SPEEDWAY legend Barry Briggs has thrown his support behind Jason Doyle and backed the Australian ace to match his feat of being crowned world champion as a Swindon Robins rider.

New Zealander Briggs, regarded as one of the sport’s greatest ever stars, achieved that feat in both 1964 and in 1966 and will be cheering on Doyle all the way as he looks to clinch the crown himself this evening.

Doyle heads to tonight’s Torun Grand Prix sitting top of the world championships standings, 22 points clear with two rounds to go.

A perfect night’s racing of 21 points in Poland will give the 32-year-old an unassailable lead ahead of the final GP of the year in Melbourne in three weeks’ time.

However, a more likely scenario is for Doyle to match the points hauls garnered by Polish duo Patryk Dudek and Maciej Janowski, who sit second and third in the standings respectively.

Briggs, now 82, believes no one is more deserving of the world championship crown than Doyle considering the adversity he has had to overcome along the way and a triumph for the Swindon skipper would be a boost for British speedway.

“Speedway is not my main focus but I know what is happening and I know that a Swindon rider is hopefully going to be world champion and he rides in England all the time, which I like,” said Briggs.

“I would hate to think speedway in England has been de-tuned by the riders not riding here. If Jason wins it I think it’s fantastic for him, for Swindon and British speedway.

“It is not just about being a racer, because there are a lot of blokes who can do the same sort of time in speedway, but it’s the hanging in when things are bad.

“That’s the hard thing and no one has had it harder than what he has. He has been hurt seriously a couple of times and fought back so you do need an element of luck.

“He should have been world champion last year so fingers crossed he is going to do it this year.”

Doyle, who helped the Robins win the SGB Premiership title with a stunning Grand Final fightback against Wolverhampton Wolves on Wednesday, has scored 132 points from 10 Grands Prix so far in 2017.

The Swindon skipper has made all but one final in this year’s competition and finished on the top step of the podium at the Czech GP back in June.