FIM SPEEDWAY: DOYLE’S ROARING 40s

Aussie icon Jason Doyle insisted “I’m probably fitter than I was when I was 30” as he bids to become Speedway GP’s next 40-year-old world champion in 2026.

Doyle defied the hip injury that destroyed the first half of his 2025 Speedway GP season to finish 10th in the final standings, earning a permanent wild card for this year from the SGP Commission.

Having been given the opportunity to add to his 2017 Speedway GP world title, the 2024 FIM Warsaw Speedway GP winner has no intention of being an also-ran in this season’s series

The sport watched in awe as American great Greg Hancock won three of his four world titles after celebrating his 40th birthday. Now Doyle is determined to emulate that feat. 

He said: “I am 40 and I still look at how Greg won a world title when he was 46. I know there are a lot more years left. I just need to make sure I have the right team around me. I have made some big changes, and I have some new mechanics coming in. I am looking forward to next year. 

“It’s going to be a tough GP season. But everyone is there to win the world title. No rider is unbeatable, as we saw last year. I know it’s going to be tough; that’s GP racing. It is the best 16 in the world, and hopefully I can come out on top.

“I may be 40 now, but I’m probably fitter than I was when I was 30. I’ve had some big crashes, and I have always come back from them. It’s only about winning for me. I want to be fighting and have that winning feeling in the GPs. It is a drug, and we just chase it all the time.”

Doyle suffered a dislocated hip at the 2025 Warsaw event, before re-injuring it during a Polish PGE Ekstraliga match, forcing him out of the SGP round in Prague. The injury left him off the pace at the Manchester double-header, but Doyle found better form in the second half of the season.

All things considered; he was content with 10th place. He said: “As everyone knows, the crash in Warsaw screwed me up for so many months. I tried to come back way too soon. When I went to Belle Vue for the GPs, I was not ready to go. I couldn’t even get my leg into a position to race. I basically missed three GPs all up, plus the Warsaw one, where I only had three rides, and I would have made the semis to get some more points.

“To end the season 10th was not too bad, to be honest. I was very shocked to get the wild card call from Phil (Morris), and hopefully I can prove the doubters wrong, stay on the bike this year and fight for a world title.”