Chris Harris (speedway rider)

Career history

Early career

Harris began his racing career at the age of six and a half by competing in grasstrack events. His talent quickly became apparent when he began to win all of the junior age groups in the South-West area. In 1998, aged 15, he turned to speedway racing for the St. Austell Gulls at Amateur Conference League level. The Gulls won the Championship and the Knockout Cup.

On his 16th birthday, Harris signed for the Exeter Falcons, who competed in the Premier League, the middle tier of British speedway's three-league structure. Despite the death of his father, who was his driver and mentor, he achieved his first notable individual success later that year, when he became Great Britain Under-16 Champion. He was also selected to ride for Great Britain at both Under-19 and Under-21 level.

In 2000, Harris more than doubled his previous year's points total, being unbeaten by an opponent in several matches. The Exeter Falcons team finished the season as Premier League Champions and reached two cup finals and one semi-final. Harris moved clubs for the 2001 season, joining the Trelawny Tigers in Cornwall. He soon became their top scorer and qualified for the 2001 Individual Speedway Junior World Championship as first reserve. He continued his form into 2002, being made club captain. Once again, he was top scorer for the club and under his captaincy Trelawny Tigers won the Premier Trophy.

Elite League progress and international debut

Taking advantage of new rules introduced to assist young British riders, Harris also took the step up to ride in the Elite League in 2002, with the Peterborough Panthers. He progressed well during his debut Elite League season, moving up into the main body of the team. Individually, he progressed to the final of the British Speedway Championship and finished fourth in the World Under-21 Championship.

In 2003, Harris rode again for Trelawny Tigers in the Premier League and Peterborough Panthers in the Elite League. By the end of the season, he was an Elite League heat-leader. Off track, he was voted BBC South-West Sports Personality of the Year.{{cite web |title=South West Sports Personality 2003 |publisher=BBC |date=15 December 2003 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/sport/2003/12/sport_awards_winners.shtml |access-date=2007-10-31 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041026183247/http://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/sport/2003/12/sport_awards_winners.shtml |archive-date=26 October 2004 }}

However, it was on the individual front Harris was most successful. In the World Under-21 Championship, he won both his quarter and semi final rounds, progressing to the 2003 Individual Speedway Junior World Championship in Sweden where he finished runner-up, one point behind Jarosław Hampel.

His form during 2003 won Harris an invitation to take part as a reserve in the third round of the 2003 FIM Individual Speedway World Championship, the British Grand Prix, held at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

2004 saw Harris sign for the Coventry Bees. The following season, the Bees won the Elite League Championship, which meant Harris had won titles at all three levels of British speedway aged just twenty-two. He also represented Great Britain in the Speedway World Cup. Harris continued to ride for Coventry until 2011.

International success

In 2007, Harris became British Champion. Harris was selected to ride as a permanent wild card in the 2007 Speedway Grand Prix series, riding at number 15. In only his fifth full Grand Prix meeting he won the British Grand Prix at Cardiff.{{cite news | last =Aizlewood | first =John | title = Harris speeds to glory | work = The Times | date = 1 July 2007 | url = http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/article2011190.ece | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080517091051/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/article2011190.ece | url-status = dead | archive-date = 17 May 2008 | access-date = 2007-10-31 | location=London}} Winning the Grand Prix was considered to be the biggest event to happen in British Speedway for several years.{{cite news | title = Pratt praise for champion Harris | access-date = 2007-10-31 }}

Off track, he was again voted BBC South-West Sports Personality of the Year. and was also voted BBC Midlands Sports Personality of the Year,{{cite news | access-date = 2007-12-02 }} beating footballer Gareth Barry into second place.

Harris won the British Championship twice more in 2009 and 2010 and for the first time since 2004, Harris would not ride for Coventry after he moved on loan to Belle Vue Aces for the 2011 Elite League speedway season. He continued to perform well in the 2011 World Championship including a 2nd-place finish in the Croatian Grand Prix. After another season with Coventry in 2012, he would join Birmingham Brummies for the 2013 season. In 2014, he returned to Coventry until the end of the 2016 season.

Despite Harris finishing his Grand Prix appearances he continued to impress in Britain. He finished his Grand Prix career with a record of 103 meetings, nine finals, one win and 608 points. He also decided to compete in both divisions of the British league for the first time in 2017, riding for Rye House Rockets and Peterborough.

He continued to ride in both divisions and made debuts for Glasgow Tigers, Poole Pirates and Ipswich Witches in 2018 and Somerset Rebels and Berwick Bandits in 2019.

In 2022, he rode for the Peterborough in the SGB Premiership 2022 and captained Berwick in the SGB Championship 2022. He also had a successful longtrack season winning a bronze medal at the 2022 Individual Long Track World Championship.

