Howdy's long and eventful career started with West Ham, where he was to be found racing from 1947-1955. During that period, speedway was taking off in Holland in a big way and several Englishmen,including Howdy, were to be found riding in the Dutch Leagues as well as their own tracks at home. Howdy had a taste for riding overseas for in 1955 he was riding for the Durban Hornet's (South Africa) in the winter months, but he was to receive serious facial injuries for his efforts.

He was selected for the England touring side of Australia during the 1949/50 season that crashed 6-1 to an Aussie team which included another "Falcon" of that era, Ken Walsh.

Howdy made the switch to Oxford in 1956 before coming to the County Ground in 1961. He remained with the Exeter side until he officially retired at the end of the 1964 season, but such was his love for the sport, that he was coaxed back in 1965 to ride for the Hackney outfit and again in 1966 to ride for Kings Lynn. The records also shows Howdy having ridden at Ipswich, though exactly what period this was isn't clear.

In 1968 he was to become manager of the Weymouth Wizards team, but the sides entry into the second division of that period was to doomed to failure owing to poor attendances. His points tally in the early years were 803pts from 201 matches at W.Ham and 293pts from 75 matches at Oxford. One of Howdy's more noted talents was when he used to sing to the spectators over the track tannoy systems.

In 1962, Howdy had scored 249 from 33 meeting for Exeter and had spent much of 1963 season sidelined with a broken arm. Howdy returned from a year long lay off after that injury to join Exeter well into the 1964 season. Started out a little on the rusty side but was soon back in the groove and ended that year having scored 110 pts from 22 meetings and his antics on and off the track kept the fans well amused.