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Alan Hunt (speedway rider)

British speedway rider

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ4706912 ↗
Source-derived summary

Alan Hunt (25 July 1924 – 2 February 1957) was an international motorcycle speedway rider who qualified for the Speedway World Championship final four times. He earned 26 caps for the England national speedway team and three caps for the South African national speedway team.

Career

Hunt attended Tiger Stevensons training school in the winter of 1946-47 and impressed so much he was given the reserve berth with the Cradley Heath Cubs for the 1947 season, who were competing in the National League Division Three. After his fourth season with the Heathens, Hunt was averaging over ten points per meeting and it was not surprising that he was attracting the attention of top-flight teams.

In 1951, the Harringay Racers thought they had a deal with the Heathens to sign Hunt on a full transfer but at the last moment the Birmingham Brummies promotion took over the Heathens and transferred Hunt to them.

In his first season at Birmingham, Hunt qualified for the World Final but only manage two points. It signalled the start of his dislike of the Wembley track although it was similar to the Cradley Heath track he learnt his speedway skills on. With Birmingham he won three consecutive Midland Cups from 1953 to 1955.

Hunt was also selected to ride for England national speedway team, the highlight being a six ride, six win maximum against the Australia national speedway team in 1956.

World Final appearances

1951 - London, Wembley Stadium - 16th - 2pts

1953 - London, Wembley Stadium - 14th - 3pts

1954 - London, Wembley Stadium - Res - Did not ride

1956 - London, Wembley Stadium - 11th - 6pts

Death

On 1 February 1957, Hunt was riding in a meeting in South Africa, where he was planning on emigrating and only living in the UK during the speedway season, when he fell and was hit by the machine of the following rider, fracturing his skull.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Alan Hunt (speedway rider)” as british speedway rider. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1924, 1957, 1946, 1947—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1924. The account is most persuasive where Alan, Hunt and speedway can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as british speedway rider. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4706912. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1924, 1957, 1946 and 1947.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Alan Hunt (speedway rider)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.