The
Wimbledon Dons were a professional
motorcycle speedwayMotorcycle speedway, usually referred to as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. Speedway motorcycles use only one gear and have no brakes and racing takes place on a flat oval track usually...
team who operated from the
Wimbledon StadiumWimbledon Greyhound Stadium is a greyhound racing track located in Wimbledon in southwest London, England. It also hosts speedway, stock car and other racing events....
, Plough Lane in
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
The track opened in 1928 and the Dons operated there from 1929 until 1991. They were closed during the Second World War but upon their re-opening in 1946 there were 42,000 people in attendance with an estimated 10,000 more locked outside. The club were very successful at the highest level of British speedway during the 1950s and 1960s, and attracted numerous famous riders.
Having been defunct for eleven years, the team were reopened again in 2002 by Steve Ribbons & David Croucher in the
Conference LeagueThe Conference League was the third and lowest division of motorcycle speedway racing in the United Kingdom governed by the Speedway Control Board , in conjunction with the British Speedway Promoters' Association . The other leagues being the Elite League and Premier League. The League consisted of...
but were forced to close in 2005, with Ian Perkin, Dingle Brown & Perry Attwood being joint owners of the club, when the stadium owners insisted on dramatically increasing the rent paid by the team to the stadium.
London Cup
Winners: 1938, 1939, 1961, 1964, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1985
Notable Wimbledon Riders
(World Champion 1957, 1958, 1964, 1966) (World Champion 1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1977, 1979)
(World Champion 1954, 1959) (World Longtrack Champion 1995, 1998, 2000)