Speedway Grand Prix - Cardiff 2014

Without going into a lot of detail, my Dad has had a big involvement, love and passion for speedway for many, many years. For the past 6 years we've attended the biggest speedway event in the UK/world, the Speedway Grand Prix.

I know that some may be reading this, not having a clue what speedway is... so I'll just tell you a few of the basics. Speedway is a sport that involves riding a motor bike with one gear and no brakes, around an oval shape dirt track in an anti-clockwise direction - sounds fun right?...haha. In a normal meeting there are 15 Heats (races) and two teams that compete against each other, however, in a grand prix there are 20 heats and each one of the 15 riders (plus a wildcard rider) compete individually. In each heat there are 4 riders, who race 4 laps of the track. 1st places gets 3 points, 2nd 2 points, 3rd 1 point and 4th place nothing. In the Grand Prix there are 12 meetings in different places around the world and whoever gets the most points at the end will be crowned the world champion!

There is only one American rider in the Grand Prix called Greg Hancock, age 44. Most riders start to retire at the age of 30, but Greg just keeps going and going - he's been in every single Grand Prix, which started in 1995! Greg used to ride for our team Cradley Heathens, this is why we support him (although were not american). ONCE A HEATHEN, ALWAYS A HEATHEN!

Before the match started, we had some time to explore Cardiff city - It's so beautiful! There was a Welsh carnival inside the castle on the grounds. It was so cool to experience the welsh culture again, it's so colourful... The only thing was everything was in welsh (including the live music) haha.

Live music <3

After that we wondered the streets of Cardiff for a while... and lets just say there were some funny sights!

I don't think anyone could make him laugh!

Krusty the clown and a Darlek... great combination!

The atmosphere was electric before the match!
A few people randomly took photos of us as we walked down the streets... I think they all thought we were actually American (if only we were), It was so funny. Me and my two brothers also made it on TV waving our flags to the cameraman!!... It was only 4/5 seconds, but still haha!

Later, it was time to enter the Millennium stadium. We had a great view from our seats. Everyone had their air horns and they just got louder and louder and louder throughout the meeting!

The riders entrance.

Thankfully Greg Hancock won! It was very tense in the final race but he made it :) We were on our feet, waving our flags like mad!

When we left the stadium, a random guy wanted a selfie with me and my flag... I think he thought I was American haha!... I'd love to find out where the selfie has been posted haha...

Another great year of Cardiff over again!

Bring on next year!

❤