Chris Van Straaten: I don’t want to be the one to let speedway fans down

Yet just like everyone else, the Wolves speedway ace has found living through a pandemic a challenging, strange albeit sometimes rewarding experience.

For one thing, he’s had to get a normal job.

“In some ways it has helped a little bit because I have never really held a job outside of speedway before now,” he explains. “We were all ready to go with the season last year and then the pandemic hit. It was like ‘bang’ now I have to go and get a real job.”

At a time when he expected to be racing round the track, Schlein instead found himself delivering parcels for the courier firm Hermes. He’s enjoyed it so much, he’s still there, even as his sport takes its first tentative steps back.

“I started off delivering and then moved my way into the office as a supervisor,” he explains. “It has been a cool experience. Lucky enough I landed on my feet in a good position. I am going to be working there through the year. It is a good job and I am surrounded by good people.”

Schlein’s story is far from unique in speedway. His Wolves team-mate, Broc Nicol, worked as a part-time mechanic to help pay the bills back in his native California. Finally, they will get the chance to race in the UK again with Wolves set to open their Premiership campaign at home to Belle Vue on Monday.

A season which is starting around two months later than normal as yet has no guarantees of finishing. To get an idea of how close it came to never getting going at all, you only need to listen to Wolves long-time promoter Chris Van Straaten, who has already overcome endless obstacles just to keep the team on the track.

“There were countless times when I would go to bed at night and think: ‘That’s it. I have got to stop all this.’” he says.

“But then you wake up, you refresh and you carry on, you jump the next hurdle. That is what it is like. It has been difficult.”

Even when the outlook was bleak, Van Straaten ploughed on, primarily thanks to the deep love of speedway which has kept him involved in the sport since 1986 but also the determination not to let down fans, without whose financial support the club simply could not continue.

“I didn’t want to be the one who let the Wolverhampton people down,” he says. “They have been tremendous.

“Our season ticket holders almost all left their money with us, which kept us going.

“All the regular financial commitments with lease agreements, we had to keep faith with even last year. Without the fans we would not be here today. Their support has been remarkable.

“Speedway is like a religion for a lot of people. It is like it was for me when I started. I didn’t want to let them down.”

No sport is emerging from the pandemic unscathed.

Yet speedway has taken more hits than most and for all that the engines might again be roaring, it is still far from out of the woods. The Premiership will feature just six teams this season, with Swindon opting to take a year out and Poole dropping down into the Championship, to be replaced by Sheffield.

Van Straaten, meanwhile, has warned the campaign cannot be completed under the current social distancing restrictions which means crowds at Monmore will be limited to under 1,000.

Talk this week of a delay to the final step of the government’s roadmap out of lockdown, while of concern to all sports as they hope for the return of supporters in increasing number, is particularly alarming for speedway. The abandonment of Monday’s Thank You NHS Trophy, which marked the Wolves long awaited return to Monmore, after just two races due to adverse track conditions felt an unnecessarily cruel kick in the teeth.

“We can’t do the whole season on a restricted crowd. It just isn’t possible,” says Van Straaten.

“We will be running at a loss up to June 21. We are prepared to take that on the chin to get the season up and running and we are hoping after then most of the restrictions will go.”

Therein lies the problem. No matter how much effort Van Straaten and his team put in, ultimately fate is not in their hands.

“You just have to live in the now and enjoy everything which comes of it,” reflects Shlein.

“That is the only way we can look at it, in terms of our sport and life.”

Had things gone to plan, the 36-year-old and his family would be back in his native Australia by now. Originally, his intention had been to retire at the end of the 2020 season yet the injury he sustained while racing in Poland six years ago, breaking two vertebrae and damaging a lung and kidney, meant he was always determined to go out on his own terms.

While the past year might have been unusual, it has still created special memories. When Schlein won the British title in September – in one of the few meetings to take place on UK soil in 2020 – he had a whole new group of people to celebrate with.

“I had to work the following morning and when I walked through the door they were all singing the Championes song,” he laughs. “Hopefully I’ll get a few of them to come down to Monmore this season.

“Everyone has their own story in terms of what they have had to go through this last year. I have been lucky enough.

“That is what living life is, dealing with real people and learning new things. I have certainly done that in the last 12 months.”