Career
After finishing second in both 1988 and 1989, Crump won his first major junior speedway title in 1990 becoming Australian Under-16 champion at the Bibra Lake Speedway in Perth, Western Australia (Crump defeated future Australian champion and teammate Ryan Sullivan for the title), and he progressed through the ranks.
Crump began his European league career at the Poole Pirates in 1991, where his grandfather, Neil Street, was team manager.
His best placing in the Australian Under-21 Championship was third in 1992 at the Riverview Speedway in Murray Bridge (South Australia) behind reigning Australian U/21 and senior champion Leigh Adams and second placed Jason Hawkes, making it an all-Mildura podium. Crump didn't place in the 1993 Australian U/21 Championship at his then home track, Olympic Park, and like a number of young Aussie riders was denied the chance to win the title when it was not contested in 1994 or 1995. By the title resumed in 1996, Crump had turned 22 and the Aussie U/21 title would be one that got away in his career.
Just two weeks following his 19th birthday, Crump rode in his first World Final (1994) held at the Speedway Center in Vojens, Denmark, where he finished in 11th place with six points scored. After winning his opening ride, he failed to score in his next two races before finishing with a third and second placing. 1994 was notable as it was the last year the World Championship was decided in the traditional single meeting format that had been in place since the inaugural Final was held at the Wembley Stadium in 1936.
Crump, after moving his home base from Mildura to Queensland in the mid-1990s, won the Queensland State Championship for the first time in 1995. He would go on to win it on five occasions (1995, 1997, 1998, 2001 and 2004). The same year saw Crump join his father Phil as an Australian Champion when he won his first title at the Gosford Speedway, with the pair being the first (and only) father-son combination to win the title. Later that same year he made his Speedway Grand Prix debut as a wild card in the Speedway Grand Prix of Great Britain at the Hackney Wick Stadium in London – he won his first three rides, but fell in the B final to finish 8th overall.
Crump's first World Championship title arrived in 1995, when he won the Under-21 World Final at the Ratinan Stadion in Finland after defeating Swede Daniel Andersson in a run-off when both riders finished on 13 points. In the run-off Andersson fell on the first lap, leaving Crump to complete three laps on his own to be crowned the champion. [9] His previous U/21 World Finals had seen him as a reserve rider in the Czech Republic in 1993 (he did not get to ride), while he had finished third in 1994 in Norway.
His first Grand Prix victory came in 1996, again riding at the British Grand Prix at Hackney Wick, although this time as a full-time Grand Prix rider. He has won the World Team Cup in 1999 in Pardubice and the new Speedway World Cup on two further occasions with the Australian team in 2001 in Wrocław, Poland and 2002 in Peterborough, England. In the 2001 World Cup, Crump became the first rider since the legendary Swede Ove Fundin in the inaugural Speedway World Team Cup in 1960 to go through the entire tournament (including qualification rounds) undefeated. Like their Australian Championship record as the only father and son to win the title, Jason Crump joined his dad as a World Team Cup winner by winning the 1999 Final in Pardubice in the Czech Republic.
Crump won the 'treble' riding for the Peterborough Panthers in Britain during the 1999 season, winning the Elite League, the Knockout Cup and the Craven Shield. [10] Crump also won the 1999 Series 500 in Australia (also known as the Australian Masters Series).
Crump's first world title came in 2004 when he beat then 5-time champion Tony Rickardsson, having won two of the nine Grand Prix that season. He dominated the 2006 season winning four out of nine Grand Prix to take the title for the second time, beating American Greg Hancock into second place. [11]
By winning the 2004 Speedway Grand Prix, Crump became Australia's first Individual World Champion since Jack Young and only the fourth Australian rider to win the World Championship. By becoming World Champion in 2004, Crump also became just the third rider after Per Jonsson and Gary Havelock to win both the Under-21 and Open Individual World Championships. He also became the first rider to win the Individual Under-21, Individual and Team World Championships.
He rode for the Belle Vue Aces for five seasons until the end of 2006 when, in 2007, Crump signed for the Poole Pirates in the Elite League. Also in 2007, he won his second Australian Championship. At the end of the 2007 season, Poole announced that Crump would be leaving the club due to the large points limit reduction made by the British Speedway Promoters' Association (BSPA) at their 2007 annual general meeting, [12]
Crump returned to Belle Vue for 2008 and signed a two-year deal to stay with the club. [13] However, in October 2008, Crump announced he will not be riding in the British Elite League in 2009 in order to reduce his fixture schedule, allowing him to concentrate on the Grand Prix series. [14]
He returned to Belle Vue in August 2009 to assist with their relegation fight and KO Cup campaign. On 14 September 2009, Crump fell during a last heat decider for Belle Vue against Ipswich, sustaining injuries to his left arm and shoulder. In spite of this he finally won his third world title in 2009.
He announced his retirement from Grand Prix racing at the end of the 2012 season on 24 September 2012. In December 2012 he confirmed that he was retiring from the sport altogether due to a back injury. [15] However, eight years after he announced his retirement, Crump returned to the sport. He joined Ipswich Witches for the SGB Premiership 2020 season. [16]
Crump rode again for Ipswich in the SGB Premiership 2021 and the Plymouth Gladiators in the SGB Championship 2021 [17] but finally retired for good in 2022 to take a team management role at the newly reformed Oxford Cheetahs. [18]
