CLUB DEBUT: 24 March 1990 versus Oxford (Home) Gold Cup; 8+2 points (6 rides).
THE mighty Leigh Scott Adams hails from Mildura – a small fruit town – which is famous for producing an outstanding crop of speedway riders, who all cut their teeth around the Olympic Park track. They include 1980s Swindon legend Phil Crump and his son, Jason, to name but a couple of many.
Adams has enjoyed three spells with the Robins, completing a dozen full seasons during which he endeared himself to the Blunsdon patrons with his brilliant performances. Indeed, the only time he failed to finish a season as Swindon’s leading rider occurred in 1990 – only his second year on these shores, but his debut season in top-flight British League racing.
Leigh first came to England on vacation in 1988, and actually completed four matches for Poole in the National Junior League, the first of which was at Arena-Essex on 20 August. The potential was there for all to see, as he gleaned 6 points and he went on to average exactly 9.00 from his holiday stint with the club.
Adams had originally been recommended to Poole by that wonderful judge of Australian talent Neil Street, and it was the Pirates he subsequently joined for their National League Championship-winning season of 1989, when he rode alongside the likes of Craig Boyce, Alun Rossiter, Gary Allan, Tony Langdon and Kevin Smart, among others.
The lad from Mildura set British speedway’s second tier alight during that initial term of official racing on these shores, making a mockery of his assessed 2.00 starting average to post a 9.19 figure. Ever-present throughout the Pirates’ 34-match league programme, Leigh plundered 362 points.
Towards the end of the ’89 campaign, the young Aussie visited his speedway hero, Hans Nielsen, shortly after the Dane had secured his third World Championship title courtesy of a stunning 15-point maximum at Munich’s Olympic Stadium. Nielsen insisted that Adams had to step-up to the top-flight immediately. Further discussion after such positive counsel from one of the sport’s greatest-ever riders was pointless.
After initially making two unsuccessful bids to the Pirates’ management, Swindon finally secured a deal that saw Gary Chessell included as a makeweight, with a reputed £20,000 changing hands. And Leigh made his Robins’ debut when scoring 8+2 points from six rides against Oxford in a Gold Cup match at Blunsdon on 24 March 1990.
He won the first of his ten Australian national titles in 1992, and also captured the World Under-21 Championship after beating Mark Loram in a title run-off at Pfaffenhofen, Germany, on 23 August that same year.
With Swindon suffering relegation to Division Two after a difficult 1992 campaign, Adams had appeared to be Coventry-bound. But, in the end, the Bees opted to sign Hans Nielsen, whilst Leigh teamed-up with promoters Terry Russell and Ivan Henry at Arena-Essex for an undisclosed fee on a full transfer. He was to spend three seasons with the Hammers [1993-95], where he enjoyed racing on the technical circuit. During this time, he took his World Final bow at Pocking, Germany, on 29 August 1993, in a meeting won by Sam Ermolenko.
Fortunately, Adams hasn’t been injured many times during his long and illustrious career, but he took a knock at a key time during his stint with the Hammers. This occurred in a round of the Four-Team Championship at Ipswich on 23 June 1994, and the repercussions were to be significant. In a re-run heat three, he tangled with Reading’s Dave Mullett exiting the first bend of the final lap at the Foxhall Heath racing strip.
Leigh ended up on the stock car track and sustained a broken middle finger on his right hand. With the World Championship semi-final looming at Bradford – a track he excelled at – on 10 July, he faced a race against time. Regrettably, although he bravely took his place at the Odsal Stadium, Adams scored just 2 points and was eliminated. With that also went his chance of getting into the new Grand Prix series, which got underway in 1995Â
A single term at London in 1996 – a year when he did make his Grand Prix debut – followed his spell with Arena-Essex after the Hammers’ promotion had transferred their operation to the Hackney venue, before he then returned to Swindon and recorded a huge 9.96 average in the inaugural season of Elite League activity.
Leigh was again on board with the Robins in 1998 and although his league average dipped slightly to 8.95, he still amassed a massive total of 418 points in the club’s cause.
With Swindon again dropping into the lower league for 1999, the super-smooth speedster found himself without a track. To all intents and purposes, he eventually looked to be heading for Belle Vue….until King’s Lynn swooped for his services at the end of April. The Aussie joined the Norfolk side as a replacement for Tomáš Topinka, who had surprisingly been axed from the team.
