&
NATIONAL YOUTH CHAMPIONS,
(Age limit and title
vary with nations.)
Historically, whilst the minimum riding age, determined by issue of an ACU licence, remained at 16 years old, - even permitting any ride outwith speedway meetings proper for practice or training could jeopardized a track's licence to operate within the ACU/SCB sphere - , the emergence of any team-place rider of teen age was the exception rather than the present-day norm, though surreptitious under-age races using aliases were not unknown, particularly where a family link to the sport might exist. ( AMCA licences were issued at 15 years of age, but their sphere was principally Scramble races, today's MotoCross. During the speedway pirate year of 1964 a few AMCA controlled grass-track speedway meeting were run for Provincial League riders' benefit.)
Today however 15 year olds may race in UK league competition and riders younger still may practice and race on licensed tracks with full approval. Under-15 Championships (and other intermediate ranges,) are widespread both in Europe, the States and the Southern hemisphere, at national and regional level, and there have even been U16 inter-national matches, viz. GB v Germany in 2001 and '02. Consequently the significance of U21 Championship competitions, World and Nationals, is not unimportant and on many occasions National (i.e. 'senior') titles have been taken by U21 riders.
The 4-page table
below of National U21 and Junior Champions, (there is inconsistent
terminology for the these categories, not helped by different
cut-offs, viz. U19 and U18; U16 and U15, though there is presently a
transition by nations to standardize with the FIM. The former British
Youth U15 is now, in 2011, a U16 competition.) generates interest in
permitting insight of the progress of riders that have ultimately
made it ‘big time’ to SGP level, - Nicholls, Woffinden, Holder,
Crump, Lindgren, Bjerre, Walasek, Sayfutdinov, etc. - , and therefore
who, from today’s more junior levels may become tomorrow’s stars. UK's Dan Bewley has, in 2-year steps, 2018, '20 and '22, moved from U19, through U21, to become a 2x national champion
Riders who have been able to achieve 3 and even 4 U21 national titles, -Stead, 2x, Holder 4x, Wells 2x + 2x, Bjerre 4x (in 6 years !,) clearly have excelled at an extremely young age to win over others with potentially 4 or 5 years more experience.
Click sections below for full-size up-to-date tables..
Britain's young champions of 2017 -
U21 - Simon Lambert U19 Zach Wajtknecht Youth 500cc (U16) Drew Kemp
During 2021 after discussions with a new sponsor, FIM unveiled their vision for the next 10 years of speedway, with all international championship categories unified under a new SGP brand from 2022, rebranding the Under-21 and Under-16 World Championships as SGP2 and SGP3 respectively.
As part of their 10 year vision a fourth class was commissioned, the FIM SGP4 Speedway Youth World Cup, for riders aged 11-13, to compete on a purpose-built 190cc speeedway machine for a new international competition.
SGP2 - ( U21 World Championship )
SGP2 events
follow the same 23-heat racing format as a Speedway GP, with
semi-finals and finals, and usually
taking place the day
before a senior FIM Speedway GP. This gives the
world’s top under-21 riders an opportunity to share the spotlight
with the speedway's Grand Prix elite, a pathway to the top for speedway’s next generation of stars. Sixteen riders
compete in each round with the majority of the riders making it
via the qualifiers staged across Europe. The line-up is
completed by wild cards chosen by the SGP Commission.
Mateusz
Cierniak (photo Rt.) celebrated SGP2 / U21 World Championship gold for the
second straight season in 2023, topping the podium in Prague and
Gorzow, before defying a starting exclusion in the semi-finals to
secure the gold medal at the title-decider in Vojens – becoming
only the fourth rider in the sport’s history to win World Under-21
gold for a second time. In 2024, with Cierniak excluded by age, Wiktor Prziemski triumphed and the podium medalists each had one of the 3-stage wins. Brit Leon Flint was 11th and third round reserve Dan Thompson scored a creditable 8pts.
SGP3 - ( U16 World Championship )
The FIM
Speedway Youth (U16) World Championship was relaunched as SGP3
in 2022. As a one-off meeting, the series was originally launched in 2010 as the
Speedway 250cc Youth World Cup, renamed the Speedway World Youth Championship in 2018, limited to 250cc bikes throughout that time, and for competitors
16 years of age or under.
With a home winner each year, in
2024 in Gorzow’s Edward Jancarz Stadium, Polish rider Maksymilian Pawelczak upgraded his 2023
silver medal to gold, - winning ahead of Australia's Beau Bailey in
second and Great Britain star William Cairns in third. UK's Cooper Rushden scored 7 points, improving on his 4 the previous year when Cairns was 5th with 10pts.
