Speedway of Nations: More glory for Sheffield speedway hero Simon Stead as GB celebrate victory in world cup

Sheffield speedway hero Simon Stead has lifted his second world title with Great Britain as joint boss.

Stead, born and raised in the city, a former Sheffield Tigers rider and now Sheffield team boss, is the joint boss of the Great Britain team, along with Ollie Allen.

And he picked up his second gold medal in the Speedway of Nations final at the National Speedway Stadium in Manchester last night.

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Simon Stead pictured at Owlertonplaceholder image
Simon Stead pictured at Owlerton | National World

Great Britain’s Robert Lambert and Dan Bewley beat Australians Jack Holder and Brady Kurtzt to avenge their defeat in Vojens in 2022. It is Great Britain's, and Stead’s, second SON title, having also won it previously in 2021.

Stead described the latest victory as unbelievable.

He said. "I just want to say a big thank you to the boys for the unbelievable amount of effort they put in over the course of this week, it's a long week.

"But also the process that we have, the work we do behind the scenes all throughout the season. We've been building and building on it and we're trying to improve every year despite a couple of silvers.

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"To cap that off with a gold tonight, it's been superb and the reward for such an amount of effort."

He added:  “Going into every competition we go into now, we go in to win. No longer as a nation do we think a medal is a good achievement,

“We are striving to be better than that, and I think with the progress that’s been made and the riders at our disposal, that comes with its own pressures.

“People can now expect something from us, and I think the fact that we’re delivering that at the highest level is testament to the lads that we’ve got riding for us, and the backroom team.

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“Any time that we get together now is good time spent. The memories that we’ve made together over the course of the last few years will live strong, but we live for the moment and we’re striving for gold every time we’re out.

“Tonight is testament to a lot of hard work that goes on from a lot of people – the lads, their mechanics and teams, their engine tuners, and Rob (Painter) and Vicky (Blackwell) of course who have put so much time and effort into making GB Speedway a success.”

Sheffield Tigers’ Australian rider Jack Holder, who had to settle for silver, despite his side finishing top of the scores before the final, described the whole meeting as awesome.

Jack Holder, at Owlerton earlier this season. Photo: David Kessen, National Worldplaceholder image
Jack Holder, at Owlerton earlier this season. Photo: David Kessen, National World | National World

He said: “There was plenty of good racing and the crowd was loving it. It came down to that Grand Final and the Speedway of Nations is hard. You are trying to race your own race, but you are always looking behind.

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“You are trying to slow it up and it’s quite hard to slow up a race when you are going that fast around this track. We did the best we could and that was enough for second.

“Brady was good. He has ridden here week in and week out for Belle Vue over the last couple of years. He did his job; everyone did their job. It wasn’t good enough, but fair play to Great Britain – they got the job done when it mattered. We will hopefully come back strong next year.”

GB won the title without Sheffield rider and three time World Champion Tai Woffinden, who broke his elbow in four places in a crash in a Grand Prix in Poland at the end of June.

Woffinden does not yet know when he will be fit to ride again, but has said he would like to be back for the British Grand Prix in Cardiff next month.,

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