Adams also remained at the super-fast Saddlebow Road circuit for the 2000 campaign, a season when he topped the entire Elite League averages with a 10.24 figure. And, in a side that included fellow antipodeans Jason Crump, Craig Boyce and Travis McGowan, together with veteran American John Cook, his outstanding efforts were a key factor as the then-nicknamed Knights took victory over Coventry to win the Knock-Out Cup.
In 2001, the Milduran linked with Oxford and, along with Todd Wiltshire, Brian Andersen, Steve Johnston, Andrew Appleton and the Dryml brothers [Aleš and Lukáš], he helped the Cheetahs to lift the Elite League Championship.
Renowned for his armchair style of riding, Leigh was again identified with Oxford in 2002, a year that also saw him help Australia to retain the British-staged Speedway World Cup, which they had won the previous year at Wrocław, Poland. That was his third such triumph with Australia, as they had also taken glory in the 1999 World Team Cup final at Pardubice, Czech Republic.
The 2003 term saw Adams register a 9.97 league average back with Poole and, in a glorious term for the Dorset outfit, the Pirates scooped a terrific treble success, winning the League Championship, Knock-Out Cup and the one-season British League Cup competition.
He was also awarded a much-deserved testimonial, with his special event going ahead at Swindon on 31 July, when a packed Abbey Stadium paid tribute to one of the sport’s all-time true greats. Fittingly, it was Leigh who went on to take victory on the night, as he defeated Jason Lyons, Joe Screen and Travis McGowan in the grand final.Â
Amidst a fanfare of trumpets, Adams once again returned to Swindon in 2004 and enjoyed a wonderful domestic campaign, finishing head and shoulders above everyone else in the Elite League averages on a massive 10.94 figure. Along the way, he plundered 15 maximums [12 full and 3 paid] for the Robins and also joined forces with Charlie Gjedde to take victory in the Elite League Pairs Championship.
On top of that, he established a new track record at Blunsdon on 13 May, when blistering around to win heat thirteen of the Elite League ‘A’ fixture against Poole in 64.46 seconds. Capping a fine year, on 26 September, he raced to a fourth success in the prestigious Czech Golden Helmet at Pardubice, adding to his previous wins of 1999, 2000 and 2001.
In 2005, he partnered record club signing Lee Richardson to the Elite League Pairs Championship at Peterborough on 27 March, as Swindon retained the title gained a year previously.
As ever, Leigh again gave excellent service to the Wiltshire outfit, overcoming an uncharacteristic spell of engine problems to post a domestic average of 10.47, a figure sufficient to again occupy pole position in the entire Elite League. Double figure scores were a regular feature both at the Abbey Stadium and on the Robins’ travels, culminating in a deserved and record-breaking fourth success in the Swindon Advertiser Rider of the Year poll.
On the world stage, he ended his tenth season of Grand Prix activity by scooping the bronze medal in Lonigo, Italy, on 10 September. It was no less than he deserved, having been the most consistent performer in British racing for over a decade, as he finally shook off the disappointing aura of being the World No. 4 for the previous three years.
Like a fine wine, the riding of the Robins’ captain just continued to get better with age and he once again led from the front in 2006, when he was the linchpin of the Swindon side. Whilst he didn’t enjoy the best of years in the Grand Prix series, his league form was unbelievably brilliant and Adams was present for all forty domestic encounters, posting a 10.58 average and recording no less than 18 maximums [6 full and 12 paid]. Again, the ‘Sultan of Slide’ was voted the Swindon Advertiser Rider of the Year for the third successive season.
Leigh put together another stunning campaign for Swindon in 2007, as the club suffered the heartache of losing out in all three major domestic finals, finishing as runners-up to Coventry in the Elite League Play-Offs, Knock-Out Cup and Craven Shield.
Having lost his Blunsdon track record to compatriot Jason Crump in 2006, Adams again became the fastest man in Swindon’s history, when he blitzed around the 363-metre circuit in 64.21 seconds in heat one of the Elite League ‘B’ encounter with Belle Vue on 2 August.
