Joseph William Owen (born 13 September 1956) is a British 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 anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that use only ...

rider from England.

Career

Born in

Ormskirk Ormskirk is a market town in the West Lancashire district of Lancashire, England, north of Liverpool, northwest of St Helens, southeast of Southport and southwest of Preston. Ormskirk is known for its gingerbread. Geography and administr ...

, Owen took up speedway at the age of fourteen at the training school at Belle Vue and made his competitive debut for

Barrow Bombers The Barrow Bombers were a speedway team promoted in Barrow-in-Furness that existed at various times from 1930 to 1985. History Speedway had been promoted at a number of venues in Barrow. In 1930, a number of meetings were held at Holker Street, ...

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 second division starting in 1968 (which was renamed the ...

second division in 1973.Oakes, Peter & Mauger, Ivan (1976) ''Who's Who of World Speedway'', Studio Publications, , p. 9 By 1974, he

averaged In mathematics and statistics, the arithmetic mean ( ) or arithmetic average, or just the ''mean'' or the ''average'' (when the context is clear), is the sum of a collection of numbers divided by the count of numbers in the collection. The colle ...

over seven points per match and rode in the Young England team in matches against Australasia and Poland. In 1975, he moved to

Newcastle Diamonds Newcastle Diamonds were a motorcycle speedway team that raced in the SGB Championship, every Sunday night during the season (March–October) from their home at the Newcastle Stadium on the Fossway, Byker. The Stadium, previously known as Broug ...

and rode in the top division for

Hull Vikings The Hull Vikings were a speedway team from Hull, England, who operated primarily from The Boulevard (stadium) and Craven Park from 1971 to 2005. History The team originated as the Hull Angels and were based at Hedon Stadium in Hedon on the ...

, for which he would go on to ride until 1981. He again represented Young England in 1975 and finished as runner-up in the British Junior Championship. During the 1976 National League season, Owen won the National League Riders Final, and experienced an outstanding season. In addition to the riders title, he also won the Fours Championship and topped the league averages with a remarkable 11.55 average. Owen finished as runner-up in the

European Under-21 Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship, the UEFA Under-21 Championship or simply the Euro Under-21, is a biennial football competition contested by the European men's under-21 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Since 1992, the compe ...

in 1977. He returned to Newcastle in the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

in 1982, also riding on loan at

Leicester Lions Leicester Lions are a speedway team which originally operated from 1968 until 1983.Bamford, R & Jarvis J.(2001). ''Homes of British Speedway''. The club returned to speedway for the 2011 Premier League season, moving up to the Elite League ...

in the British League in 1982. In

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 bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

, he won the National League Rider's Championship, held at

Wimbledon Stadium Wimbledon Stadium, also known as Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium, was a greyhound racing track located in Wimbledon in southwest London, England. It also hosted stock car and other small circuit motor racing events, and until 2005 hosted motorc ...

on 18 September for the second time and the fours championship for a second time. The following season in

1983 The year 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 Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

, he won the fours championship for the third time. In 1985, he moved on to

Ellesmere Port Gunners Ellesmere Port Gunners were an English Motorcycle speedway, speedway team in Ellesmere Port, Wirral Peninsula, Wirral, which operated at the Ellesmere Port Stadium from 1972 until their closure in 1985. History The inaugural league season for th ...

in what proved to be his final season, in which the Gunners won the National League and Owen won the National League Best Pairs title with Louis Carr. A crash at

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

in 1985 ended his career and left him paralysed.''Backtrack'', Issue 3, July–August 2004 He went on to represent the full

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

team on several occasions.Jones, Alan (2010) ''Speedway in Leicester: The Lions Roar'', Automedia, p. 157

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Owen, Joe 1956 births Living people British speedway riders English motorcycle racers People from Ormskirk Newcastle Diamonds riders Hull Vikings riders Leicester Lions riders Ellesmere Port Gunners riders Belle Vue Aces riders Cradley Heathens riders