Toni Svab For Toni Svab the 2003 campaign heralds the start a couple of fresh challenges – the first being a new British club but, more importantly, discovering if he has overcome the broken leg which has kept him out of the saddle for the past 18 months. After a slow start for the Mancunians, his fifth British club, mainly brought about by the hiccups of engine frustrations, the prospects have livened in recent matches. His scoring input will determine whether the season is a success or failure for the Aces. The 29 year-old is from fine breeding stock, his father Antonin senior was 1970 Ice Champion, and Svab junior has tasted team success before when, in 1998, he was an integral part of the Ipswich treble-winning line-up containing the likes of Tony Rickardsson, Tomasz Gollob, Chris Louis and Scott Nicholls. Born in Vlasim in the Czech Republic, Svab began his interest of motorcycles early, at 13, firstly on a small plot of grass land before starting to race competitively at the age of 18. In between though, for two years he stayed well clear of the two wheels after crashing and attaining serious injury. Like many of his compatriots before him, he signed for Exeter in 1994. The huge County Ground circuit is a second home for Czech riders… not that Svab is only at home on the biggies, as Ipswich and Eastbourne testify. They are two tracks where he has been most successful, and they can’t actually be billed as biggies.