Once more, he topped the entire league averages, having accrued 450.5 points from thirty-five appearances for a 10.80 figure. This led to another Robins’ Rider of the Year success and, having already held the record for winning the award on the most number of occasions, this represented a sixth such triumph, following on from his previous successes in 1991, 1992, 2004, 2005 and 2006.
Aside from that, he also came out on top of the SRA Elite League Rider of the Year poll, as revealed at the ‘Stars of Shale’ End-of-Season Party and Awards Night at the Coventry Hilton Hotel on 1 November.
On the world stage, despite celebrating his thirty-sixth birthday, the Aussie enjoyed his best-ever run in the Grand Prix, finishing second overall to Nicki Pedersen. In an altogether much more consistent GP campaign, he took victory in three rounds and completed the series with 153 points to his name.
It was announced on 5 November 2007 that Leigh had again agreed to lead the Robins for a fifth straight season in 2008. He returned to Australia during the winter months and, in an attempt to allow his body to recuperate from a tough season of European action, Adams opted not to compete for the Australian national title.
Fresh from his break, 2008 was another scintillating term for the dependable speedster, who notched an incredible Elite League average of exactly 11.00 from a full quota of thirty-two matches. Once again, he finished in pole position at the head of the countrywide figures.
More impressive, though, was Leigh’s elevation to top spot in Swindon’s all-time scoring list. His paid maximum at Lakeside on 8 August took him on to 5,482.5 points, surpassing the previous record set by Martin Ashby who had registered 5,476.5 points during his long association with the Robins.
Under his captaincy, Swindon were victorious in the Elite Shield, finished second in the Elite League Pairs Championship and reached the Elite League Play-Offs for a third successive season. And, as revealed at a packed Dinner and Dance in November, for a seventh time Adams scooped the Swindon Advertiser Rider of the Year award.
On the Grand Prix circuit, it proved to be a year of frustration for Adams who saw his overall ranking fall to sixth place. However, the Swindon skipper celebrated his 100th GP appearance in perfect style by winning the Scandinavian round of the series at MÃ¥lilla, Sweden, on 16 August.
In January 2009, he won a record-breaking tenth Australian title after romping to victory in the third and final round of the Championship at Adelaide’s Gillman Speedway. Incredibly, he didn’t drop a point during the three-round series, having won all eighteen races he started. The outcome meant that Leigh was the only Australian speedway rider to have won ten national titles.
Still going strong in 2009, he led Swindon to top spot in the standard league programme and lowered the Blunsdon track record to an incredible 63.86 seconds, when winning heat one of a televised league match versus Poole on 31 August. Prior to that, he continued to re-write the record books when, in April, he became the first rider in British speedway history to reach the landmark of 10,000 points in official competitions.
Capping his twenty-first season of British racing, Adams – at the seventeenth attempt in its various guises – sealed his first-ever Elite League Riders’ Championship success courtesy of a great display at Coventry on 2 October. Following that victory, the veteran racer was quick to quash rumours that he was to retire, stating that he intended to continue in domestic speedway for at least one more year.
After his beloved Swindon had lost to Wolverhampton in the Play-Off final, the Aussie approached the last Grand Prix of the season at Bydgoszcz, Poland, on 17 October and, just prior to the event, it was announced that it would be his final appearance on the individual World Championship stage.
He bowed out with a tremendous second-place finish behind Nicki Pedersen, as he took his overall tally in the series to 1,278 points from 115 rounds between 1996 and 2009. For a sixth season in succession, he won the Robins’ Rider of the Year award and, in December, Swindon announced that Adams would once again spearhead their attack for a twelfth term in 2010.
In December, it was revealed that the BSPA had granted the brilliant Aussie a farewell meeting; this fuelled speculation that he would be embarking on his final season of Elite League racing, although Adams was quick to point out that he had yet to make a firm decision. However, early in February, the hugely consistent rider confirmed that the 2010 campaign would, in fact, be his final one in Europe.
The former world No. 2 planned to stage two farewell meetings, in Leszno, Poland, on 10 October, and at Swindon on 17 October, before he and his family returned to their native Australia to begin a new life. The Victorian hoped to remain involved in the sport in his homeland, with a view to getting involved with MA (Motorcycling Australia). He also wished to concentrate on his own training schools and also planned to try and set-up a Leigh Adams Academy, which would hold weekends in places like Adelaide, Perth, Mildura and Sydney.
