18th April 2023
We caught up with Leon whilst he was on a rare down night in Poland before he headed back to the UK for meetings at the end of the week.
VH: First of all, can we just say how proud we are to sponsor you this season and have to begin by conveying huge congratulations on your massive individual achievements last season of winning the British U19 and U21 titles, unbeaten on both nights, and of course, a couple of reserve rides in the British GP mixing it with the best on the planet. How old were you when you first set your sights on those two titles and when did the dream start to become a realistic goal?
LF: I started racing motorbikes when I was about 3 and it started from my granddad on my dad’s side. He was into bikes since he was very young and in all kinds of bike gangs, but both sides of my family have been heavily involved in Speedway, so there was no doubt that I would follow in these footsteps and try and do better than anyone else did. I was just lucky enough to have a family that was willing to put a lot of time and money to help me get to where I am. I started racing motocross and then when I started getting pretty good, I realised as a family we didn’t have the money and time to try and make a living out of it. Speedway then came about when I was given a bike of Andrew Tully. I kind of played about on it when I went to the beach, but it wasn’t until Ricky Ashworth donated me a bike and I started to do that a little bit more than the motocross and I think everyone around saw that had just a bit of natural talent, and from there it just kicked off.
Even when I was at school and doing the motocross, I had something about me that wanted to be a speedway rider. Obviously, I lived in a town where there was a Speedway team and from there, I thought I want to be good at it and go a ride for Berwick. Once I was riding for Berwick I thought right, what do we do now then? You know, I’m sitting here now and I’m the captain so probably need a bit of time to really think what I want to achieve next. If you told me all this by 20 years old, that I’d have achieved what I have, I’d be very, very happy.
It was like, take everything as it comes. So, at the time, it was set sights to win the 125 British final and didn’t manage to do that. But in my first year of racing, I think I came third and then making the British final was quite a big thing, then I won the 250, then the 500 so I was on a strong progression and making heads turn. Luckily for me though, my family kept my feet on the ground, so I was always under the radar especially up north. All eyes were mainly on the lads down south and I just kept chipping away and upsetting some people with my results which I quite enjoyed.
Even when I was 15, I was eligible to do the under 19s and under 21s, but I was not really successful to be fair at the time. I didn’t have the backing needed to do it like I did in 2021. I think I missed out on the U19 final, or maybe U21, because I was injured, but I knew going into last year with how I was riding the bike, the way things were going, I felt very confident, especially the U19s where I was favourite, but even the U21’s where there was a hard line up.
But I just knew that I had the ability to go and win it, and the same with this year, with under 21s. It’s not going to be easy, and without sounding big headed, I probably think I’ll be favourite for it. But it’s still going to be hard. It’s more that I put more pressure in my head. I’m one of the favourites, so I’m expected to go and do it, but I’m trying my best now to stop that type of thinking getting to me and just going and doing my thing and putting everything on display.
VH: So, just for context Leon, we at Melior Esse we are focused on helping businesses perform better, and a big ingredient of this is harnessing the emerging talent in companies, including identifying it, trusting it, instilling belief and nurturing it. For those not familiar with Speedway as a sport, we should clarify that many riders will compete for more than one club racing across 2 or 3 leagues across countries. You of course represent Wolverhampton Wolves in the top flight in Britain in their Rising Star birth in the team, you’ve also been snapped up by Ostrovia in Poland where you expect to mainly be competing in the U24 league there, and of course you have also been racing for Berwick for a few years, your home town club who are in the league below Wolves, and now this season you have been given the honour of captaining the Berwick Bandits first team after leading their Junior team in recent seasons. Hence why we are particularly interested in exploring your leadership journey with you.
VH: Take us back a bit, what are your first memories of people naturally turning to you for guidance and leadership, either in or out of motor sport?
LF: Probably any kind of sport I did in school I always liked to be the guy people depended on. I think it mainly comes from my dad. He was the captain of a rugby team and every Saturday before Speedway, I’d go with all the rugby boys and watch how my dad led everyone up to battle, and watching that I thought, yeah, I want to be like that. Everyone knows I’m loud, not particularly always for the good reasons 😊, but going every Saturday watching my dad captain his team gave me that bit of guidance on what I wanted to do. I’d probably say Kevin Doolan as well, and I would have to say he would probably be one of the most liked people in Speedway, he was always there for his teammates. It didn’t matter if he was captain or not, he would go out of his way to help anyone, and probably put people before himself. Growing up with that led me to be where I am now, and in fact, if it wasn’t for them, I definitely wouldn’t be the person I am.
