Speedway teen speaks of track return a year after crash

Sam Norris devotes time to mechanics and engineering with his father Chris

A young speedway rider has said he is determined to return to the track a year after a crash left him fighting for his life.

Sam Norris, 16, a rider with Mildenhall Fen Tigers in Suffolk, suffered a serious brain injury at the British Youth Championships on 16 June 2019.

The teenager has been devoting his time to building bikes - and is set to study motor engineering next year.

He said he still suffered fatigue but "wants to reduce it enough to ride".

"It honestly doesn't sound like a year," he told the BBC. "I've come back from a crash to practising on a bike - and hopefully back to a stage where I used to be."

He said his first ambition was to get back on his 250cc bike on a grass track "by August at the earliest".

The young speedway rider, pictured earlier this month, is determined to return to the track

Sam and his mother Claire will be keynote speakers at a neurology conference in October organised by the brain charity Headway Suffolk.

The 16-year-old had to learn to walk and talk again after the accident in Glasgow left him in a coma.

He credited his recovery to his parents, who "kept talking to me and reassuring me during those 10 important days" in a paediatric intensive care unit - before he was transferred to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge to begin his recovery closer to home.

• Injured speedway rider visits crash track

• 'Back on the bike I almost lost my life on'

• Latest updates from the East of England

He spent three months' rehabilitation at the Children's Trust in Surrey and returned to school part-time in November last year.

Sam Norris rode for his club, the Mildenhall Fen Tigers, even though he was still at school

"We had no idea if he would make the first 24 hours," Mrs Norris remembered, describing his crash as "a bit surreal".

"I tried singing and annoyed him with childhood songs.

"But Sam's fitness and his mindset got him through. Even in rehab he used to say he wanted to work on his left side because that's his clutch hand.

"I'm convinced he is where he is today because he wants to get back on a bike."

The speedway rider's love of bikes began at a young age

Mrs Norris said the crash had changed the family.

"My stomach will be a washing machine if he gets back on the bike," she said.

"But I was told by Sam, 'you try and stop me'. You can't knock anyone who doesn't give up."