Olsen's world speedway reccy

The man who'll create the purpose-built track at Etihad Stadium for the final round of the 2015 Speedway World Championship on October 24 has declared the Australian riders "will love this one".

Dane Ole Olsen, who will lead a team of six track builders shaping 4500 tonnes of dirt into a 346-metre oval circuit, said the size of Etihad Stadium gave him more room to ply his trade.

"There are size limitations on a lot of the football stadiums where we build tracks overseas," said Olsen, who won the world title in 1971, 1975 and 1978. "But Etihad Stadium is a fantastic venue for us to build a fast track, which I believe the Aussies will enjoy."
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Australia has three full-time riders in the 2015 championship: Chris Holder, Jason Doyle and Troy Batchelor, with a fourth to be added as a wildcard at Etihad Stadium.

Olsen, together with Danish architects Rambol and construction company Arkil, have been responsible for building tracks at many grand prix venues including Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Parken Stadium in Copenhagen Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg and the Friends Arena in Stockholm.

In October 2014, Etihad Stadium signed a five-year deal with FIM Speedway Grand Prix rights holder, BSI Speedway, to stage the Australian FIM Speedway Grand Prix in Melbourne for five years, with the option of another five on top of that.

Paul Sergeant, the CEO of Etihad Stadium, said he is excited to bring more world-class sport to the world-class venue.

“Bringing FIM Speedway Grand Prix racing to Etihad Stadium has been on our agenda for some time and is a tremendous coup for Melbourne,” Sergeant said. “We’re looking forward to an exciting five years of SGP action and are in no doubt it will become a hugely popular event due to its spectator atmosphere.

"We want to make it a part of the sporting landscape in Melbourne and Australia, and our intention is to make this the speedway grand prix of the world. Cardiff has that title at the moment, but we want to be number one."

The event has already had a tremendous response with more than 63 per cent of ticket purchases coming from outside Victoria and a further seven per cent from overseas.

The 2015 Speedway World Championship begins in Warsaw, Poland on April 18, with irrepressible American Greg Hancock the defending champion. Hancock is the only rider in this year's field who competed in the last Speedway Grand Prix round in Australia, held in Sydney in 2002.

Five Aussies have won the world speedway title: Lionel van Praag in the first ever staging in 1936, followed by Bluey Wilkinson (1938), Jack Young (1951-52), Jason Crump (2004/2006/2009) and Holder (2012).

Crump is an ambassador for the Etihad Stadium round alongside Leigh Adams.

“Maybe I retired a couple of years too early!," said Crump at last year's Etihad launch. “The event is going to be awesome. Leigh and I raced in stadiums like this, and the atmosphere for the home riders was just unreal.

"Holder, Doyle and Batchelor will be very fortunate to race in this stadium with their friends, family, sponsors and country all behind them. It stands the hairs up on the back of my neck just thinking about it.”