I clearly remember my parents dragging me, nearly every Saturday night, to watch the dirt track races at Welland County Speedway. In those days, mid 70’s, the dirt-bike world was still in a post ‘On any Sunday’ euphoria, with Dirt Track taking the title role as the most extreme form of racing going. The 750 class, where Harley XR750s blasted their way around the ¼ mile oval, pinned the excitement meter wide open. Those monsters were backed with classes for 600cc singles, 250 two-strokes and wildest of all, Speedway bikes.

Photo courtesy of Kyle Legault

Yes, Speeeeeeedwayyyyyyyy! This is a sport where ambulance drivers pop valiums while they leave their engines running. The racers pilot spindly looking 500cc bikes with no brakes or transmissions. You think your new 450F has balls? A modern 450F weighs around 240 pounds and might make 50 horsepower on a good day. A Speedway bike weighs in around 180 pounds, its methanol-fuelled engine cranking somewhere in the neighbourhood of 70 horsepower. Your new 450F is a pig. A speedway bike puts that unreal power to weight ratio to the ground though a hardtail frame that has more in common with an old-school BMX bike than it does a modern motorcycle. Can you spell WFO?

I knew the Legault family name from ‘Hot Dog’ Freddy Legault’s Speedway exploits at the track. I’d also read about his son, Kyle, and though I’d never met him I knew he was the king of Canadian Speedway. We were testing bikes at Welland County’s new motocross track that I first met Kyle, cutting fast laps on his CRF450R whenever he wasn’t pulling wheelies with his girlfriend hanging on the back. He’s a talented rider in any discipline, so I invited him to help with our bike tests . Kyle quickly became famous for crashing every test bike he rode. I guess wiping out motocross bikes in second gear isn’t a big deal for someone used to hanging it sideways at 80 miles per hour…

Kyle is now in England, where he has had what is essentially a factory ride. Speedway is stupid-popular in the land of tea and crumpets, and our Canadian boy is one of their stars. Coming from a motocross-woods background, talking to Kyle about Speedway racing left me feeling Canadian pride, awe and mostly horror. Speedway racing is friggen’ sick, and Kyle is Canada’s sickest. He’s also a damn nice guy who just happens to have more cajones than any racer I’ve met.

www.offroadmotorcycles.ca Speedway is the most unique, and crazy, form of dirt bike racing in North America. What the hell compelled you to race a 70-horse bicycle with no brakes?

Kyle Legault: I was around Speedway from day one. Speedway season starts here in June and I was born May 30 ^th , so I was only a few days old when my parents took me to the races with the family. I grew up around Speedway and I remember telling everyone that I was going to grow up to be a Professional Speedway rider and race in the British league when I was about five years old. When it actually happened I was getting cards and stuff saying, ‘Oh my God, you actually did it!’ I was born into it and always wanted to do it. My heroes were Speedway racers, and back then the British league was the best in the World. It still is one of the best, and I you want to make it big you have to make it there.

Have you ever raced a ‘Normal’ dirt track bike, like a 600 Rotax or a lowered 450F?

I raced one race at Welland. I’d never raced a normal flat track bike before, but I just jumped on the bike just to give it a try. It took me a bit to get used to, but I was able to put it together to win the final. The bike was bouncing off the rev limiter the whole time and people were all around me, but I was using my Speedway skills and not letting them pass me.

You can rip on any kind of bike. What’s it like to racing a Speedway bike compared to a motocross bike?

It’s a totally different riding style. For anyone to jump on a Speedway bike they’d find it very difficult. They also say, ‘because Speedway is only four laps it’s not physically demanding’ but it’s a sprint and you put everything you’ve got into those four laps, unlike a motocross rider who has 20 minutes to pace themselves and get into a rhythm. When I get on a motocross bike I still have that Speedway mentality, so I go like crazy for the first few laps until I just can’t hang on anymore. A speedway race is sort of like the first turn of a motocross race, only for four laps. They say Speedway is supposed to be a non-contact sport. Well it isn’t.

Does it scare you to smash elbows at 80 miles per hour?

“No, not really. Actually I’ve developed kind of a bad reputation in England for being too aggressive.

Tell me about the bikes…

The bikes run on methanol and need to be bump started. They have a dry clutch, so we have to lean the bike to lift the rear wheel off the ground while we wait at the line to keep the clutch cool. All the power goes from the crank through a primary chain to the clutch then back to the wheel. No transmission, no gears. The biggest battle is setting up the bike for the track conditions. If you have the right set-up for the track that’s half the battle, but there are four heats per outing. Sometimes it takes two heats to get the bike set-up properly, and by that time the track has changed. As simple as the bikes look there is so much to setting them up, from carb jetting to ignition timing, cam timing, sprocket sizes…it’s all about traction and where you are going to drive and where you are going to spin. These things produce so much power…Speedway bikes accelerate as fast as a Formula One car…the biggest battle is getting that power to the track without simply flipping the thing over backwards.

