Nate Smith competed in Slovenia and Czechia as part of the FIM SGP3 Speedway world championships
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Less than two years into his motorbike speedway career, Nate Smith found himself battling the world’s best under-16 riders for a world title.
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Smith was selected to represent Australia in the FIM Speedway Grand Prix 3 World Championship held in Slovenia and Czechia in late May.
The Echuca rider was called into the team as the country's third-ranked junior after one of the riders ahead of him was unable to compete.
“It was a surprise,” Smith said.
“I was sitting third in Australia there because of the state titles and the point system and I was surprised because there's another rider, but he declined it, so I was next in line to get called.”
Smith won the South Australian state title and had strong performances in the other state titles to earn his ranking.
The world championship selections were based on the rankings due to the cancellation of the regular qualifiers, the Australian titles, which were called off due to the extreme weather in Queensland.
Speedway is a motorbiking discipline contested on a round speedway track with a focus on overall speed and tight cornering.
The first step for Smith once he arrived in Europe was the world semi-finals in Slovenia, with two semi-finals of 17 riders to be cut to eight, making up a 16-man finals.
Riders competed in five, four-person heats, with each heat scoring the rider 3, 2, 1 or zero points based on finishing position.
Smith managed to accumulate eight points across his five heats in semi-final 1 by picking up four second place results, enough to make the final in eighth place by a single point.
“I didn't expect personally to get through to Prague,” Smith said.
“I was pretty surprised because I'd only been riding for a year and a bit at the time, and all these other kids have been riding since they were really young.”
Now officially in the top 16 in the world, Smith advanced to Prague, Czechia for the finals.
The quality competition caught up to Smith in five gruelling rides at the final, and the Echuca rider finished with two points, earning him a final ranking of 14th in the world.
The other Australian rider at the championships, Beau Bailey, scored third overall.
Nate Smith battled the best under-16 speedway riders in the world in Europe.
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Smith first got into speedway racing about two years ago and was immediately attracted to the sport.
“We had a speedway bike, a 125cc, that's only a smaller bike like for the younger kids,” he said.
“One night Dad said ‘do you want to go to Undera and have a practice?’ so I was like ‘oh yeah, why not give it a go’.
“We went down and I had a ride on the track and I was just hooked from there.
“Just going around the corners and the speed was just really good, I just loved it.”
Smith picked up the nuances of the sport almost straight away and progressed quickly.
“I was told by a few people that I've got good natural talent,” he said.
“When I went out there, usually it takes a few tries to be able to start sliding the bike, and towards the end of the night, I got to sliding around the whole corner for my first time.”
Smith thanked his sponsors and other donors who helped get him to Europe.
You can keep up to date with Nate’s speedway exploits via his Facebook page, Nate Smith – NSR #22.
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