Steve Worrall hoping for smooth transition to life at Wolverhampton

A surprisingly smooth run from his home in Cleethorpes meant the 30-year-old arrived for his first formal day as a Wolves Speedway rider in ample time.

“Anytime you travel this way from where I live, you typically have to add about 45 minutes to the journey,” he smiles. “I actually left extra early this morning, assuming I would get stuck somewhere but I actually managed to get here really easily. I was quite happy with that.”

Worrall will hope the serene journey was an omen for the months ahead as he looks to make his mark with Wolves.

The winter switch from Belle Vue, the club he had raced for in the Premiership since 2015, has triggered all the emotions you would expect from a rider hungry to take the next his career to the next level. His mood is one of excitement, tinged with understandable nerves.

“It is never easy starting something new,” he says. “It is a bit daunting because you don’t know how things are going to go.

“It’s a big change. Being at Belle Vue for seven years, you get so familiar with everything. This feels like the first day at school. It’s a new place, new people. But in terms of where my career is right now I just felt the time was right to make a change.”

Worrall replaces departed club legend Rory Schlein in the Wolverhampton line-up. Yet efforts to assimilate into the group will be made easier by the fact that in speedway’s increasingly compacted community (the Premiership will again feature just six teams this season), nobody is ever really a stranger. Indeed, less than 24 hours prior to this chat at the club’s press day, he was racing against his new team-mates at Lewis Kerr’s testimonial in King’s Lynn.

Neither is this season the first Worrall will have called Monmore home, having enjoyed a breakthrough year while riding for Cradley Heathens in the National League in 2014, when he averaged more than 11.

“You have a home track advantage at Wolverhampton,” he explains. “It is a technical track, when you line it up to Belle Vue, Sheffield or Peterborough.

“It is a different style of riding. As a home rider I always feel you are already a couple of heats ahead of the opposition at Wolverhampton, because you are into it straight away.

“I am hoping I can find my feet and settle in quickly, find that advantage and once the season gets going make it a bit of a fortress.

“That’s what I had racing for Poole last season in the Championship. Every time I go there, mentally, I feel like I have already won. That is how I want it to be for Wolverhampton.”

Worrall will again race for the Pirates this year after a stunning 2021 season which saw him average 9.69 in the second tier, an experience he admits was a factor in his decision to switch teams at the top level.

“After a couple of tough seasons I felt I found my feet last year and kicked on a bit,” he says. “Some of that was being at a new team in Poole, where I really enjoyed it.

“There was such a good team atmosphere and that makes it more enjoyable and easy. Becoming part of this Wolverhampton team, I think will be the same situation. It is such a good team and a new environment. It just injects a bit of excitement and a bit of fire back into it.”

He continued: “When things aren’t going well this is the worst sport in the world. It is so hard. You don’t have any time to sort things out. You never get a break and when you are on a bad run it is so hard to turn it round.

“When you are going through a bad spell and trying to correct it all, it can get on top of you and become hard work. Being in a team like this – and Poole last year – where you have some good backing and people who are understanding and want to help, it makes things easier. Most things are easier when you are having fun.”

Winning helps too. Wolverhampton did a lot of that last season only to clatter into the final hurdles, losing their place at the top of the standings to Peterborough with a final round defeat, before being bested over two legs by the same opposition in the play-off semi-finals. Worrall was part of the Belle Vue team beaten by Peterborough in the final.

One of just two new additions to the Wolves line-up, together with reserve Drew Kemp, he is determined to go one better this time around.

“Speedway is my job but most of all I want to win,” he says. “I spent seven years at Belle Vue, making play-offs and making finals and never quite getting over the line.

“Last year, losing to Peterborough in the final, that hurt most of all. At Poole we won both titles and you get the taste of winning. That is what I want.

“I have got so close with Belle Vue in the past.

“We have such a good chance with this Wolves team. I think we should have a lot of success.”