The Speedway Collection, launched and on sale today, features tops, a tracksuit, caps and more - inspired by a time when thrill-seekers flocked to Stamford Bridge to enjoy novel and noisy racing.

Chelsea Football Club has always been an innovator, and just under a century ago and celebrated in this clothing range, we gave birth to a new professional sport in the UK.

With motorsport culture once again shaping fashion today, this new range fuses the football look with those fast-living days and it is modelled here by Liam Delap, Kadeisha Buchanan, Jorrel Hato and Oriane Jean-Francois – in both film and photos.

• Click to shop the Speedway Collection

London’s loudest - when engines roared around the Bridge

The result of a desire to expand the use of Stamford Bridge beyond football and athletics and following on from a chance meeting, in 1928 the stadium owner and club director decided to give a home to a new type of motorbike racing, dreamt up in Australia and keen to test its popularity overseas with a permanent base.

The first race was held on a cinder ‘dirt track’ at the Bridge and nearly 50,000 showed up, a large percentage of them arriving on two wheels. Professional speedway was underway and it accelerated rapidly, feeding London’s growing fascination for motorised excitement.

With meetings under lights two nights a week, the Stamford Bridge team won the Southern League in its first year and then in 1932 the first National League title. We also hosted a match during the sport’s first test series between England and Australia. Then, just as quickly as it began, speedway was gone from the Bridge as Chelsea FC turned to greyhound racing instead.

But that brief and colourful splash in SW6 history, as Chelsea again led the way in shaping a sport globally, is revived today.

From track to clothing rack

The daredevil young riders who bravely took risks riding ear-splitting, brakeless bikes on our uniquely banked track are the inspiration for The Speedway Collection, which fuses football fashion with motor racing culture.

An iconic racing green colour, early speedway typography and trackside signage imagery are seen throughout the collection.

There is a chequered-flag theme to the polo shirt and on one of the t-shirt designs a Stamford Bridge Speedway Motor Club embroidered badge features.

A reversible bomber jacket features a nod to Gus Kuhn, who captained the Stamford Bridge team and was a finalist on that very first race night. His number 42 is on display when the jacket is turned from the green to the cream option.

You can spot a celebration of Kuhn and his team-mates’ 1929 Southern League success on the tracksuit jacket and on the quarter-zip sweat top, while speedway’s famous headwear inspires the selection of caps on sale, with the chequered flag and Motor Club badge again to the fore.

Completing the collection are a racing green hoodie and beanie, and a reversible lambswool scarf.

Click to shop online now or visit the Stamford Bridge Megastore, and sense those wheels spinning, bikes skidding and cinders flying in our stadium once again!