William Duncan Landels (born 24 July 1938) is a former international

motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...

rider from Scotland. He earned one international cap for the

England national speedway team The Great Britain national speedway team (formerly the England speedway team) is one of the major teams in international motorcycle speedway. The team is managed by former Great Britain riders Oliver Allen and Simon Stead, and captained by th ...

, 3 caps for the Scotland national speedway team and 8 caps for the

Australia national speedway team The Australia national speedway team is one of the leading teams in international motorcycle speedway, with the country regarded as the birthplace of the sport in the 1920s. The team are five times champions of the world having won the sports p ...

Biography

Landels, born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, was a significant grasstrack rider and won Scottish titles in 1958 and 1959. He began his British leagues career riding for

Edinburgh Monarchs The Edinburgh Monarchs are a Scottish speedway team based in Armadale. They compete in the SGB Championship, racing on Friday nights during the speedway season. The club is run by a board of directors, chaired by Alex Harkess and also runs a ...

during the 1960 Provincial Speedway League. He missed the 1961 and 1962 seasons after being posted abroad by the army before returning in late 1963 and finally racing regularly. He remained with Edinburgh during the formation of the British League in 1965 and the following season was a shock winner of the Scottish Open, defeating riders of the calibre of the legendary

Ivan Mauger Ivan Gerald Mauger (4 October 1939 – 16 April 2018; last name pronounced "Major") was a New Zealand motorcycle speedway rider. He won a record six World Championships (Finals), a feat equalled only with the inclusion of the Speedway GP Champ ...

. He went on to earn three international caps for Scotland and then one for England in December 1967, during the winter test series in Australia. He finished his Edinburgh career in 1967. It is unknown if Landels remained in Australia after the 1967 test series but he did emigrate shortly afterwards. He had the ununsual scenario whereby he represented a third national team thereafter by being selected to represent Australia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Landels, Bill 1935 births Living people British speedway riders Scottish speedway riders Australian speedway riders Edinburgh Monarchs riders Racing drivers from Edinburgh Scottish emigrants to Australia