Motorcycle Speedway - Racing

Racing

Races (known as heats) consist of four riders racing over four laps from a standing start. Riders wear different coloured helmets, traditionally red and blue denote home team riders, and white and yellow/black quartered colours denote visiting riders. The colours also denote starting positions. Red is the pole, blue starts second, white starts third and yellow/black starts on the outside. In speedway some finals may have six riders depending on the size of the track and finals are generally held over six laps. Riders must be able to get their bikes to the start line under their own power, without any external assistance and not by pushing the machine, then line up in parallel. The starting area is divided into a grid of four equal parts and the riders from each team must take their place in alternate grids or "gates".

A rider who is not at the start line within a reasonable period of time is also liable to be disqualified, although league matches in the UK allow teams to elect to start the disqualified rider fifteen metres back from the tapes or replace the disqualified rider with a team reserve. This period of time is standardised to two minutes from a time determined by the match referee and usually indicated by a bell, a rotating orange lamp or a digital clock readout. All riders must be at the tapes under their own power before the two minutes have elapsed. Additional time between races will be allowed by, and at the discretion of, the referee if a rider has two consecutive rides, to allow the rider time to prepare.

A starting gate consisting of two or more tapes is erected across the start line. The riders must situate themselves not more than 10 centimetres (3.9 in) from this and not touch it at any time, they must also remain stationary until the tapes are raised. These are known as tape infringements and can result in a false start being recorded and the rider penalised (disqualified, or in league matches in Great Britain, a 15-metre penalty or replace the disqualified rider with a team reserve). The race is started with the raising of the start tape mechanism operated by the match referee and the riders must proceed around the track in an anti-clockwise direction without both wheels illegally leaving the track boundaries.

Once a race is underway, no rider can receive outside assistance, including push-starts, from others. Historically, pushers were allowed at the start of the race. A white line at the 30 metre mark used to designate the extent to which a push was allowed but due to safety concerns, assistance is now illegal.

Occasionally races consist of six riders but this is rare as most tracks are too narrow to accommodate the extra riders safely.