Sprouts Elder - Career

Career

Elder initially wanted to become a jockey but by his late teens had grown to almost six feet tall, leading to his 'Sprouts' nickname. He got a job in a motorcycle shop and began racing, eventually taking up speedway.

Elder was one of speedway's pioneers and featured in the first Star Riders' Championship, the forerunner to the Speedway World Championship in 1929. He was beaten in the semi final of the 'overseas' section by Vic Huxley.

Elder was also a pioneer of speedway racing in the USA. He was a champion rider at home and abroad during the 1920s and early 1930s. Elder helped organize speedway racing on the east and west coasts of America and later became an AMA referee and a member of the competition committee.

Elder learned to race racing on some of the last surviving board track racing circuits during the 1920s. In the late 1920s Elder really began to make a name for himself by racing overseas.

In 1927 he won Australian Championship, against top Australian as well as several top British and American riders who also spent the winter months racing in the Australian summer. Elder also won titles in South America.

1928 saw Elder turn his attention to racing in the United Kingdom, becoming one of the most popular riders in the country. He could command fees of £100 per meeting, plus prize money, and once earned £350 in a day by racing at three nearby tracks. He is estimated to have earned £50,000 in his first three years of riding in Britain. Crowds of 30,000 to 40,000 were not uncommon at larger meetings during the heyday of speedway racing in England. Elder's popularity was revealed when the British paper Speedway News honoured Elder by calling him the greatest showman of all time. In 1928 he won several titles in Britain, including the Golden Helmet at White City, Manchester, the Golden Gauntlet and West Ham Championship at West Ham, the Silver Wheel and Silver Sash at Wimbledon, the Silver Belt at Custom House, and the Golden Helmet at Leicester. He also rode for the West Ham Hammers. In 1930 he rode for the Southampton Saints.

During the mid-1930s, Elder returned to the United States to help organize American speedway. Speedway racing was among the popular forms of motorcycle racing in the country. Elder, along with Wilbur Lamoreaux, Jack and Cordy Milne, he helped found and promote speedway in America.