BUCKiT® #40-Barry Briggs: 4 Time World Champion Speedway Racer, Sporting Hall of Fame

30,000 screaming fans are here to see their favorite speedway motorcycle racer complete a few short laps on a dirt track as fast as he can. Shoulder to shoulder with other fearless riders, they’re all hell bent on hitting the corner first at breakneck speed. It’s a throttle game of chicken taking place on supercharged motorbikes with no brakes and one gear. It’s game on as usual for World Champion Barry Briggs. Barry Briggs is an icon, who for over 25 years dominated the world of Speedway racing, once the most popular spectator sport in the UK and parts of Europe. Competing on a specially designed motor bike with one gear and no brakes, Speedway riders race on an oval track, powersliding through the corners and reaching speeds of up to 140 km an hour. Briggs is a 4-time world champion, a winner of 6 consecutive British titles and two New Zealand titles. He’s in the sporting hall of fame, and has been awarded “Most Excellent Order of the British Empire”. Despite being 84 years old, today Barry still rides a motorbike and only a few years ago participated in what is considered the deadliest race in the world – The Isle of Man. Barry Briggs is an icon yet incredibly humble. I learned this when “Briggo” and I sat down to talk about his years in this crazy sport and why he feels he’s the luckiest “bugger” in the world – not just to have survived all the near death crashes, but to be doing something he really loves and for so long.