What are the Speedway tracks like in Europe?

In Europe the tracks are cinders and shale, like crushed rock. It is mixed with clay, so it is pretty grippy. Before a race they disc the track to about a foot deep, then pack it down and do it again. So when you get to the start it’s like glue. Coming off the line, once you let the clutch out the bike just wants to flip over, so you have to really ride out your clutch. The tracks over here, like Welland for example, are more like a sheet of glass.

I’ve watched you guys race and it seems like you are letting the gas off coming out of the corners to get the bike to hook up…

Ya, throttle control is a big deal. You create so much wheelspin…nine times out of ten when you enter a corner you just knock off the throttle quickly to slow the back wheel down and get more traction. Sometimes coming out of the turns you need to slowly roll the throttle off until it hooks up before getting back on it.

I have noticed you have awesome throttle control; I can see it when you ride on the ice and when the motocross track is muddy too…

I grew up around this stuff, so it comes naturally to me. I’m gentle on engines too. When I was injured I did some engine work. Knowing the riders I knew who was just keeping the bikes pinned wide open. You could really see the hammering the engines were taking. But other riders, with good control, their engines would still be like brand new inside.

Dude, I saw a video of you eating it youtube that makes me wanna’ puke…

You know the risk is there when you enter a race. I’m there to win. Your mentality changes when you get to the line. You can’t worry about crashing or hurting other people. When you do, that’s when your career goes downhill. So it hasn’t fazed me. This stuff has happened to the best of the best.

So if I post the video link it’s ok with you?

It was a good race until then! So whatever, it doesn’t matter to me.

Well, this will definitely scare the shit out of the motocross guys…

What team do you ride for in England?

I ride for the Newport Wasps in Wales. The racing you see in Canada is all individual, basically every man for himself. How it works in England is my team races against another team. Each rider on the team rides four times. Each heat consists of one heat leader, one second string and one reserve. My job as heat leader is to make the start and look after my second string guy, to make sure we finish first and second.

So it’s a team sport, with team tactics and blocking…

Ya, for sure. Scoring goes 2-3-1-0 for the riders. There are certain tactics, like if a team falls behind by nine points you can nominate a rider for a ‘tactical’ ride, where basically wherever he finishes he scores double points so it can get you right back into the meat again. The managers will look at the program ahead and can say, ‘lose this race so we can use our tactical rider when so and so has to race.’

I understand the fans go apeshit crazy for Speedway racing in Europe …

Ya, it’s big. When I raced the World finals there were over 30,000 spectators. (laughs) We’re like rock stars on wheels!

Can you make decent money racing Speedway in Europe?

Yes, the money is good. It’s not an easy way to make a living, but to make decent money, like at the level I am at right now, you can make a steady happy living at it. To make it big, like the top guys who are earning a million dollars a season, they are racing five or six days a week in three different countries. I’ve done it myself too. I always rode in England, but I have raced in Poland full time one season, Sweden for a while…flying between two or three different countries gets a bit hectic. I raced in South American, Argentina, last winter, which was a really good experience. We learned a lot about life going over there. We had good contracts going over there and we had a lot of fun. I won the championship, which was pretty cool…

You have truckload of Canadian Speedway titles…

Yup, 2003, 2004 and 2006 but I didn’t compete in ’05 because I was over in England.

Doesn’t it piss you off when you’ve won races all over the World but some spoiled motocross pro who gets eighth in the Canadian MX2 series gets more publicity?

“Ya, because you meet people and when you tell them you race speedway they either don’t know what you are talking about or they think you race a car. Then when you explain it they are like, “Oh ya, I saw that on TV once!” But it is a European sport, born in Europe and European based, so it is understandable. When I go over there I do get that celebrity feeling, which is sort of cool. A lot of the riders can be real dickheads about talking to the fans, pushing them away and not wanting anything to do with them. But when guys like me or an American rider go over we just think all the hype is really cool. When I come back home I can hide out and relax.

So what’s your career highlight? Be honest, it was falling off the BMW 450X test bike wasn’t it?

(Laughs) Ya, that and meeting you, Dan. Testing all the new bikes was the highlight of my career.

Really?

No. My real highlights were in 2008. That was my best season so far. I scored a few maximums, which very few riders ever do. I won two tactical rides myself and won every other race and walked away with 21 points. I`ll never forget those. Then in 2008 going through all the World qualifiers and then making the World final…That was cool, but breaking my wrist in the World final sucked. I tried to keep racing but I just couldn’t compete at that level with a broken wrist. Pretty much all in all I’d say 2008 was the best by far.

We should have some new test bikes for you to crash when you get back…

Sweet! I don’t know if I will have a new bike at home right away when I get back, so I’ll ride your www.offroadmotorcycles.ca test bikes on the dirt and ice for sure!

Here’s a few more Legault flicks. The link to Kyle’s personal website is www.kylelegault.com