BEWLEY EYES FAST TRACK TO SPEEDWAY GP SUCCESS

Great Britain racer Dan Bewley admits he’s in no mood to wait for FIM Speedway Grand Prix success.

Bewley switched to speedway from motocross, debuting with the Belle Vue Colts in the 2016 National League. In just five years, he became an FIM Speedway of Nations world champion in 2021, before being promoted into Speedway GP for 2022.

At just 24 years old, Bewley has made rapid progress in speedway terms and already has three Speedway GP wins to his name.

But the Cumbrian admits his motocross background has left him determined to climb the ladder quickly, even if it’s no easy task.

He said: “I think speedway is a little bit different in that it can take so long to get into the GPs. You have to pretty much be No.1 in your team in Britain and be in the top 15 in the PGE Ekstraliga averages. It’s pretty tough to get to that stage. It takes a few years.

“But coming from another sport like motocross, you have riders in the senior categories in the GP who are 22, and that’s normal. People there get to their late 30s and are looking at retirement. 

“I am still young – one of the youngest in there. But I don’t look at it as having time on my side. This year is the only one we have, and we’ll see what we can do. Looking at other sports, 25 isn’t young.”

If Bewley is to improve on the seventh place he achieved in 2023, he knows he will have to convert more semi-final appearances into finals.

Bewley has won all three finals he has competed in so far – in Cardiff and Wroclaw in 2022 and Malilla last year – and he regularly features among the top-scoring riders after 20 heats. But he also exited six SGPs at the semi-final stage in 2023 and is determined to step up his final strike rate.

Reflecting on 2023, he said: “The first half of the season was good. Maybe the results weren’t, but as far as the heats went and how I was riding, I was going well. The end of the season wasn’t what I would have liked. But it wasn’t a bad year – I got a win in Malilla. There are a lot of things to build on and a lot of things to be excited about for the new season.

“In the first five rounds, I think I was in the top two or three at every round after the heats. 

“It’s just converting it into a final – that’s where the points are really. If you score all your points earlier in the meeting but then you are not quite there in the semi-final, maybe you haven’t watched what’s happening with the track and how it has developed, or you have just called things wrong.

“If you want to be up there at the end of the year, you need to be in the finals. But I am not looking into it too much. I will take it race by race.”