No brakes, no gears, no fears. It might be the catchphrase of a society for fantasising middle-aged men but, instead, it is the marketing slogan that draws people to speedway, which is much the same thing.

Speedway in Britain is straining to escape from a straitjacket of stereotypes. It has its big chance once a year, and puts on a show to be proud of. The trouble is that too few take notice, and even fewer seem to care.

The Millennium Stadium in Cardiff was ten years old on Friday. The next evening, its second decade was launched with one of its iconic events.

Yet how many sports followers would know that the British speedway grand prix took place before a crowd of 42,000, let alone who won it?

Later, BBC radio sports bulletins gave airtime to a rugby league match watched by 5,000 and an obscure golf tournament in Germany. No mention of the event that drew the biggest sporting attendance of the weekend.

The neglect extends to national newspapers and infuriates speedway lifers, who bluster about snobbery and alienation. They have a point — this is a spectacular sport of speed, confrontation and courage. It deserves better.

Yet its greatest enemy is the preconceptions it perpetuates. Ask around for a photofit of the average speedway fan and you are likely to get a pretty accurate image of the majority who descended on the Welsh capital.

In late morning, they formed a curious clan outside Primark, waiting for their womenfolk to emerge with their purchases. Most wore the speedway equivalent of a replica shirt — a cross between the garb of ice hockey and darts, mostly modelled by the fuller figure. Some sported gaudy anoraks, almost all wore baseball caps.

The archetype came along on cue. He was in his 50s with an unkempt beard. His shirt and cap displayed his Birmingham affiliations, he was draped in a Union Jack and brandishing an airhorn. Central casting could not have done better.

Speedway is a blue-collar sport — earthy and unpretentious. British clubs, of which only nine compete at Elite League level, are floundering in the recession, cutting back on outlay and glad to hang on to their regular diehards with their caps and clipboards.

In some ways, despite its lack of profile, the grand prix has broken the mould. Even though it is costly, with tickets costing up to £90, it drags in an event crowd — younger and less overwhelmingly male than the norm. First-timers tend to love its slick, all-action presentation.

Saturday saw them rock to tribute band Killer Queen, admire a spot of bike acrobatics then settle to watch the top 16 riders in the world scrap it out around four circuits of the temporary track laid each June. The atmosphere, ever clamorous with horns and music blaring, was made more deafening by the curiously closed roof.

As ever, the fans saw a few spills. Unusually — for this is not a sport that trades in violence — they even witnessed a very public punch-up that led to Emil Sayfutdinov being booed like a pantomime villain for the rest of the night.

The teenage Russian is the sensation of this season, winning two of his first four grands prix. Only one Russian had ridden previously at this level and Sayfutdinov could give his country a world champion long before Britain produces another.

Here, perhaps, is part of the problem. Mark Loram was the last British world champion in 2000 — and one of only two Britons to take that title in the past 29 years.

And this is a sport it once dominated. The domestic league has long been the domain of glamorous mercenaries — at least until this year, when parlous finances mean that many can no longer be afforded.

Much more should have been made of Chris Harris winning the Cardiff Grand Prix in 2007. Harris was hardly the smooth, articulate role model speedway might have craved but that could have added to the tale. He had been a constant truant at his Cornish school, he was dyslexic, yet he had found a niche and conquered it at 24.

Harris made it to the semi-finals on Saturday but the final featured a Dane, a Swede, an Australian and an American.

Jason Crump won it, his third grand prix of the season. Barring accidents, he will regain the world title this year. For now, he was an Australian winning in Cardiff, something England supporters will not wish to see repeated when rather more tune in to an event in ten days’ time.

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