David John Jessup (born 7 March 1953) is an English former

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. He was a world championship runner-up, world pairs champion, world cup winner and British champion. He earned 97 international caps for the England national speedway team.

Career

Jessup commenced his speedway career in 1969, when he rode for

Eastbourne Eagles The Eastbourne Eagles were a British motorcycle speedway team, based at Arlington Stadium, near Eastbourne, England. They were founded in 1929 and are two times champions of Britain in 1995 and 2000. The team last raced on 31 July 2021. Hist ...

recording 6.62 average during the 1969 British League Division Two season. The following season, he won the British League Division Two Riders Championship, held at Hackney Wick Stadium on 25 September 1970. Jessup was aged just 17 at the time. He also rode for Wembley Lions in the

British League The British League was the main motorcycle speedway league in Britain from its formation in 1965 until 1995 when British speedway was restructured. It initially had a single division, with a British League Division Two, second division starting i ...

. In 1972, he joined Leicester Lions and spent four years with the Midlands club. In 1974, he won the first of three

World Team Cup The World Team Cup was the international men's team championship of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). The inaugural edition of the tournament was contested in 1975 in Kingston, Jamaica and was called the Nations Cup. No tourname ...

s with the England national speedway team and in 1975, he won the London Riders' Championship in 1975, despite being in his fourth and final season with Leicester. He recorded an average of 10.45 in his last season with Leicester. In 1976, he joined Reading Racers and was their top rider for three seasons. In 1977, he helped England win the World Cup to earn a second winners medal. In 1977 and 1978, Jessup finished second in the

British Speedway Championship The British Speedway Championship is an annual motorcycle speedway competition open to British national speedway riders. The winner of the event becomes the British Speedway Champion. History Inaugurated in 1961 as a qualifying round of the S ...

to Michael Lee and the following year finished third behind Peter Collins and Michael Lee. In 1979, he switched to King's Lynn Stars after rejecting a new deal with Reading and joined up with Michael Lee as a teammate. The transfer to King's Lynn set a new British transfer record of £20,000 at the time. In 1980, Jessup completed his best ever season. He finished runner-up in the

Speedway World Championship The World Championship of Speedway is an international competition between the highest-ranked motorcycle speedway riders of the world, run under the auspices of the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). The first official championsh ...

to fellow countryman Michael Lee. The same season he won the World Pairs Championship with Peter Collins, the World Cup with England and became British Speedway champion. He continued to perform at the highest level in 1981 and moved to join

Wimbledon Dons The Wimbledon Dons were a professional motorcycle speedway team who operated from the Wimbledon Stadium, Plough Lane in London from 1929 until 1991. The team were seven times champions of Britain. History Origins The speedway track opened ...

for the 1982 British League season, where he topped the London team's averages for both 1982 and 1983. He returned to King's Lynn for the 1984 British League season but struggled to retain the form he had for the previous decade. In 1986, he dropped a division to join the Mildenhall Fen Tigers after leaving the Stars. The following year in 1987, he won the National League Pairs, partnering Melvyn Taylor for Mildenhall, during the 1987 National League season. He also helped Mildenhall win the Fours Championship during the 1987 season. When Jessup retired in 1988 he had earned a remarkable 97 England caps and had reached six world finals.

World final appearances

Individual World Championship

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

–

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

Ullevi Ullevi, sometimes known as Nya Ullevi (, ''New Ullevi''), is a multi-purpose stadium in Gothenburg, Sweden. It was built for the 1958 FIFA World Cup, but since then has also hosted the World Allround Speed Skating Championships six times; the ...

- 13th - 5pts *

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd ...

– London,

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

- 4th - 11pts + 2pts *

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

–

Chorzów Chorzów ( ; ; ) is a city in the Silesia region of southern Poland, near Katowice. Chorzów is one of the central cities of the Metropolis GZM – a metropolis with a population of 2 million. It is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Rawa ...

Silesian Stadium The Silesian Stadium (; Polish: ) is a sport stadium located on the premises of Silesian Park in Chorzów, Poland. The stadium has a fully covered capacity of 54,378, after refurbishment completed in October 2017. The stadium hosted many Poland ...

- 8th - 8pts *

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

– Gothenburg, Ullevi - 2nd - 12pts + 3pts *

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 6 – A funeral service is held in West Germany for Nazi Grand Admiral ...

– London, Wembley Stadium - 8th - 7pts *

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

– Los Angeles, Memorial Coliseum - 6th - 8pts

World Pairs Championship

–

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, Hyde Road (with Peter Collins) - 4th - 20pts (8) *

–

Krško Krško (; ) is a town in eastern Slovenia. It is the seat of the City Municipality of Krško. The town lies on the Sava River and on the northwest edge of the Krško Plain (), which is part of the larger Krka Flat (). The area is divided between t ...

Matija Gubec Stadium Matija Gubec Stadium () is a multi-purpose stadium in Krško, Slovenia. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home ground of local club Krško Posavje. It has a capacity of 1,470 seats. During speedway competitions the st ...

(with Peter Collins) - Winner - 29pts (15) *

– Chorzów, Silesian Stadium (with

Chris Morton Christopher John Morton, MBE (born 22 July 1956) is a former motorcycle speedway rider from England. He earned 115 international caps for the England national speedway team and 7 caps for the Great Britain team, making him the third most capp ...

) - 6th - 17pts (7)

World Team Cup

– Chorzów, Silesian Stadium (with Peter Collins / John Louis / Malcolm Simmons) - Winner - 42pts (10) *

1977 Events January * January 8 – 1977 Moscow bombings, Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (no ...

–

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

Olympic Stadium ''Olympic Stadium'' is the name usually given to the main stadium of an Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports ...

(with Peter Collins / Michael Lee / John Davis / Malcolm Simmons) - Winner - 37pts (9) *

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Landshut Landshut (; ) is a town in Bavaria, Germany, on the banks of the Isar, River Isar. Landshut is the capital of Lower Bavaria, one of the seven administrative regions of the Free state (government), Free State of Bavaria, and the seat of the surrou ...

, Stadion Ellermühle (with Malcolm Simmons / Peter Collins / Gordon Kennett / Michael Lee) - 2nd - 27pts (5) *

–

(with Peter Collins / Chris Morton / Michael Lee]) - Winner - 40pts (8) * 1981 Speedway World Team Cup, 1981 – Olching, Olching Speedwaybahn (with

/ Kenny Carter / John Davis / Gordon Kennett) - 2nd - 29pts (3) *

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

–

Vojens Vojens () is a railway town in Denmark with a population of 7,424 (1 January 2025).Speedway Center (with Kenny Carter / Michael Lee / Chris Morton / Peter Collins) - 2nd 29pts (2)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jessup, Dave 1953 births Living people British speedway riders English motorcycle racers British Speedway Championship winners Sportspeople from Ipswich Eastbourne Eagles riders King's Lynn Stars riders Leicester Lions riders Mildenhall Fen Tigers riders Reading Racers riders Wembley Lions riders Wimbledon Dons riders Speedway World Pairs Champions 20th-century English sportsmen