Les Owen
Born21 April 1939 (1939-04-21)
Coventry, England
Died15 January 2004(2004-01-15) (aged 64)
Canley, England
NationalityBritish (English)
Career history
1957–1973Coventry Bees
Team honours
1968league champion (tier 1)
1967Knockout Cup
1960, 1966, 1969, 1970, 1971Midland Cup

Leslie Norman Owen (21 April 1939 – 15 January 2004) was an international motorcycle speedway rider from England. He earned two international caps for the England national speedway team and one cap for the Great Britain team.[1]

Biography

Owen, born in Coventry, attended Barkers' Butts School before riding in cycle speedway for a team called Alvis Aces.[2] He began his British leagues career riding for Coventry Bees during the 1957 Speedway National League.[3]

He would spend his entire career at one club, which was extremely unusual in British speedway and during his time with Coventry his average would peak at 7.61 in 1962.[4] He rode 17 years for the team until the end of the 1973 season.[5]

Successes with Coventry included winning the Knockout Cup in 1967 and becoming league champions during the 1968 British League season. He also won five Midland Cups with the team, the first in 1960[6] and the last in 1971.[7]

His career came to an end following a serious crash,[8] which saw him suffer a brain injury leaving him paralysed down one side and with short-term memory loss.[2] After speedway he ran the Ace Garage business that he bought in 1969. He was killed in a rail level crossing accident on 15 January 2004.[2]

References

  1. ↑ "ULTIMATE RIDER INDEX, 1929-2022" (PDF). British Speedway. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 "Tributes for Speedway Ace". Coventry Evening Telegraph. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
  3. ↑ "1957 season" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
  4. ↑ "Rider averages 1929 to 2009" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
  5. ↑ "Year by Year". Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
  6. ↑ "Bees' Sparkling Win in Midland Cup Final". Coventry Evening Telegraph. 26 September 1960. Retrieved 19 October 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  7. ↑ "Fifth heat settles Lions". Leicester Daily Mercury. 13 October 1971. Retrieved 21 October 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  8. ↑ "Bees star critically hurt in crash". Coventry Evening Telegraph. 17 May 1973. Retrieved 21 October 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
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