Tai Woffinden (born 10 August 1990) is a British

speedway Speedway may refer to: Racing Race tracks *Daytona International Speedway, a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida. *Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta. *Indianapolis Motor Spe ...

rider. He is a three-time World Champion (

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

and

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

Early life

Woffinden was born in

Scunthorpe Scunthorpe () is an industrial town in Lincolnshire, England, and the county's third most populous settlement after Lincoln, England, Lincoln and Grimsby, with a population of 81,286 in 2021. It is the administrative centre and largest settleme ...

, the son of former speedway rider Rob Woffinden. Although born in the United Kingdom and competing as a British rider, Woffinden grew up in Perth, Western Australia after his parents Rob and Sue decided to move there in 1994.

Career

2007 speedway Tai Woffinden riding for Scunthorpe

Woffinden began his career in junior speedway in Perth where he won the 2006 Western Australian Under-16 title, though he unfortunately missed riding in the Australian Under-16 Championship in Adelaide. He started his British career with the Scunthorpe Scorpions in the Conference League in 2006. With the Scorpions he completed a clean sweep of Conference League trophies, winning the Championship, Conference Trophy, Conference Shield and the Knockout Cup. When he turned sixteen years of age he made his

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

debut for the Sheffield Tigers as a guest rider. In 2006, he became an asset of Wolverhampton Wolves after he signed a full contract with the Elite League side. 2007 saw Woffinden return to Scunthorpe in the Conference League and he signed on a season's loan with the Rye House Rockets in the Premier League, the Rockets clinched the Premier League Championship in 2007 after beating the Sheffield Tigers in the final. In August 2007 he also signed for the Poole Pirates in the Elite League to ride at reserve, sharing the spot with Rye House Rockets team-mate Steve Boxall for the rest of the season. In 2007, Woffinden became the youngest ever rider to appear in the British Championship Final but suffered injury in a crash and had to withdraw from the meeting. In September 2007, he became the Conference League Riders Champion and then two days later won the British Under 18 Championship. Woffinden signed for the Rye House Rockets again for the 2008 season and this was also the season he made his debut for

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

in the

Speedway World Cup The Speedway World Cup is a motorcycle speedway event for national teams held in different countries. The first edition of the competition in the current format was held in 2001 and replaced the old Speedway World Team Cup, World Team Cup which ...

, impressing with a win against world class opposition. He also finished third 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 ...

. This finish qualified Woffinden to be a track reserve at the

British Grand Prix The British Grand Prix is a Grand Prix motor racing event organised in the United Kingdom by Motorsport UK. First held by the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) in 1926 British Grand Prix, 1926, the British Grand Prix has been held annually since 1948 ...

but he did not have an opportunity to ride. Woffinden became British Under-21 Champion in 2008. The event was held at the Arena Essex Raceway, with Woffinden only dropping one point in the qualifying heats and winning the final ahead of Adam Roynon and Ben Barker. An extraordinary season ended with him winning Premier League Riders Championship, held on 21 September 2008 at Owlerton Stadium. Woffinden was the first rider to hold both the British Under-18 and British Under-21 title during the same season. He was also the first rider to be the British Under 18 Champion for two consecutive seasons. Woffinden agreed to ride for his parent club, the Wolverhampton Wolves, for the 2009 Elite League season. On 15 April 2011 Tai Woffinden won the British Under 21 Championship, held at the Arena Essex Raceway. After his father's death from cancer in 2010, the Rob Woffinden Classic has become one of the biggest events for speedway bikes in Western Australia. Tai won the Classic named for his late father in 2012 at the Pinjar Park Speedway in Perth. In 2013 Woffinden won the

Speedway Grand Prix Speedway Grand Prix are a series of stand-alone motorcycle speedway events over the course of a season used to determine the Speedway World Champion. The series started in 1995 replacing the previous format of a single event final. The first ...

series to become World Champion. He was the 8th British rider to become World Champion and the first one to hold the British Championship and World Championship in the same year since Gary Havelock in 1992. He was also the youngest World Champion in the modern day GP competition at the time. He also won Motorcycle News Man of the Year Award for 2013. Also in 2013, Woffinden competed in his only European Championship finishing 5th during the 2013 Speedway European Championship. Tai Woffinden 2

Woffinden captained the

team that finished fourth in the 2014 Speedway World Cup Final in

Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz is a city in northern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Kuyavia. Straddling the confluence of the Vistula River and its bank (geography), left-bank tributary, the Brda (river), Brda, the strategic location of Byd ...

, Poland. Until the end of 2014 he also rode for the Wolverhampton Wolves in the British Elite League, but announced in late 2014 that he would not be riding in Britain during 2015 in his quest to regain his World Championship. After dropping to fourth place in the 2014 Speedway Grand Prix season, Woffinden bounced back in

to regain the Speedway World Championship, becoming the first British rider to win two world individual titles since Peter Craven won his second in

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

. On the way to his second championship success, Woffinden won the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

and Scandinavian Grand Prix while finishing second in

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

and

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

and third in Poland II. In 2016 and 2017, he finished second and third respectively in the 2017 World Championship and the 2017 World Championship, which included winning a Grand Prix in Warsaw and Gorzów. In 2016 the Speedway World Cup final was held at the national speedway stadium at Belle Vue, Manchester where team GB were runners up to Poland. In 2018, Woffinden won his third world title ending the 2018 Speedway Grand Prix on 139 points and ten clear of rival Bartosz Zmarzlik. This included four Grand Prix wins in

Horsens Horsens () is a city on the east coast of the Jutland region of Denmark. It is the seat of the Horsens municipality. The city's population is 64,418 (1 January 2025) and the municipality's population is 97,921 (), making it the List of cities and ...

