Sheffield speedway: Aussie ace says pals kept him strong despite mental demons

The Aussie ace has been disappointed with how his season has started and last month spoke about battling with ‘mental demons’.

But Proctor insists he’s come a long way since and reckons he’s not far off rediscovering some true form.

“I’m feeling more like myself,” Proctor said. “There’s still plenty of scope for improvement to build on though but I feel a lot happier. I was getting frustrated because I’d replicated last year and things weren’t going right this time around. I had the winter off and didn’t ride and that worked last year. But for some reason it had the opposite effect at the start of this season; things weren’t going how I wanted them to.

“I’ve got good people around me though, they’ve kept me strong, I’ve kept plugging away and slowly but surely the results have started to come.

“I do feel like I’ve turned a corner now which is the first major step to getting me back to roughly where I want and need to be. Even in the last home meeting against Leicester I don’t think my score reflected how I actually rode.

“I got squeezed in the first corner in one and snapped a chain after making a good start in another. But there were a lot more positives I could take out of that going forward and I’d like to think I’m not too far away from putting in another big performance for Sheffield.”

And he’s hoping that will come against Birmingham at Owlerton this Sunday (5pm).

But Proctor says the Championship newcomers shouldn’t be taken lightly.

“Nobody is easy in this league and you have to be on it yourselves each and every meeting,” he said.

“Birmingham have got riders who can ride Sheffield quite well and I don’t think Birmingham’s form makes them as bad as some people are making out.

“They’ve had some really tough meetings early on and they’ll be wanting to prove doubters wrong for sure.”