In Cycle Speedway, all riders up to the year of their 18th birthday are Juniors. There are plenty of age categories beginning at Under 7, with Open and Girls categories.
Club and local league
Racing begins at your club (and if you just want to train and perfect your fitness and bike handling skills, that’s fine too). Most clubs arrange informal racing as part of training, some running their own GP series or mini league of 4-rider teams.
Regions organise team and individual racing for younger riders. For instance the East has the South East GP series, Norfolk and Suffolk GP series, South East Youth League and South East Development League, and Norfolk vs Suffolk challenge matches.
British Youth and Junior League (BYJL)
This competition is primarily to get ‘bums on bikes’. After the early season local element, there are four national rounds, one in each region. There are two parts to the competition:
- Individual league, where riders race for medals in each national round, and for the season title
- Club league, where every point scored by a rider counts towards the club’s total. So two beginners can contribute as much as one experienced star rider.
The BYJL age groups are Under 12, 14, 16 and 18. Girls between 13 and 18 can opt to ride the Girls category, or their Open category. Under 8s and Under 10s compete on the same day in the Little League Grands Prix.
Little League
Sport England rightly discourages high standard competition and specialisation for riders in the year of their 10th birthday and younger. These riders therefore do not have British Championships; instead we have the Little League competitions
- Little League Grands Prix: Under 8, Under 10 Girls , Under 10 Open
- Little League Indoor Grands Prix; Under 8, Under 10 Girls , Under 10 Open
- Little League Under 10 team matches
- Under 8 and Under 10 GP’s attached to the BYJL