SWINDON Robins captain Jason Doyle has thanked the fans after the Australian star scooped the Swindon Advertiser Rider of the Year award for the 2016 season.

Doyle won the trophy with a landslide 89 per cent of the votes, which were cast via post and email by Adver readers.

The Australian led by example throughout the 2016 season and has described the award as an ‘honour’.

“It’s nice to get it from the fans at Swindon and the people around the speedway community to be voted the best rider in Swindon,’’ he told the Adver.

“Thank you to the fans for their support and also voting for me to be rider of the year I’m sorry for not having the best of seasons for Swindon.

“To be among the names of Leigh Adams and a few other well-known riders, it’s nice to be a part of it.

“Hopefully, I can do the same performance next year. It’s such an honour to get rider of the year for any club.

“Hopefully we can have a better year and I was really happy that everyone stuck by in the hard times when it wasn’t going so good.

“I think we have got some really good support in Swindon and hopefully we can have a better year next year.”

Doyle, won 77 of the 126 races he contested in Robins colours, finishing out of the points only five times and succeeds Poland’s Grzegorz Zengota, who was last year’s winner.

The 31-year-old was still in Torun this week following his season-ending crash in the Polish Grand Prix and is hoping for a better campaign in the Elite League next season.

“You can’t dwell on the past, so we’ll sweep it to one side and get on with it. You can’t change what happened, you just need to look forward to the future,” added Doyle.

“The owners are looking forward to changing Swindon for the best so this is exciting times and with the new stadium, it’s a great time to be here.”