Would Bike 2 Date

For 18 days, Chris Thomas felt like a rock star.

The 51-year-old Mansfield man was part of an American team that toured Great Britain in October, competing in the sport of speedway motorcycle racing.

“The fan base that they have over there is just unbelievable,” Thomas said. “They know who you are. If you went into a convenience store, they knew who you were.”

How big is speedway racing in England?

“In the town we were based in, the church had a picture of a speedway bike in the stained glass window. That’s how big it is,” he said. “They follow everything close. It’s like NASCAR over here.”

In England, they build small stadiums around their little bullrings. The races against the Americans drew from 3,000 to 8,000 over the course of eight meets.

The fervor isn’t contained to one small corner of the country. They put 3,000 miles on their truck traveling from venue to venue.

It was quite a different setting for a guy who has raced at such facilities as Sunset Ramblers in Galion and Western Reserve in Salem as well as tracks in Harpster, Wauseon and in Indiana.

“I know if I was starting out again and in my 20s, I would go over there if that’s what I wanted to do. That’s where I’d go because you can make a living over there doing it,” Thomas said.The 1978 graduate of Madison began racing competitively when he was 14, starting in flat track racing, a form similar to speedway racing.”The best way to compare them is the regular flat track bike is like a late model dirt track car and a speedway bike is like a sprint car,” he said. “They’re a lot faster with about half the weight.”

Thomas eventually moved on to motocross and road racing then went back to flat tracking before trying his hand at speedway racing about six years ago.

Read More via Mansfielder tours Britain with motorcycle racing group | Mansfield News Journal | mansfieldnewsjournal.com.