Tony Steele
Latest News Wednesday 7th August 2024, 3:13pm
Everyone involved with the Speedway Riders Benevolent Fund has been greatly saddened to hear that the sport has lost one of its major figures with the passing of Tony Steele.
Everyone knew Tony as a referee both of domestic British Speedway and Grand Prix. But he was much more than that. The BSPL website lists him as a senior FIM Track Racing Commission member, ACU Vice President, Chairman of the Track Racing Commission and Bureau member of the Speedway Control Bureau. He was also heavily involved with the development of Speedway TV broadcasts.
Tony was a great supporter of the SRBF and the Bonanza though regrettably he was never able to take his turn as meeting referee. This should have happened at King's Lynn in 2023 but he had to call off due to caring for his wife during her illness.
Tony's story was in that meeting programme and these were his comments regarding the Benevolent Fund:
"The Ben Fund does a great job and probably doesn't get the publicity that it deserves. They support every rider, for example Gary Havelock has just had some operations, and you are not talking about just a few quid for these procedures. It's really testimony to all of the people involved in speedway. Paul is at the helm of it but a huge amount of the money that comes into it actually comes from supporters. People who have supported the sport, they hand over quite a lot of their estate when they pass it over.
"I think people would be absolutely shocked at the amount they pay out in any one year. For a comparatively minor operation on an arm or leg you are starting off at sort of £10,000. Without the Ben Fund these people would be struggling for years and years. The Ben Fund does a much under-publicised great job.
"The top 5% of riders earn a lot of money these days and are perhaps not in touch with how desperate it can be if you are not amongst that select band. You've got 7 riders in the team but there can be a huge difference between the earnings of the number one and the number seven.
"Everyone has to go through a learning stage and that will never change, but accidents don't just happen amongst the top 5% who have a fair bit of money behind them. Even juniors can break arms or legs, before they have had a chance to get anything behind them. That's why the Ben Fund is so important really."
Tony Steele will be a huge loss to the sport but of course most of all to family and friends, to whom we send our sincere condolences.
