Dakota North (speedway rider)

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Dakota North
Career history
North riding for Oxford Lions in 2007
Born	(1991-08-04) 4 August 1991 (age 33) Shepparton, Victoria
Nationality	Australian
Great Britain
2007	Mildenhall
2010	Newcastle
2011, 2013	Peterborough
2011	Somerset
2012	Ipswich
2012	King's Lynn
2012	Birmingham
2014	Swindon
2015	Poole
Denmark
2015	Region Varde

Individual honours
2007	Australian Under-16 Champion

Team honours
2007	Australian Under-16 Pairs
2010	Premier League Trophy

Dakota Max North (born 4 August 1991) is an Australian former motorcycle speedway rider.^[1]^[2]

Career

North, named by his father – former Stoke Potters rider Rod North – after the Douglas Dakota aircraft, was born in Shepparton, Victoria, Australia in 1991.^[3]^[4]^[5] He took up speedway at the age of twelve and won the Australian Under-16 Championship and the Australian Junior Pairs title (with Justin Sedgmen) in 2007.^[3]

After a few appearances in Britain in 2007, he signed with Mildenhall Fen Tigers in 2009, but his season was cut short after chipping two vertebrae in a crash while representing Australia at Under-21 level in July against Great Britain.^[3]^[4] In December 2009 he was signed by Elite League Peterborough Panthers as a club asset and was loaned to Premier League team Newcastle Diamonds for the 2010 season.^[3]^[6]

He signed for Somerset Rebels for the 2011 season, also doubling-up in the Elite League with the Panthers. In 2012, North joined the Ipswich Witches in a loan deal. In April 2012 he was added to the King's Lynn Stars team in the Elite League, replacing Filip Šitera, but was replaced at the end of the month by Mateusz Szczepaniak.^[7]^[8] The following month, he signed for Birmingham Brummies, sharing a doubling-up position with Josh Auty.^[9] In 2013, he signed to ride in the Elite League for Peterborough Panthers. In July 2013 North joined the Glasgow Tigers until the end of the 2013 season, whilst also continuing his duties with the Panthers

World Final appearances

Individual Under-21 World Championship

2012 – 15th – 21pts

Under-21 World Cup

2012 – Gniezno, Stadion Startu Gniezno – 2nd – 44pts (8)

References

^ "Dakota North". British Speedway. Retrieved 11 February 2023.
^ "ULTIMATE RIDER INDEX, 1929-2022" (PDF). British Speedway. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "2011 Rider Index", speedwaygb.co, retrieved 2011-11-15
^ ^a ^b "Diamonds sign Australian teen Dakota North", Chronicle Live, 18 December 2009, retrieved 2011-11-15
^ Heppell, Lawrence (2009) "Dakota jets in to join Diamonds", Newcastle Journal, 18 December 2009, retrieved 2011-11-15
^ "SPEEDWAY: Aussie aces reject a Fen Tigers return", Newmarket Journal, 24 December 2009, retrieved 2011-11-15
^ "Stars to Get Stronger", speedway365.com, 7 April 2012, retrieved 2012-04-07
^ "Stars Bolster Their Team", speedway365.com, 27 April 2012, retrieved 2012-04-27
^ "Brummies Bring in North", speedway365.com, 9 May 2012, retrieved 2012-05-09