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

Teterow Teterow () is a town of Germany, in the Rostock (district), district of Rostock, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. It is the geographical center of this federal state. It had a population of 8,852 in 2011. History The ''Stadtkirche St. Peter u ...

and Torun. After a poor 2019 Championship he bounced back by taking the silver medal during the 2020 Speedway Grand Prix, this time behind Zmarzlik. In 2021, he became a team world champion after Great Britain secured the 2021 Speedway of Nations (the world team title). He also the Czech Grand Prix on the way to a sixth-place finish during the 2021 Speedway Grand Prix. In 2022, he finished in 8th place during the 2022 Speedway World Championship, after securing 93 points during the 2022 Speedway Grand Prix. Despite finishing outside of the top six he was selected by the SGP Commission as one of the riders for the 2023 Speedway Grand Prix. In 2023, he signed for

Västervik Västervik is a city status in Sweden, city and the seat of Västervik Municipality, Kalmar County, Sweden, with 36,747 inhabitants in 2021. Västervik is one of three coastal towns with a notable population size in the province of Småland. Cl ...

in Sweden, after spending the 2002 season with

Esbjerg Esbjerg (, ) is a seaport city and seat of Esbjerg Municipality on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. By road, it is west of Kolding and southwest of Aarhus. With an urban area, urban population of 71,554 (1 January ...

in Denmark. He also renewed his Polish contract with Sparta Wrocław. In 2023, he was part of the British team that won the silver medal in the

2023 Speedway World Cup The 2023 FIM Speedway World Cup (SWC) was the 18th Speedway World Cup, an international motorcycle speedway world championship tournament organised by the FIM. The 2023 edition was the first since 2017 and took place between 25 July and 29 Jul ...

final. Shortly afterwards he returned to British speedway, joining Sheffield Tigers as an injury replacement for Jack Holder, who had been injured during the World Cup final. His 2023 season ended badly after he broke his hand when riding well during the British Grand Prix. The injury forced him to miss the last two rounds of the World Championship, which dropped him down into 11th place in the final standings. In 2024, he signed for Sheffield. During the Gorzów round of the 2024 Speedway Grand Prix, Woffinden crashed heavily and was taken to hospital with a complicated broken elbow injury, effectively ending his season. Consolation came in the form of a Knockout Cup success with Sheffield, despite missing the final. On 31 March 2025, it was announced that Woffinden was in an induced coma, following a crash in Poland on Sunday 30 March, sustaining multiple injuries, including a double compound right femur fracture, broken back, a right humorous compound fracture, dislocated right elbow, 12 broken ribs, punctured lung, left broken shoulder blade, dislocated left shoulder and significant blood loss. The speedway community was shocked by the severity of the injuries, with Woffinden's wife Faye stating that she was "deeply grateful for fans' patience, love and support", while Woffinden remained in coma. Woffinden was brought out of coma and was able to leave hospital on 18 April.

Major results

World individual Championship

2010 Speedway Grand Prix The 2010 Speedway Grand Prix was the 65th edition of the official World Championship and the 16th season of the Speedway Grand Prix era, deciding the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme, FIM Speedway World Championship. It was the tenth se ...

– 14th * 2011 Speedway Grand Prix – 25th * 2013 Speedway Grand Prix – Winner * 2014 Speedway Grand Prix – 4th *

2015 Speedway Grand Prix The 2015 Speedway Grand Prix season was the 70th edition of the official World Championship and the 21st season of the Speedway Grand Prix era, deciding the FIM Speedway World Championship. It was the fifteenth series under the promotion of Be ...

– Winner * 2016 Speedway Grand Prix – runner up * 2017 Speedway Grand Prix – 3rd * 2018 Speedway Grand Prix – Winner * 2019 Speedway Grand Prix – 13th * 2020 Speedway Grand Prix – runner up * 2021 Speedway Grand Prix – 6th * 2022 Speedway Grand Prix – 8th * 2023 Speedway Grand Prix – 11th * 2024 Speedway Grand Prix – 18th

Grand Prix wins

World team Championships

* 2008 Speedway World Cup – 5th * 2009 Speedway World Cup – 5th * 2010 Speedway World Cup – 4th * 2011 Speedway World Cup – 6th * 2012 Speedway World Cup – 5th * 2013 Speedway World Cup – 7th * 2014 Speedway World Cup – 4th *

2015 Speedway World Cup The 2015 Monster Energy FIM Speedway World Cup (SWC) was the fifteenth FIM Speedway World Cup, the annual international speedway world championship tournament. It took place between 6 June and 14 June 2015 and involved nine national teams. It ...

– 5th *

2016 Speedway World Cup The 2016 Monster Energy FIM Speedway World Cup (SWC) was the sixteenth Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme, FIM Speedway World Cup, the annual international Motorcycle speedway, speedway world championship tournament. It took place betw ...

– runner up * 2018 Speedway of Nations – runner up * 2019 Speedway of Nations – 7th * 2021 Speedway of Nations – Winner *

2022 Speedway of Nations The 2022 Speedway of Nations was the fifth FIM Speedway of Nations. The competition consisted of two semi-finals and a final. Great Britain were the defending champions having won the 2021 competition. Both the semi-finals and final were hel ...

– runner up *

– runner up

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woffinden, Tai 1990 births Living people British speedway riders English motorcycle racers Individual Speedway World Champions British Speedway Championship winners Sportspeople from Scunthorpe Rye House Rockets riders Scunthorpe Scorpions riders Sheffield Tigers riders Wolverhampton Wolves riders