A three-time World Champion in his chosen sport of cycle speedway, David Hemsley is one of the most successful cyclists of his generation. Also a World Team Cup champion, Hemsley holds the British Final record with five wins. David spent the majority of his career riding for Leicester Monarchs where he won a series of league championships and cups.

Now the director of Beaumont Sports Complex Ltd and Promoter of Leicester Speedway Ltd, David has played an influential role in sealing the return of speedway to the city and the re-birth of Leicester Lions.

David spoke to Soar Magazine about his cycling career, his involvement with Leicester Lions and re-igniting the city’s passion for speedway.

You enjoyed quite a successful career in cycle speedway, what are your memories of that?
Dennis, Wigston
At the age of 12 I started doing cycle speedway for the Leicester Monarchs who are based at Slater Street on Frog Island. From very humble beginnings I spent 27 years racing cycle speedway all over the world and had a very nice career. I rode for four clubs in the UK but the vast majority of my time was spent at Leicester. I also rode in Poland, Australia and for Great Britain’s touring teams and competed in World Cups.

What were the greatest achievements of your cycling career?
Beth, Blaby
I won the World Individual Championships three times, the World Cup six times and was British Individual Champion five times. I had a really nice period at the top between 1991 and 2004, which was very enjoyable.

Have you always been a big speedway fan?
Mohammad, Spinney Hill
Like many young people of my generation, I grew up with speedway and being taken by my father to watch Leicester Lions at Blackbird Road and that led me into a cycling career. The sad day came when the owners of the stadium decided to sell it for housing development and the opportunities for people to be involved with speedway in Leicester ended.

Who were your heroes growing up?
Sally, Loughborough
Unlike many teenagers today who see themselves replicating the likes of David Beckham and Wayne Rooney, when I was 11 or 12, I wanted to be Les Collins who was Leicester’s hero at the time, I wanted to be a speedway rider. I never managed it but other opportunities presented themselves.

After over 20 years without speedway in Leicester it’s set to return this year, what role have you played in that?
Francine, Market Harborough
It will be 28 years when we reopen the doors and my involvement with helping to bring speedway back to the city was quite coincidental. I’d recently finished a development project with Leicester City Council for a Leisure Facility. Following my cycling career I really got into sports architecture as I studied architecture whilst I was cycling. I had a client interested in building some sport facilities in Leicester and we discussed the idea of building a sports village. I suggested a speedway stadium and to my surprise he was quite amenable to the idea.

Coincidentally, around the same time, I bumped into the then Chairman of the Leicester Speedway Supporters Club and what seemed like something of a madcap idea very quickly grew to providing Leicester City Council with a feasibility study of leasing this area of land in Beaumont Leys to build a sport village.

Obviously the momentum has built from that to when the planning application went in. The whole thing was extremely well supported by the supporters club, local residents and the council themselves. As time moves on it has been clear that speedway has really captured the public’s imagination.

Has the hunger for speedway in Leicester surprised you?
Joe, via email
Yes it has. I was never surprised that there would be a core of traditional supporters who wanted it back. But, the sheer excitement and passion it has generated has been enormous. A whole generation of people, probably the lower side of 40 have never experienced speedway in the city and that’s really our captive market. We want to ensure that the two generations that have missed speedway will get the benefit now it’s coming back.

How is the stadium development coming along?
Bev, Leicester
It’s hard work but we’re getting there, working on the project seven days a week. I’m hoping that the track and the safety fence will be finished very shortly and we’re hoping that our riders will soon be able to train on the track to get used to the size, shape and speed. We’re working to a deadline of March 26th and we’re on target.

Are you pleased with the riders you’ve managed to sign up?
Tim, Melton
We’ve signed all of our riders now and they come from a nice variety of nationalities. We’ve got two Russians, two Australians, two Englishmen and a Dane. It’s a very exciting side that will hopefully let us move on and compete at the higher end of the league.

What is your long-term vision for Leicester Lions?
Graeme, Nuneaton
We’re starting in the middle tier of the sport and we want to get our business in a position where we can get to the top tier, with all the benefits that come with the TV exposure, having the best riders in the world on our track and being able to build a nice, sustainable business that also supports the local community. We want to engage with young people who not only want to watch the sport but actually become actively involved in it. At the moment young people who are interested in motorcycles or motorsport don’t have a great release in the city for that.

We deliberately built the track and the facilities to FIM standard, the international governing body of motorsport, so we are really keen to promote events that are a lot wider than Leicester Lions. Hopefully one day we can host a World Cup qualifying round and other events, and we’ve built a stadium to accommodate that.