Latvian shooting star Francis Gusts makes his British racing debut in 2025 after completing the Oxford Spires side.
Gusts competes in the Rowe Motor Oil Premiership for the first time after racing four straight seasons in SGP2 – the FIM Speedway Under-21 World Championship. He took seventh spot in the series last year, with his best performance coming in 2021, when he was sixth. He was also part of the Wroclaw team that finished second in the 2024 PGE Ekstraliga.
The Riga-born racer lines up with Wroclaw teammate Maciej Janowski at Cowley, as well as two-time Australian champion Rohan Tungate, former Speedway GP winner Peter Kildemand, former British champion Charles Wright, German international Erik Riss and rising star Luke Killeen.
Once again, Oxford will enter teams into all of British speedway’s three leagues – the Rowe Motor Oil Premiership, the Cab Direct Championship and the WSRA National Development League.
Boss Jamie Courtney is pleased to have completed his team building by bringing Gusts to Britain. He told the club’s website: “This has been the longest winter trying to finalise the three teams.
“At the end of October last year we believed that the Spires team was in place. However, a couple of unexpected complications meant that I had to go back to the drawing board.
“I have worked day and night to find the right seven riders for Oxford. In the end, I am delighted to have signed Francis.
“He is young and enthusiastic, exciting to watch and is someone destined for good things in this sport. Most importantly, he wants to be a part of what we are creating at Oxford.
“We have two riders on assessed averages which always makes team building tricky. But I am confident that come the end of April, the true strength of this team will be obvious to everyone.”