Despite his advancing years, Adams was as consistent as ever in the opening weeks of the campaign, so much so that he shot to the head of the Elite League averages. Then, in May, it was announced that he was to have a well-deserved testimonial meeting Down Under at his local Olympic Park track in Mildura on 5 January 2011.
As had happened in 2009, he was subsequently overhauled at the top of the averages by Wolverhampton’s Fredrik Lindgren, but the Aussie still maintained an excellent figure of close on 10 points per match. And, on 10 July, on the day of the British Grand Prix at Cardiff, he launched his biography entitled ‘The Book’ in the Principality.
Whilst the Robins didn’t enjoy the best of campaigns, Leigh still led from the front and extended his club record to 6442.5 points from 547 appearances – including 118 maximums [54 full and 64 paid] – in all team competitions. That equates to a 4-ride average of 9.72 points per meeting, however, Adams has predominantly taken five rides a match for Swindon; as such a 5-ride average of 12.15 points per meeting gives a better indication of his immense input.  Â
Adams’ rode his last official meeting for Swindon at Belle Vue on 20 September; the occasion was marked by the Aces’ management who featured him on their programme frontage and presented him with a framed blown-up copy of the cover. That was his 887th official meeting spread over 22 seasons of British racing, from which he had gleaned an incredible 10,818.5 points and 170 maximums (74 full and 96 paid).
His Polish farewell – dubbed the ‘Final Lap’ – duly went ahead at Leszno on 10 October, when 12,000 fans saw the Aussie beaten into second place in the final by former Swindon team-mate Adrian Miedziński, with Jason Crump in third spot and Greg Hancock fourth. Seven days later, his farewell meeting at Swindon took place, when the man himself breezed into the final courtesy of a sublime 15-point maximum, prior to defeating Chris Holder, Matej Žagar and Simon Stead to end his British career on a high note.
Adams was invited to a Civic Reception, hosted by the Mayor of Swindon, Rex Barnett, at the Civic Offices in Swindon on 18 October. He and his wife, Kylie, along with former Robins’ boss Alun Rossiter, were greeted by the Mayor and Mayoress. The Leader of the Council, Rod Bluh, and Deputy Leader, Garry Perkins, were also in attendance. The Aussie was presented with a glass engraved with the Swindon Borough Council coat of arms, with an engraved stand in honour of his ‘Services to Swindon’.
On 23 October, at Swindon Speedway’s annual Dinner/Dance, Adams again scooped the Rider of the Year award not only for the seventh season in a row, but also for a record-extending ninth time in total. As well as that, the evening saw him formally hand over the captain’s armband to Simon Stead, with the British ace visibly shocked by the surprise announcement.
He brought the curtain down on his illustrious career at Mildura on 5 January, when a 4,000-strong attendance witnessed his testimonial meeting. Six-time World Champion and great friend Tony Rickardsson produced four captivating laps in what was his first time on a bike since 2006. Meanwhile, Aussie legend Phil Crump paraded on the machine that took him to the Australian Championship in 1975.
In the meeting itself, Troy Batchelor topped the scoring on 14 points, whilst Adams finished a digit behind on 13. And it was Adams’ former Swindon colleague who took victory ahead of him in the final, with Darcy Ward in third place and Cameron Woodward fourth. Â
However, Adams’ career hadn’t just been about incredible statistics. To have maintained such a high performance level over a 22-season span had been all about meticulous preparation, dedication, determination, professionalism and sheer consistency, together with an unceasing willingness to do everything possible for his team and his colleagues, especially during his time at Swindon.
There are many, many examples of his superb racing skills and one that springs to mind occurred on 13 May 2004, when the Robins entertained Poole in an Elite League encounter. In heat eleven, Leigh was partnered by recently recruited Pole Rafał Kurmański and, going into the race, Swindon held a slender 2-point lead in the match.
Encouraged by his skipper’s prompting, the Pole rode a brave first turn to join Adams out front entering the back straight and thereafter, the brilliant Robins’ No. 1 superbly covered all the lines to keep him and his partner ahead of the Pirates’ Davey Watt and Jason Lyons. The 5-1 brought the house down and paved the way for Swindon to go on and take a 53-39 victory.
