Richard David Ashworth (born 17 August 1982 in

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

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 ...

) is a former professional

speedway Speedway may refer to: Racing Race tracks *Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta *Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a motor raceway in Speedway, Indiana Types of races and race cours ...

rider who has represented

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

Biography

Son of David Ashworth and Mandy Winnard, Ricky was raised in

(originally from

Irlam Irlam is a suburb in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, it had a population of 19,933. It lies on flat ground on the south side of the M62 motorway and the north bank of the Manchester Ship Canal, southwest of Salford ...

) and went to Summerville County primary school and then on to Hope High School. He started his racing career on a

Yamaha Yamaha may refer to: * Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services, established in 1887. The company is the largest shareholder of Yamaha Motor Company (below). ** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organization estab ...

PW 50cc and Kawasaki K100 as a

motocross Motocross is a form of off-road motorcycle racing held on enclosed off-road circuits. The sport evolved from motorcycle trials competitions held in the United Kingdom. History Motocross first evolved in Britain from motorcycle trials competi ...

rider up to the age of 10, changing his bike career to grass track racing after experiencing financial difficulties due to the spiralling cost of privately owning and maintaining motocross

bikes A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. Bic ...

. While gaining a high reputation for himself during his grass track days, Ricky was introduced to speedway. After a couple of practice sessions on a speedway bike he was talent-spotted by

Belle Vue Colts The Belle Vue Colts are the junior youth development team of the Belle Vue Aces, one of the World's most famous motorcycle speedway team, based in Manchester in the northwest of England. History Belle Vue first operated a reserve team during the ...

. He quickly signed for

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

side

Sheffield Tigers The Sheffield 'Tru Plant' Tigers are a motorcycle speedway team based in Sheffield, England. They currently race in the British SGB Premiership, and their home meetings take place at Owlerton Stadium. The Tigers traditionally hold their race n ...

after just 12 months in the sport. He has since gone on to establish himself as a heat leader at the

Owlerton Owlerton () is a suburb of the city of Sheffield, it lies northwest of the city centre near the confluence of the River Don and River Loxley. Owlerton was formerly a small rural village with its origins in the Early Middle Ages; it became par ...

club and has also experienced Elite League racing while doubling up with

Peterborough Panthers The Peterborough Panthers are a British speedway team based in Peterborough, England. They are three times champions of the United Kingdom, winning the highest level league in 1999, 2006 and 2021. History 1970–1994 The Panthers inaugural sea ...

in 2004 and

Poole Pirates Poole Pirates (also known as Poole Speedway) are a motorcycle speedway team based in Poole, England, competing in the SGB Championship. The club have been the champions of the United Kingdom on ten occasions. Poole Speedway is promoted by l ...

in 2005. In 2006, Ashworth was given the number 1 jacket following the retirement of Sean Wilson and some of his best meetings came when he took on the captaincy following

Andre Compton Andre Neil Compton (born 15 May 1977 in Dewsbury, England) is a speedway rider. He is the older brother of Benji Compton. Career summary In 2004, Compton's form led to a call up from Elite League side Poole Pirates. This was also the year ...

's absence. He retained the number 1 slot for the 2007 season. He took part in the Premier League Fours event in

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

, but fell on his first race while attempting to overtake. On 27 November 2008, it was announced that Ricky would once again ride for the

and also take over from

as the Tigers Captain. On 27 September 2009, on his home track, Ricky rode brilliantly to win the PL Riders Championship. He had top scored during the heats to gain automatic qualification to the Grand Final Heat where he was up against the riders Ty Proctor,

Darcy Ward Darcy Stephen Ward (born 4 May 1992 in Nanango, Queensland) is an Australian former motorcycle speedway rider who won the 2009, 2010 and 2011 Australian Under-21 Championships as well as the 2009 and 2010 World Under-21 Championships. His ca ...

and David Howe. With an awesome start from inside gate-1 he rode from the front to win his first honours in this event at the first time of trying. In 2010, Ricky doubled-up for

Belle Vue Aces The Belle Vue Aces are a British motorcycle speedway, speedway club, based in Manchester. The club hold the record of having won the top tier List of United Kingdom speedway league champions, League championship 13 times. They currently compete ...

, along with retaining the captaincy for

. On 14 October 2010, Ricky broke his existing Sheffield track record of 59.2 secs (54.56 mph) set on 21 May 2009 with a new time of 59.1 secs at a speed of 54.65 mph). This continues to maintain Sheffield's accolade as being the fastest track in the UK. After being omitted from the Tigers team for 2012, Ashworth signed for Plymouth Devils, but at the end of January 2012 announced that he would not be joining Plymouth for personal reasons. The next day it was announced that he had signed for

Berwick Bandits The Berwick Bandits are a British speedway club, based in Berwick-upon-Tweed. They currently compete in the SGB Championship, racing at Shielfield Park, with home matches usually taking place on Saturday evenings. They also run a second team in ...

, replacing the injured

Kozza Smith Kozza Smith (born Korey Williams on 20 March 1988 in Cessnock, New South Wales) is a former motorcycle speedway rider from Australia. Career history Smith began racing at the age of 14 in Australian junior speedway and in 2006, he won the ...

. In June 2012 he was added to Elite League

Birmingham Brummies Birmingham Brummies are a British speedway team founded in 1928. They were inaugural members of the Southern League in 1929. The team have twice finished runner-up in the highest tier of British speedway, during the 1952 Speedway National Lea ...

team in a doubling-up role. After suffering serious concussion earlier in the season, a crash at

Scunthorpe Scunthorpe () is an industrial town and unparished area in the unitary authority of North Lincolnshire in Lincolnshire, England of which it is the main administrative centre. Scunthorpe had an estimated total population of 82,334 in 2016. A pre ...

in August 2013 left him in a coma for 91 days.Ashworth Out of Coma
, speedwaygb.co, 3 November 2013. Retrieved 3 November 2013

References

External links

SheffieldSpeedway.com

RickyAshworth.co.uk

Grasstrack links

https://grasstrackgb.co.uk/richard-ricky-ashworth/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Ashworth, Ricky 1982 births Living people British speedway riders People from Irlam Berwick Bandits riders Sheffield Tigers riders Birmingham Brummies riders