John Cook (Speedway Rider)

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John Cook was an American international speedway rider in the 1980s, also riding in the 1990s and the 00's.

He is mainly remembered for his spell at the Ipswich Witches Speedway team from 1981 - 1982 and again from 1984 - mid 1986 although Cook had further spells at Hull Vikings, King's Lynn Stars, Poole Pirates and again Kings Lynn in his last spell in the British Elite League in the year 2000, where the Kings Lynn side were known as the Knights and went on to lift the KO CUP that year (although they missed out on the league title when they lost the title decider at rivals the Eastbourne Eagles).

Cook was a showman and continued in this vein for the whole of his career, whilst not always riding in the British League, he was a regular rider in the Swedish League where he attained Swedish citizenship in the early 90's and in fact won the Swedish National Championship in 1992 with a flawless 15 point maximum.

Cook continued to ride well into his 40's and almost qualified for the Speedway Grand Prix Series for 2002, only failing at the 2001 Intercontinental Final stage.

Cook surfaced again on the international Speedway front in 2006 where he was indeed a member of the Team USA squad for the Speedway World Cup of that year, however he was not required to ride in the actual competition and then in October 2006 Cook suffered a serious motorcycle accident in which he hurt his back quite badly and had to have metal rods inserted, these though were later removed as Cook began to make a recovery, sadly however his riding days are now over.

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