Dudley Heathens Speedway: LEE SMART

LEE SMART

DATE OF BIRTH: 5 April 1988, Swindon, Wiltshire.

BRITISH CAREER: (2003) Swindon II, Stoke II; (2004) Mildenhall; (2005) Somerset, Weymouth, Mildenhall; (2006) Plymouth; (2007) Birmingham, Weymouth; (2008) Birmingham, Mildenhall, Weymouth; (2009) Weymouth, Glasgow, Stoke, Birmingham; (2010) Dudley.

CLUB HONOURS: Conference Trophy winner: 2004 [Mildenhall]; League Championship winner: 2004 [Mildenhall], 2008 [Weymouth]; Knock-Out Cup winner: 2004 [Mildenhall]; Four-Team Championship winner: 2008 [Weymouth].

2010 STARTING AVERAGE: 9.45 (NL).

WEBSITE: www.smartyracing.co.uk/

ADDITIONAL INFO: It all began for Smart in junior grass-track racing when he was just six years-of-age. He began to practice on a speedway machine three years later and a further two years after that, in 1999, he was identified as the club mascot for his hometown team, Swindon. The ultra-keen youngster began participating in second-halves in 2001, before making his official debut for the Sprockets the day after his fifteenth birthday in a Conference League fixture at Carmarthen, on 6 April 2003. The rules of the day permitted riders to also appear for a team that was participating in the Conference Trophy and Smart jumped at the opportunity to link with Stoke Spitfires.

The Swindonian first teamed-up with Graham Drury at Mildenhall in 2004 and what a season it was to be, as the Fen Tigers scooped no less than four trophies, winning the League Championship, Knock-Out Cup, Conference Trophy and Four-Team Championship. Although Smart didn't feature in the Four-Team success, he was very much a regular in the side for their other three trophy wins. His impressive performances for the Suffolk outfit led to him being capped at Under-21 level on 15 August, when he represented Great Britain against Mildenhall at West Row and notched a solid 8+1 points.

Following regular second-half outings at Somerset, it seemed only natural that Smart would step-up to the PL by linking with the Rebels in 2005. And the year saw him also continue at Conference level, initially with Weymouth, before he returned to Mildenhall. Although it was understandably tough going with Somerset, it still came as a shock on 22 July, when a re-declared line-up saw both Smart and Jason King deleted from the side and replaced by Trevor Harding and Chris Mills, respectively. In 2006, he was to ride solely for Plymouth in what was their first season of activity at the St. Boniface Arena. The Devils made a sensational return to the sport, actually finishing on top of the league table, but losing in the Play-Off final to a powerful Scunthorpe side. Plymouth also reached the finals of the Knock-Out Cup and the Conference Trophy, but again had to play second fiddle in both to the all-conquering Scorpions.

Smart subsequently made great strides in his first term with Birmingham in 2007; in fact, so much so that he became a fully-fledged asset in July, when promoter Graham Drury took up the option to purchase his contract from Somerset. Indeed, the Wiltshire lad played a big part in the Brummies' amazing comeback season, which featured appearances in the finals of the Premier Trophy and Young Shield, as well as a second-place finish in the completed Premier League table. When his commitments would allow, he also continued to hone his skills with Weymouth in the Conference League and, all-in-all, enjoyed a wonderful year of progress. However, after beginning a second season with the Brummies, Smart was to lose his team spot early in August when a raft of changes also saw James Birkinshaw and the injured Jack Hargreaves axed. Replacing the trio were Tomasz Piszcz, James Cockle and Jay Herne.

The Wiltshireman was immediately snapped-up by Mildenhall, but lost his place in the side after only six matches, following the takeover of the club by Keith and Jonathan Chapman. As a result, Smart returned to Weymouth for the final two months of the campaign and played a vital role in the Wildcats' Four-Team Championship triumph, closely followed by their first-ever League Championship success as they defeated Boston in the Play-Off final. He was still identified with Weymouth at the start of the 2009 campaign, but was drafted into the Glasgow side on a short-term basis, following a leg injury sustained by Anders Andersen in Denmark on 24 April. When his spell in the team came to an end, Smart was replaced by Lee Dicken in the Tigers' line-up.

The Swindon-born rider subsequently joined Stoke in June at the conclusion of Mark Burrows' temporary stint with the club. Meanwhile, his association with Weymouth came to a sudden and acrimonious end on 2 July, when the Wildcats visited Bournemouth in a Knock-Out Cup tie. Following his exclusion in heat eleven, when home rider Jerran Hart had laid his machine down, Smart immediately left the stadium after being signed out by the track doctor with a wrist injury. This led to a dispute with the promotion, the upshot of which saw his ties with the club severed. Unable to find a suitable replacement, it looked as if Weymouth would eventually re-introduce the injured Jon Armstrong into their declared 1-7, thus allowing them a facility in his continued absence. That moved was vetoed, however, and they instead brought in Benji Compton.

Back in the Premier League, Smart's time with Stoke was to last a month, before he was recalled by parent club Birmingham to fill the space vacated by Manuel Hauzinger. Meanwhile, the gap created in the Stoke side was subsequently filled by Craig Branney towards the end of July. The Swindonian was to make fourteen official appearances for the Brummies, yielding 67 points and a 5.27 real-time average. During the close season, in February 2010, it was revealed that he had linked with the new Dudley outfit in readiness of the side embarking on their first season of National League activity.

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