A former Speedway world champion used drugs to ‘keep him going’ as he worked through the night, a court was told.

Michael Lee, 54, admitted possessing 12.44 grams of cannabis and cannabis resin as well as 1.12 grams of amphetamine when he appeared at West Suffolk Magistrates’ Court in Bury St Edmunds today.

Lee, of Freckenham Road, Worlington, who now co-promotes Mildenhall speedway, was fined £600.

David Shipman, mitigating, said that Lee, who started racing at 17 and was Speedway world champion aged 21, had “undergone a great deal of fame at a young age, great deal of success, great deal of heartache and problems since then.”