SGP4 - ( Youth World Cup )
2022 was a development-and-trial year for the embryonic FIM Speedway Youth World Cup. For
riders aged 11-13 years, speedway's youngest stars compete on the 190cc
SGP4 4-stroke bike designed and developed by six-time FIM Speedway world champion Tony Rickardsson after extensive testing across Europe to facilitate FIM's 10-year vision of nurturing speedway’s future stars.
The
SGP4 bike made its competitive debut on July 15, 2023, with riders from 11
different nations and four continents going for gold in the SGP4 / Youth World Cup. Denmark's young Elias Jamil, age 13, wrote his name in history as the first-ever SGP4
champion with a flawless 15-point maximum, with Australian star
Cooper Antone second on 13 points. Denmark’s Niklas Bager took
third spot after winning a run-off with Australia’s Kobi Canning
for the bronze medal. UK's Oliver Bovingdon took 6 points.
The 2024
competition saw American racer Brady Landon top the podium with a
15-point maximum. Landon, age 13, went unbeaten over five races to take gold. Australia’s
Cooper Antone again finished in second place with 13 points and Denmark’s Niklas
Bager took third with 10 points, repeating their podium positions from
the SGP4 event in 2023.
Rt : American champions Brady Landon and Greg Hancock, SGP4 Malilla, 2024.
In parallel with FIM's introduction of SGP2/3/4 junior events, and picking up from the 250cc Track Racing YGT last staged in 2018, (see below,) a U23 Long Track World Cup (i.e. de facto World Championship,) was also initiated. For riders not permanently included in the senior LT World Championship, this junior World Long Track competition is for riders age 16 to 23 years old and mounted on 500cc machines.
2023 produced a French clean sweep on home territory, with lone Brit Chad Wirtzfeld scoring 10pts. In 2024 Belle Vue young Ace Jake Mulford took the title with 18 points with fellow countryman Eli Meadows at the bottom end of the points table.
In 2017 FIME re-introduced a U19 event, the 'European U19 Speedway Cup': see YGT section below.
Alf Busk - Denmark Emil Sayfutdinov - Russia Rafał Okoniewski - Poland
1st U21 'World' Champ 2x U21 World Champ 2x U19 European Champ
1977 2007, 2008 1998, 1999
Four riders,
Mssrs. Jonsson, Havelock Crump and Zmarzlik, have achieved a double by winning
the senior World Championship after having been U21 World Champion,
this progression having taken a minimum of 4 years, (9 years in the
case of Jason Crump.) At the lower level, Lukas Dryml and Karol
Zabik have progressed from being U19 Champions to become U21 World
Champions but will not now accede to the senior title. Double U21
World Champ Emil Sayfutdinov of Russia demonstrated in his first year
of Grand Prix racing at the age of just 19, (and too busy with racing
commitments to enter any further U19 or U21 Championships,) that with
3 Grand Prix wins including that of his first ever SGP, he was a
possible future speedway World Champion, but he stood down from the GPs in the subequent years
in order to partake in the SEC (Speedway European Championship,)
event. In the past 10+ years Polish riders have prevailed, with just 2 Aussies, Fricke and Lidsey, breaking their hold on the title.
Click sections below for full-size up-to-date tables. 
Darcy Ward, U21 World Champ 2009, '10; Maciej Janowski U21 World Champ 2011
2013 U21 World Championship,
2nd Piotr Pawlicki PL, 1st Patryk Dudek PL , 3rd Kacper Gomolski PL
c
To complement the senior and U21 World Championships (and UEM/FIME U19) the FIM has introduced during the last decade its 'Gold Trophy' series, - World Championships in all but name: 80cc Speedway and125cc Grass Track for 12 - 16year olds and more recently the 250cc Speedway and 250cc Long Track Youth Gold Trophies for14-17 year olds. The UEM/FIME has parallel 80 Speedway and 125 Grass Track 'UEM Cups'. With their long-standing youth development schools Denmark has not surprisingly dominated the 85cc competitions, - FIM and also UEM/FIME tournaments: only once in 11 years have Danes not taken the YGT podium 123. In the present decade to 2023 Dane Mikkel Andersen alone has taken 6 Cups and Trophies in 85cc and 250cc Speedway classes. Gt. Britain had success in the previous decade in the 125cc Grass Track event with 3 consecutive wins.
Click sections below for full-size up-to-date tables. 
Zach Wajtknecht GB Dimitri Berge FR, Daniel Spiller GY,
(125 Grass 2012,'13); (250 Grass 2012); (250 Speedway 2013)