is a massive coup, not only for us as a Club but for British Speedway as a whole.

“Tai’s had his reasons for not racing in the UK for a while now but as soon as Steady (Simon Stead – team manager) spoke to him, he was well up for it.

“Jack has had an operation but we can’t say for definite how long he’ll be out for and we don’t know how quickly he’ll be ready to come back.

“August is a busy and crucial month; we’ve got a lot of fixtures coming up and we’ve still got work to do to get into the play-offs.

“With the July weather causing havoc with the fixture list, it means there’s going to be a lot of hectic racenights in the Premiership on Mondays and Thursdays for the next four weeks or so.

“So I don’t want to be struggling to be booking guests or being forced to run rider replacement at No.1.

"So with that in mind we felt it’s better to bring in an injury replacement for Jack for now, have a full team and give ourselves the best chance of making sure we stay in that top four.”

“In Tai we’ve brought in a genuine, proven world class rider and it’s going to be great to see him lining up in a Sheffield racejacket.”

The last time Woffinden raced in the UK, he helped parent club Wolverhampton lift the top-flight trophy in 2016.

Now back in British Speedway for the first time in seven years, the 32-year-old is looking forward to racing for the Tru Plant Tigers at a place heholds close to his heart.

“Steady jumped on the phone and said that Jack was going to be out and asked if I wanted to fill in," Woffinden said.

“One positive thing is that the boys that I have spoken to about racing in England, no one has had a bad thing to say whereas five or six years ago that was a different story.

“So it’s all cool, the boys are super positive about everything and I’m looking forward to having some fun.

“It’s been a long, long time since I raced around Sheffield but it’s a sick track and I’m really looking forward to getting out there.

“In fact one of the last times I rode there was probably when I won the Premier League Riders’ Championship in 2008 – it’s a place I have so many memories from.

“I used to go to Sheffield as a kid and it will probably ignite all those memories from when I was younger; I have a lot of connections there and it’s going to be interesting to get back there for sure.

“I’m looking forward to getting out there and going racing and let’s see how high up in the Premiership we can finish.”

The Tru Plant Tigers head to Leicester on Thursday (August 3, 7.30) with their trip to Belle Vue rearranged for Monday (August 7, 7.30).

Tigers ride at Owlerton next Thursday (August 10, 7.30) Woffinden will make his home debut.