VH: Can you tell us your history of when you have formally stepped into the captain roles?
LF: Well, it would have been with the Bullets in 2021, but just because you’ve got the little “c” next to your name doesn’t mean that you should act any different, especially in Speedway. In 2019 when I was at Belle Vue, Kyle Bickley was captain on the sheet, but I felt everyone kind of looked to me for guidance as much as Kyle. I don’t know, it’s hard for me to say when as I don’t think I act any different just because I’ve got that title next to my name. I wouldn’t like to think I would act any different because that wouldn’t be the person that I am, and I don’t agree with that if you do have that role you should be different. I think you should be the person that you are and that’s how I am obviously. Growing up, just being a teenager, if I have a bad race, I would probably lose my head whereas now, if I know I’ve had a bad race or something’s happened, I need to keep calm and not expose my emotions to the other lads. I need to keep calm for the other boys, because I would think if you saw the captain losing their head, then all the toys go out the pram. So that’s probably a good thing for me because I’m very passionate in what I do, and I have to be seen to keep level-headed.
VH: What did you learn most about yourself when captaining the Bullets?
LF: I don’t know. It was hard because the thing that I loved about racing for the bullets is I knew going into a meeting that my job was to go unbeaten all night and I liked the pressure of it, I liked that everyone was relying on me to go and win every single race. But it was difficult because racing for the Bandits, normally they would have double headers, so at the time we were often missing a rider due to COVID and he was stuck in his country, so I would normally go in to 7 heats with the Bandits, and then go and do another 5 heats straight after with the Bullets. So, it was hard, as I was the guy everyone was depending on and if I wasn’t doing well, the other lads might think, oh the number 1 isn’t doing well so we really need to pull our finger out, so I always liked the pressure of going out and doing everything I could to take the pressure off everyone else.
VH: Tell me your initial reaction on being offered the first team captaincy at Berwick and the thoughts over the first 24 hours.
LF: It was a surprise to me when it when it got announced. It was announced at the Berwick end of season party. Well, to be fair, when I was finding out what the team was going to look like for next season I said, to Jamie, Scott and my Dad, I want to be captain, I want to lead the boys out in battle. It was a surprise to me when it got announced and it obviously made me very happy. I can’t really put it into words. It didn’t change my view of everything, but it made me a bit warm inside! Loads of people have different views of it that aren’t involved with Berwick, like he’s too young to be a captain, but everyone that was saying that doesn’t know me personally and doesn’t see how things happen around the boys, I mean I’m trying my best to do everything I can for the boys. Yes, I’ll take criticism off them as well, I try to do my best, but if I’m certainly doing anything wrong I wouldn’t mind it. I want to be the best version of me not only for the other lads but for the club, the fans, everyone.
VH: In any sport or profession, we spend a lot of time with our own thoughts, and many of them, when we are aspiring to stretch and challenge ourselves, and move out of comfort zones, can be quite negative thoughts, self-doubt, focusing on previous failure, focusing too much opposition for example. Now in a speedway meeting of 2 hours, you will only actually be competing for between 4-6 minutes, so plenty of time with those thoughts! How do you manage these and keep them in perspective to remain positive and focused to perform at your best?
LF: I wish I knew. {Laugh}. But I guess the feeling if you are surrounded by …. For me, I’ve got a full time mechanic now and you know he’s been a lifelong long friend for however long, he’s probably seen me getting my nappies changed and everything, so having a good team around you definitely helps. But, I think it’s just belief as well, trying to stay calm. Countless times, especially at Wolves, I’ll put too much pressure on myself to go out and win heat 2, and then when I’m a bit relaxed about heat 4 I’ll go out and smoke it. It doesn’t really make too much sense, but I don’t lack confidence, I know I have the ability, it’s just making sure I have the consistency so it’s not having one good meeting and then going out the next and riding like a complete amateur, it’s having that consistency so that you can keep going and progressively get better rather going to score 10 points and then the next week you get 2 and you feel like you went 2 steps back, then score another 2 then get 10 points and come back down, I’d much prefer to score 5 or 6 every meeting and building a point every week than having so much success then feeling like you are at rock bottom again, with your emotions up and down all the time. That’s speedway and it’s something I’m looking to overcome.
