Youngsters are being urged to sample the thrills of speedway - without the benefit of anything other than their own pedal power.

Heckmondwike Cycle Speedway Club, which boasts its own purpose-built dirt track, is to launch a campaign urging youngsters to trade in their mountain bikes for pedal-driven speedway machines.

By visiting schools and pasting posters across sports centres, the 28-year-old club has survived while cycle speedway outfits across Bradford and Yorkshire have folded.

But club chairman and secretary Jeff Laydon warned the sport was not for the faint-hearted.

He said: "People always ask how the bikes stop with no brakes and I tell them 'with difficulty'. We get cyclists coming for a look but they rarely want a go.

"I visit schools to tell kids about the club and we've worked hard over the years to keep it going. Usually a couple of lads will turn up and the following week they'll bring their mates."

Formed in 1972, the club last year had its most successful season of the decade, winning the British National Indoor Championship, the Northern Region League Championship and the Knockout Cup.

In 1981 Kirklees Council built the club a floodlit dirt track with banked curves -- giving the riders, who had previously raced on a car park, one of the best courses in Britain.

Using single-gear bikes with knobbled tyres, races are run over four laps of the 77 metre-long track in Firth Park, Heckmondwike.

And the venue has been used for international meetings with riders visiting from Australia three years ago.

Mr Laydon said: "Cycle speedway used to be popular with motorbike speedway fans after the war. When we started there were four teams in Bradford and one in Keighley.

"We'll have 22 riders this year because our lads and their families are committed to keeping things going."

Daniel Sharp, 15, of Foxhill Close, Queensbury, said he joined the club two years ago after hearing about it through a friend.

He said: "I'm interested in motorbike speedway so I really enjoy it.

"It can get a bit scary and there are crashes, but we wear helmets."

The club's season begins again in mid-March and bikes can be borrowed by new riders.

For more information contact Mr Laydon on (01274) 877943.

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