POTTED HISTORY OF THE SECOND DIVISION RIDERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP


AS a rider, you probably make lots of friends during 30 years racing speedway, longtrack and grasstrack. If you’re like speedway’s former World No. 2 Les Collins, chances are


plenty of those friends will have won the Division Two Riders’ Championship. Steve McDermott, Paul Thorp, Joe Owen, Wayne Brown, Paul Bentley


and Carl Stonehewer all lifted the second tier’s top individual trophy. Which probably pleased their pal Collins as much as it did them. Les, a genuinely unlucky second behind Bruce Penhall in the 1982 Los


Angeles World Final, didn’t win the D2RC. But he does hold two records in the event. The 1982 Inter-Continental Final winner and British Junior Champion


made 12 appearances in the D2RC – the most by any rider. He also holds the record span in years of first and last appearances –


a remarkable quarter-century 25, from his first aged 18 in 1976 to his last at 42 in 2000.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34