VH: Speedway is both an individual and team sport, in fact, I found it difficult to think of many professional sports where you compete week in, week out for teams, but where the opportunity to be the best individual via other competitions is just as sought after, so there is probably more scrutiny on individual performance and contribution during team meetings than say a lot of field-based team sports. Indeed, listening to a Scott Nicholls talk-in a few weeks ago, he talked about the different mentality between competitors once they arrived at an individual meeting. How do you balance providing the necessary captaincy and leadership behaviour with your own personal motivation requirements during a meeting.
LF: At team events you are there to do a job for your club, so your job is, as a team, to score as many points as possible. So, if that means having a look over your shoulder and looking for your teammate, then you’ve got to do it, it’s for the club, you should be doing whatever is best for the club. But then when it comes to an individual, the biggest thing you see is that they are teammates, and then in the Grand Prix they are throwing bikes at each other and you know your opposition is not going to be nice to you. That’s the mentality of it. You could be best friends, like I’ve got really good mates in Speedway, but if we come up to each other in a race we’re going for it. As soon as you put your helmet on, it’s you against everyone, but that’s how it is, it will never change I don’t think. There are not too many rivalries though or anything like that, Speedway is such a small sport why would you want to hate on everyone? I mean, it’s not like football where Rangers play Celtic and everyone hates everyone, football is massive, but speedway is such a small family like community, you know after meetings you’ll say to the opposition “are you passing Stansted”, “yeah”, “well can I jump in the van with you?”. It has to be like that, not only to make a better product, but to keep it going really.
VH: Can I just explore a dynamic with you? Rory Schlein! He was your first captain at Wolves, he retired but has come back into the Wolves team this year, and although Sam Masters deservedly retains the Captaincy from last season, Rory’s leadership skills will naturally emerge in the pits every meeting, but of course he is also now riding for Berwick under your captaincy. How does that work? What changes from one pit to the other?
LF: Nothing really, like I said. I touched on it before, just because you’ve got the captain next to your name it doesn’t change and with Rory it absolutely hasn’t, he obviously knows a lot more than I do. Especially with Berwick he’s just been a total class act and half the time I don’t really even need to say anything because he takes the words out of my mouth, and that’s the type of guy he is and I don’t think he’ll ever change. Even last Saturday when, you know as a team, we had a horror meeting really, but you know he just said there’s no excuses, we all know what we need to do, and there was nothing else to say, so yeah, he touches on everything that needs to be said, and we are all happy with him, and at Wolves he’s the same guy. If he’s having a bad meeting, he still will make the time for you which is good. I don’t expect to talk over Rory or anything like that, that would never happen because I know everyone else knows that his words are probably a lot better than mine, and his advice undoubtedly will be a lot better than mine.
VH: What are you goals this season as captain for Berwick, other than the obvious of trying to win trophies, I’m seeking more personal development type thoughts?
LF: I think for Berwick I would like to chase the number 1 jacket. I think it’s doable with the way I have been progressing. Once I get a couple of meetings under my belt, I think I’ll get back on track, I’ll be riding a lot more this year, especially with Poland and now I can get my name out there a bit more. Probably my biggest ambition this year is to qualify for the U21 GP series which I think I showed at Cardiff, undoubtedly that I deserve to have a spot there, I’m not out of place there. So I’d like to do that, and with Wolves, try and push, it’s very hard with Wolves because our top five is very strong, but if I can be pushing on the verge of getting a spot in the top five I’d be very happy.
VH: What would you love your leadership proposition to be remembered as in the far distant future?
LF: I would probably say I’m not too bothered about what success that I got, my biggest thing is when I walk away from Speedway that I would like to think I’ve done something to make it better. When I walk away I would rather people say nice things about me behind my back, rather than to me, I want to just be like that, I want to be like Kevin Doolan, just a guy enjoyed riding his bike, didn’t take it for granted and did what he loved and had a great time doing it.
VH: Great answer and from everything we see, I think you’re well on the journey now to doing that. So, we definitely wish you all the best of luck. Obviously, Speedway is a very dangerous sport and we so appreciate the spectacle that you and your team mates put on for us and totally appreciate the half an hour you’ve given me tonight. I also appreciate you don’t get much downtime as riders, so I really am grateful for it and looking forward to seeing you at wolves this season.