In 2023, he signed for Leicester Lions for the SGB Premiership 2023 and made a return to Glasgow for the SGB Championship 2023, where he won the league title and the Championship pairs. Also in 2023, he also claimed a silver medal in the 2023 Individual Long Track World Championship and a bronze medal at the 2023 Team Long Track World Championship.

He signed for the Oxford Spires for the 2024 Premiership season. and re-signed for Glasgow for the 2024 Championship season. Harris won the 2024 European Grasstrack Championship. He previously came second in 2022 and 2023.

Harris signed for King's Lynn Stars for the SGB Premiership 2025 and became the tier 2 Rider's champion for Glasgow.

In 2025, he was a member of the Great Britain team that won the longtrack world championships (2025 FIM Long Track of Nations) and shortly afterwards finished runner-up behind Zach Wajtknecht in the world longtrack individual championship.

Speedway Grand Prix results

SGP Podium

1. EUR POL Wrocław (12 May 2007) – 3rd place
2. GBR Cardiff (30 June 2007) – 1st place
3. DEN Copenhagen (5 June 2010) – 3rd place
4. CRO Gorican (28 August 2010) – 2nd place
5. ITA Terenzano (25 September 2010) – 2nd place
6. POL Bydgoszcz (9 October 2010) – 2nd place
7. CRO Goričan (24 September 2011) – 2nd
8. POL Warsaw (18 April 2015) – 2nd place
9. CZE Prague (25 June 2016) - 3rd place

SGP Finals

1. DEN Copenhagen (9 June 2012)

Other major results

Individual Speedway Long Track World Championship

• 2017 – 5 apps (8th) 50pts
• 2018 – 5 apps (8th) 52pts
• 2019 – 5 apps (7th) 50pts
• 2021 – 2 apps (4th) 23pts
• 2022 – 6 apps (3rd) 83pts
• 2023 – 6 apps (2nd) 99pts
• 2024 – 5 apps (4th) 83pts
• 2025 – 4 apps (2nd) pts

Team Long Track World Championship

• 2018 – FRA Morizes 16/46pts (with James Shanes, Zach Wajtknecht & Adam Ellis) Second
• 2019 – GER Vechta 14/41pts (with Zach Wajtknecht, Edward Kennett & Adam Ellis) Fourth
• 2022 - GER Herxheim 4/38pts (with Zach Wajtknecht, James Shanes) 5th
• 2023 - NED Roden 25/49pts (with Zach Wajtknecht, Andrew Appleton) 3rd
• 2024 - FRA Morizès 26/46pts (with Zach Wajtknecht, Andrew Appleton, Edward Kennett) 3rd
• 2025 - GER Vechta 17/56pts (with Zach Wajtknecht, Andrew Appleton) champions

European Grasstrack Championship

• 2022 – GBR Swingfield - 2nd
• 2023 – GER Werlte - 2nd
• 2024 – FRA Tayoc - Winner

References

References

1. ''Świat Żużla'', No 2 (78) 2015, page 17, {{ISSN. 1429-3285
2. Oakes, P.(2004). ''British Speedway Who's Who''. {{ISBN. 0-948882-81-6
3. "ULTIMATE RIDER INDEX, 1929-2022".
4. Moore, Charles. (July 2021). "My Sport: Chris Harris". The Daily Telegraph.
5. "Two Decades in the Making".
6. "Trelawny 47 Newport 43v".
7. Oakes, P. (2006). "Speedway Star Almanac". Pinegen Ltd.
8. "British Speedway rider profile".
9. "2017 Fours final".
10. "Roden: Flying Zach steals the silver".
11. "Lions swoop for Bomber".
12. "Harris in Glasgow return".
13. "Tigers take title glory".
14. "Home hero Smolinski races to 2023 FIM Long Track World Championship". FIM.
15. "24 September 2023 in Roden". Bahn Sport (In Dutch).
16. "Magic news for Spires".
17. "Tigers complete for 24".
18. "Romano Hummel moet in Roden rijden om ook volgend jaar aan het WK langbaan te kunnen meedoen.".
19. (2024-07-08). "European Individual Grass Track Championship: Harris is champion".
20. (2024-07-08). "Chris Harris lands 2024 European Grasstrack title in France".
21. (2022-10-17). "European Individual Grass Track: Romano Hummel is the new champion".
22. (15 November 2024). "King's Lynn Stars announce 2025 line-up for Premiership campaign".
23. (11 April 2025). "King’s Lynn favourite clinches individual title glory in club Championship colours of Glasgow at Scunthorpe".
24. "FIM Long Track of Nations-Vechta".
25. (14 September 2025). "GB are World Longtrack Champions".
26. (23 September 2025). "King's Lynn race ace secures runners-up berth at long track event".