Fighting fit Tai ready to roar

Teenage speedway ace Tai Woffinden is fighting fit for his debut Elite League season – and wants to be a Wolves rider for the next 10 years.

The 18-year-old has just returned to Britain from one of the gruelling pre-season fitness camps with his Polish club, Czestochowa.

And he reckons his fitness levels are already "pretty good" with the Parrys International Wolves' open practice night just a month away on March 10.

"I've been skiing for two weeks, done high-altitude training and I've been in Poland doing a fitness camp," he said.

"It's pretty hard. It's very eastern bloc.

"The typical day is we wake up in the morning and do a five-mile run before breakfast.

"In between the morning and afternoon we'd do a bit more training, have lunch, some more training after that and usually we are in bed by about six or seven o'clock."

Despite the fanatical Polish commitment to speedway Woffinden's week away didn't see him get near a bike.

"Some of the clubs do (ride), but the last two years I've not," he said.

"My club's down south and we go up north, to the top of Gdansk, and run by the side of the Baltic Sea. And that's cold."

Wolves' capture of Woffinden, now the British under-18 and under-21 champion and third in last year's British Final, was a major coup for owner Chris Van Straaten.

And the rider wants his Monmore Green stay to be a long one.

"I wanted to go there," he said. "I enjoy riding the track, I've got a good relationship with Chris.

"I want to stay there. If everything goes well I want to stay there for 10 years. I don't want to be one of those who swaps every year."

Although Woffinden will start in a second-string berth at Wolves he's looking to move up – and wants to take the scalp of every rider in the top flight.

"I set myself goals. In the Premier League last year I wanted to beat every rider once," he said.

"I had a mental list and throughout the year I ticked them off.

"I enjoyed doing that, so I'll probably do the same again in the Elite League. I want to be a heat leader – and I'd like to lift a trophy."