Graham Plant

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Graham Plant
Born (1949-12-15) 15 December 1949 (age 74)
Leicester, England
NationalityBritish (English)
Career history
1968–1971 Leicester Lions
1968 Middlesbrough Teessiders
1972–1973 Newport Wasps
1974–1977, 1979 Halifax Dukes
1980–1981, 1983 Milton Keynes Knights
Individual honours
1968 Second Division Riders Champion
1969 British Under-21 Champion

Graham W Plant (born 15 December 1949) is a former motorcycle speedway rider from England. He won the Second Division Riders Championship in 1968. He earned five international caps for the England national speedway team and one cap for the Great Britain team. [1]

Biography

Born in Leicester, Graham Plant is the son of former speedway rider Wilf Plant, and began racing in his teens, initially in go-kart and sidecar racing. [2]

After practicing at King's Lynn Stadium, he had his first speedway races in second half events at Long Eaton Speedway in 1967. [2] In 1968, he joined second division Middlesbrough Teessiders on loan from Leicester Lions, and impressive performances (he averaged 8.54 over the season) also led to appearances in the first division for the Lions. [2] Aged just 19, he won the British League Division Two Riders Championship, held at Hackney Wick Stadium on 27 September 1968. [3]

In 1969, he rode full-time for the Lions, averaging 6.21 over the season, including one full maximum score. [2] Also in 1969, he won the British Under 21 Championship. [2] [4] By 1971 he was one of the Lions' top riders, averaging 8.78 over the season, and he represented England in international competition [5] and finished third in the Rhodesian Open Championship. [2] In 1972 he moved to Newport Wasps, where he stayed for two seasons before moving on to Halifax Dukes, where he stayed until 1979, although he made no appearances in 1978 and only rode in only a handful of matches in 1979, before retiring. This was partly due to his problems associated to a broken leg suffered in 1976. [6]

He returned in 1980 with National League team the Milton Keynes Knights where he raced in 1980 and 1981, when his season was cut short after a loss of form and a falling-out with the team management. [7] He returned briefly for the Knights in 1983, before retiring for the final time. [8]

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References

  1. ↑ "ULTIMATE RIDER INDEX, 1929-2022" (PDF). British Speedway. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Oakes, Peter & Mauger, Ivan (1976) Who's Who of World Speedway, Studio Publications, ISBN   0-904584-04-6, p. 90-91
  3. ↑ "Two in hospital after Big Speedway Pile-Up" . Daily Mirror. 28 September 1968. Retrieved 13 June 2023– via British Newspaper Archive.
  4. ↑ Jones, Alan (2010) Speedway in Leicester: The Lions Roar, Automedia, p. 175
  5. ↑ "Plant chose as British reserve" . Melton Mowbray Times and Vale of Belvoir Gazette. 21 May 1971. Retrieved 12 September 2024– via British Newspaper Archive.
  6. ↑ "Norwegian signs for Dukes" . Huddersfield Daily Examiner. 11 March 1977. Retrieved 26 August 2024– via British Newspaper Archive.
  7. ↑ Oakes, Peter (1982) 1982 Speedway Yearbook, Studio Publications, ISBN   0-86215-072-8, p. 246, 249
  8. ↑ Oakes, Peter (1981) 1981 Speedway Yearbook, Studio Publications, ISBN   0-86215-017-5, p. 252
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