About Me

I first saw speedway when Ipswich Witches re-opened at Foxhall Heath in 1969. With teenage ambitions to be a speedway rider I rode grasstrack during the 1970’s on 250cc and 350cc Ducati’s, and also made my first race jackets (see ‘Early Race Jackets’ in the Gallery section of this website). It was some years before I finally rode a speedway bike at one of Olle Nygren’s Training Schools in 2004. After buying a restored 2-valve Jawa I rode in a number of amateur meetings before being invited to join the ‘Blast From The Past’ vintage speedway troupe riding a 1950’s Rotrax JAP.

By this time I was making replica race jackets for myself and getting an increasing number of requests to make race jackets for collectors and fellow riders. Particular highlights have included making the race jackets for the Ivan Mauger Display at the National Speedway Museum; making a special presentation race jacket for and meeting with Ivan Mauger at the launch of the National Speedway Stadium; making a number of junior race jackets for 2017 World Champion Jason Doyle to present to his family and friends at the 2017 Cardiff GP; making a set of original design race jackets for the final laps of speedway bikes at Wimbledon’s Plough Lane Stadium; creating replicas of each team that raced in the 1967 British League; and making replica race jackets associated with a number of great riders from the 1970’s including John Louis, Peter Collins, Malcolm Simmons and Ole Olsen.

Having now stopped riding and retired after nearly 43 years years in the IT industry, my passion is making race jackets and helping to keep alive memories from the golden age of speedway. This includes supporting the work of The Sporting Memories Foundation, local care homes and dementia groups by taking along items from my collection and chatting about speedway in days gone by.

If you’d like me to help rekindle your memories of a favourite team, rider or meeting please get in touch - it will be a pleasure to help.

Pete Rout (Classic Race Jackets)