In both of the Robins’ 2004 and 2005 Elite League Pairs Championship successes, he again demonstrated his team-riding prowess. But it wasn’t all about helping his team-mate, as was showcased in the second of these victories at Peterborough.
On a typically cold late March evening, they faced Belle Vue in the meeting’s showdown and those viewing the action were treated to an on-track feast. Leigh’s partner Lee Richardson made a lightning start, but was passed on the outside by both Jason Crump and Adams on the entry to the back straight.
Then, as the riders went into the gloom on the third turn they were momentarily lost to the naked eye but, in a jaw-dropping manoeuvre, Leigh went right out by the boards and somehow conjured the drive to engineer a route past his fellow countryman.
Later in the race, Richardson surged inside Crump on the entry to the first bend, only for the Aussie to reclaim second spot on the back straight. The positions were set thereafter and, with Joe Screen at the rear, the Robins registered a 6-3 to take the trophy for a second successive season.
On 27 April 2006, the Aussie greats – Adams and Crump – came face-to-face once again on a lovely sunny evening at the Abbey Stadium, as Swindon entertained Belle Vue in an Elite League encounter. In heat six, it was the visiting star who trapped to lead from the gate, but what followed had the entire crowd captivated for four amazing laps.
Straining every last smidgen of power from his steed, Leigh got right on to his compatriot’s rear wheel and, with both riders going at full gas, tried inside and out in a manner that was reminiscent of Bruce Penhall’s pursuit of Ole Olsen at Wembley in the never-to-be-forgotten 1981 World Final.
The two were racing right on the edge, with their machines rearing and bucking as they tried to get the better of one another. But, it was Adams – the master of Blunsdon – who found that bit extra and made his move entering the pits corner, before cutting inside beautifully on the fourth bend and just holding on to win the dash to the line. Unsurprisingly, on the warm-down lap, the two ace speedsters – great friends off the track – shook hands warmly in recognition of what had been a truly epic scrap.
In 2007, as the Robins battled for a top two league position ahead of the Play-Offs, they entertained Peterborough on 6 August. And, on a night when the legends of Swindon Town FC gathered further down the road at the County Ground, Swindon Speedway’s very own legend, Leigh Adams, ensured that the Robins collected all 3 points in what was a crackerjack encounter against the reigning Elite League Champions.
On a night of scintillating action, the two powerhouse sides finished-up tied for the aggregate bonus point and it was left to Adams – so often the Robins’ saviour – to once again come up trumps against the Panthers’ star man Hans Andersen in a run-off.
It was the Dane who made the better start from the outside gate position, but Swindon’s talisman kept calm and carved inside Andersen wonderfully on the pits bend on the fourth bend of lap one. Roared on by the Blunsdon faithful, he was subsequently able to reach the entrance to turn one narrowly ahead and controlled the race from that point on to send the home fans into delirium. It was a classic ‘Adams moment’ and one that the Abbey Stadium faithful had witnessed many times before, but never-ever tired of seeing.
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DATE OF BIRTH: 28 April 1971, Mildura, Victoria, Australia.
Fortunately, Adams hasn’t been injured many times during his long and illustrious career, but he took a knock at a key time during his stint with the Hammers. This occurred in a round of the Four-Team Championship at Ipswich on 23 June 1994, and the repercussions were to be significant. In a re-run heat three, he tangled with Reading’s Dave Mullett exiting the first bend of the final lap at the Foxhall Heath racing strip.
Like a fine wine, the riding of the Robins’ captain just continued to get better with age and he once again led from the front in 2006, when he was the linchpin of the Swindon side. Whilst he didn’t enjoy the best of years in the Grand Prix series, his league form was unbelievably brilliant and Adams was present for all forty domestic encounters, posting a 10.58 average and recording no less than 18 maximums [6 full and 12 paid]. Again, the ‘Sultan of Slide’ was voted the Swindon Advertiser Rider of the Year for the third successive season.
Then, as the riders went into the gloom on the third turn they were momentarily lost to the naked eye but, in a jaw-dropping manoeuvre, Leigh went right out by the boards and somehow conjured the drive to engineer a route past his fellow countryman.
