Zach Wajtknecht

Zach Wajtknecht (born 8 February 1998) is a motorcycle speedway rider from Great Britain.

Career
At an early age Wajtknecht became a double World Champion, twice triumphing in the FIM 125cc Grasstrack Youth Gold Trophy. He followed up these successes by being crowned British 250cc Youth Champion in 2013 and winner of the FIM 250cc Longtrack Youth World Cup in 2014. These successes led to Zach being awarded the prestigious Pinhard trophy, a trophy he described himself as being "over the moon" to win.

Wajtknecht was handed his big break in speedway by the newly reformed National League Birmingham Brummies ahead of the 2015 season, the team's first season in the third tier of British Speedway. The team was put together by former manager Phil Morris, the newly appointed FIM Race Director for the Speedway Grand Prix series. Morris described Wajtknecht as having "what it takes to enjoy a very successful speedway career" He was part of the Birmingham team that won the league title during the 2015 National League speedway season and the National League Fours, held on 14 June 2015 at Brandon Stadium.

In 2017, he won the British Under-19 Championship at Plymouth. His 2017 season was cut short in July when a crash at Swindon resulted in a ruptured spleen and punctured lung.

In 2019, he was the European Grasstrack champion.

In 2022, he finished second for the World Longtrack title, finishing 28 points behind Mathieu Trésarrieu in the 2022 Individual Long Track World Championship. In 2023, he was part of the British longtrack team, along with Chris Harris and Andrew Appleton, that won the bronze medal at the 2023 Team Long Track World Championship.

Speedway
British League Record

World Championship Grand-Prix

 * 2019 - 2 apps (14th) 25pts
 * 2020 - 2 apps (4th) 32pts
 * 2021 - 2 apps (15th) 8pts
 * 2022 - 6 apps (2nd) 88pts

World Team Championship

 * 2018 - 🇫🇷 Morizes 6/46pts (with James Shanes, Adam Ellis & Chris Harris) 2nd
 * 2019 - 🇩🇪 Vechta 16/41pts (with Chris Harris, Edward Kennett & Adam Ellis) 4th
 * 2022 - 🇩🇪 Herxheim 29/47pts (with Chris Harris, James Shanes) 5th