Derek Edward Rick France (12 July 1938 – 24 January 2024) was an 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 England.

Speedway career

France reached the final of 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 ...

in the

1967 Individual Speedway World Championship The 1967 Individual Speedway World Championship was the 22nd edition of the official World Championship to determine the world champion rider. At Wembley in front of a 70,000 crowd Ove Fundin won a record fifth title, one year after Barry Bri ...

. France rode in the top tier of British Speedway from 1960 to 1975, riding primarily for

Coventry Bees Coventry Bees are a motorcycle speedway team that existed from 1929 to 2018. They raced at Brandon Stadium, Brandon, Warwickshire, Brandon near Coventry, England. They are eight times champions of Britain. History Origins and 1920s The firs ...

. He was capped by 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 ...

once and Great Britain four times.

World final appearances

Individual World Championship

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...

– 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 ...

– 12th – 5pts

Death

France died on 24 January 2024, at the age of 85.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:France, Rick 1938 births 2024 deaths British speedway riders Coventry Bees riders Halifax Dukes riders Leicester Hunters riders Middlesbrough Bears riders Sheffield Tigers riders Wolverhampton Wolves riders Motorcycle racers from Birmingham, West Midlands