Sheffield Tigers sign ‘world-class’ Tai Woffinden in ‘massive coup’ as Great Britain captain returns to British Speedway

Sheffield Tigers have pulled off a “massive coup” by signing triple world champion Tai Woffinden.

The 32-year-old has not raced at club level in England since 2016 when he was at Wolverhampton Wolves, spending the last seven years in Denmark, Sweden and Poland.

But he will return to British Speedway with Sheffield as an injury replacement for Jack Holder, who is facing a spell on the sidelines with a broken wrist.

Co-promoter Damien Bates said: “For Sheffield to sign a rider like Tai Woffinden is a massive coup, not only for us as a club but for British Speedway as a whole.

“Tai’s had his reasons for not racing in the UK for a while now but as soon as Steady [Simon Stead – team manager] spoke to him, he was well up for it.

“Jack has had an operation but we can’t say for definite how long he’ll be out for and we don’t know how quickly he’ll be ready to come back.

“I don’t want to be struggling to be booking guests or being forced to run rider replacement at No. 1. So with that in mind we felt it’s better to bring in an injury replacement for Jack for now, have a full team and give ourselves the best chance of making sure we stay in that top four.

“In Tai we’ve brought in a genuine, proven world-class rider and it’s going to be great to see him lining up in a Sheffield race jacket.”

Sheffield Tigers are currently fourth in the British Speedway standings, 10 points behind leaders Belle Vue Aces. Their next fixture is against Leicester Lions on August 3.

Explaining his decision to return to British Speedway, Woffinden said: “Steady jumped on the phone and said that Jack was going to be out and asked if I wanted to fill in.

“One positive thing is that the boys that I have spoken to about racing in England, no one has had a bad thing to say whereas five or six years ago that was a different story.

“So it’s all cool, the boys are super positive about everything and I’m looking forward to having some fun.

“It’s been a long, long time since I raced around Sheffield but it’s a sick track and I’m really looking forward to getting out there.

“In fact one of the last times I rode there was probably when I won the Premier League Riders’ Championship in 2008 – it’s a place I have so many memories from.

“I used to go to Sheffield as a kid and it will probably ignite all those memories from when I was younger; I have a lot of connections there and it’s going to be interesting to get back there for sure.

“I’m looking forward to getting out there and going racing and let’s see how high up in the Premiership we can finish.”