The national speedway team held test matches against the
Australia as early as 1928, although the first official test match is listed as 30 June 1930 at
Wimbledon Stadium. The team won the
Speedway World Team Cup on five occasions as England and four times as Great Britain from 1968 to 1989. They were a major force in the 1970s, winning five consecutive tournaments, two as England and three as Great Britain. Key riding members of the title wins include
Peter Collins (five wins),
Malcolm Simmons (four wins), New Zealand born
Ivan Mauger and
Ray Wilson (all three wins). Prior to 1974, the Great Britain team often consisted of riders from other
Commonwealth Nations including Australia and New Zealand. The cup eluded the team after 1989, although they came close in 2000, missing out when
Mark Loram fell in a race-off and
2004 where a team of Mark Loram,
Lee Richardson,
Gary Havelock,
David Norris and
Scott Nicholls missed out by one point. Both the 2000 and 2004 narrow defeats were at the hands of
Sweden and both in somewhat controversial fashion. In June 2018, Great Britain competed as one of 15 nations in the inaugural
Speedway of Nations tournament and in August 2018, Great Britain hosted a top-level international test match for the first time in over 15 years when they took on Australia at Glasgow's Peugeot Ashfield Stadium. At the
2021 Speedway of Nations in Manchester, Team GB ended a 32 years drought. After finishing third in qualifying, they beat Denmark 6–3 in the Grand Final qualifier and then beat Poland in the Grand Final 5–4. The winning team included
Robert Lambert,
Dan Bewley and
Tai Woffinden. The team subsequently won the
2024 Speedway of Nations. == Major tournament wins ==