speedy den boy

Going slightly off topic do you have to buy tickets before hand or just turn up on the day?Thanks in advance

Many thanks to jerry for taking time out to answer some questions.Hopefully we can go back at a latter date for more stories JERRY Please can you tell us how you became involved with speedway as a spanner man? I begaon my love affair with speedway in 1969, when the Witches reopened in the old Division Two. It also happened to correspond with the beginning of a certain John Louis' career. I followed the club as a huge fan for many years, seeing JL win the Div Two Riders Title, then those back to back Div One titles in 1975 & 1976. I really became more involved after I met the Tiger at a Youth Club I belonged to in the 70's. John did a talk and film show at the club, with some spotty teenager piping up with the answers to everything that was asked of John during the evening. But, far from being annoyed, JL actually pulled me to one side and said I was to go to his Fan Club Secretary's house the next evening and he would leave me a signed colour poster as a reward. In fact I can still remember JL saying how impressed he was with my overall knowledge of speedway, particularly the machinery, gearing etc. Anyhow, I continued to go to Foxhall every week for many years, during which time I found out that I had a family connection to Trevor Jones, who rode for the Witches at reserve and also Canterbury during the 70's. I remember Trevor having his 'workshop' in a shed in his garden back then and me going along with my dad to collect a trailer full of bent frames, wheels and a discarded monkey mask. Needless to say that the monkey mask soon became mine, as I wore it to race around my own cycle speedway track, that we had built in the garden where I lived. During the 80's and 90's I finally started racing speedway, although not a really fast and competetive racer, I was steady and did more than a few 2nd Halves all over the place, although my only claim to fame was a thrid place in a best pairs meeting at Iwade in 1989, now known as Sittingbourne. Forward to 1995 and I was at a Charity Pre season football match between the Witches and a team of Ex Ipswich Town players at Humberdoucy Lane in Ipswich, when I bumped into JL again. We got chatting and before I knew what was happening I was on my way to work on the track staff at Foxhall. From just taking down the safety fence, I was soon involved in many aspects of the track side of things, helping Bob Ellis out with the track prep, ferrying riders about, spannering for more than a few and also getting stuck into other things like trying to gain sponsors for the club and so on. I even did a radio and press interviews at one stage. I ended up a the Track Curator at Mildenhall, on top of my duties at Ipswich and was pretty much working non stop all year around. That is my entrance into the world of speedway and I wouldn't change a thing. 2: Riders you have worked with over the Years? Crikey, where to start. I can go back to about 1979, I was involved with a friend of mine, David, whose surname escapes me after all these years, but I do remember he had an old JAP, that he rode in 2nd halves at Ipswich. I kind of helped him out and that was my first ever go on a speedway bike on my own. We used to do practice starts in his parents back garden, they had a plastic green house and we destroyed it with the dirt chucked out from the rear wheel. I then helped out Preben Eriksen when he came to Ipswich, he lived just over the road and I was in awe, having an Ipswich rider living so near. Myself and my best mate Trevor ended up washing his bikes and leathers and also being taught how to recut the rear tyres with a hacksaw blade, with the back side sharpened like a razor blade. The next rider I helped out was I think Tomasz Gollob, I went to a meeting at Swindon, with Elvin King, the Evening Star speedway scribe. I was in my decent gear, wandered to the pits fence, where JL grabbed me and had me over the wall and spannering for Tomasz. We fell out in a big way, mainly due to the language barrier. I couldn't understand what he wanted doing when he was on 2 minutes and I ended up against the pits wall in a big heap. But we ended up getting on brilliantly after that, just so long as I didn't spanner for him. I also helped out Chris Slabon, Kevin Teager, Jem Doncaster, which was the funniest thing I have ever done in speedway.... poor old Donkey. I also used to help some juniors out, like young David Osborne, the son of former Witch Brian Osborne, Matt Wright was another, in fact I cant honestly remember all of them, although Jarek Hampel was another. Just remembered another, spannering for Matej Ferjan at Oxford.... now that was an experience I won't forget. 3: Biggest Meeting you have been to as a spanner man for a rider? They were all big to me to be honest. The pressure on a mechanic at any speedway meeting is huge, despite what some will tell you. One mistake can cost both your rider and the club a meeting/ League title and money. If I was pushed to choose one, I suppose it would be at Wolverhampton for Jarek. There is always a good healthy rivalry between the two clubs and I was to spanner for Jarek at Monmore. He hated the place and we needed the points. I think that must have been around 2001, although the old memory isn't what it was, as I suffer with Menieres Disease these days and it affects the memory at times, one day I can remember everything in detail, then the next day its hazy. But I remember the Wolves match because Jarek was under pressure to score. It started badly, as I took a huge lump out of my leg unloading the bikes, then Jareks crash helmet failed scrutineering, the face area was like mush, so he borrowed one off of Donkey I think, which was too big for him. He also had a major oil leak on his bike, cracked crank case or something I think it was. It just went from bad to worse, as we lost and everyone was feeling lousy about it that night. 4: Worst & Best moment in speedway working as a Spannerman? There's two that actually spring to mind. The Swindon meeting with Tomasz Gollob, as I mentioned above, but also the Oxford meeting with Matej Ferjan, when Matej and Toni Svab crashed into eachother on the first bend and all hell broke loose both on track and in the pits. Its awkward as you are there for the team, but also for your rider. Luckily we had Greg Hancock as a guest that night and he worked his magic and calmed things down. Its hard enough racing a speedway bike and trying to win meetings, but when riders start going at eachother, then thats about as low as you can go as far as moral is concerned. The Best Meeting I attended as a spannerman is another hard one to choose. I was helping Donkey at Belle Vue, which was hilarious from the moment we set off in the van to go up there, to the moment we got home. I was allowed to drive, when we neared Manchester, we were going across the moors, down a really steep hill, with a sheer drop off to the left and a sharp corner at the bottom, I was happily trundling down this hill when Donkey wakes up from his snooze in the back and says, quite normally, " This is where we lost a wheel off the van last time"... cue one mechanic/driver gripping the sterring so tightly that my nuckles turned white and praying to God that we made the decent and turn at the bottom. We did make it, to be passed by Lol Hare in his VW van on the climb up the other side. Donkey told me to stick with Lol as he knew ehere to go, so I did, ending up doing about 50 in a 30 limit in Manchester to stay with him.... at which point Donkey beats me on the leg and says slow the heck down as he knew where to go. Then arriving at the track, walking the circuit and deciding on gearing, tyre pressures etc. Back in the pits Donkey hands me a lid from a kids plastic pirate chest, complete with tools and a piece of rag. Donkey says " These are the tools, that is a spanner, that is a screwdriver and that is your own piece of rag to wipe your hands on". I stood there dumbfounded, why was he talking to me like I was simple. It turns out that JL had told Donkey that I was hard of hearing and for some reason he took that as meaning I was a bit thick. When I explained I was partially deaf, but knew speedway bikes inside out, he fell about laughing. The other stand out meeting was the one at Poole, when we came back from 16 points down to beat the Pirates on their own turf. Now that was special, with Boycey turning Chris Louis bike into what he called a slug. Its a trade secret as to how he did that, but it softened the engine so much that Chris was like a different rider afterwards. It became a bit of a standing joke whenever we went to a track that was ultra slick..." Where's Boycey, we need a Slug doing over here". 5: Best Speedway Engine worked on? Without a doubt it was the MK4 Weslake. I'm biased as it was the last bike I ever owned and raced. I did all my own work on it, apart from when I blew it up in a big way at Iwade and Dave the trackman there at the time rebuilt it for me. It was just so easy to work on and getting parts was as easy as anything. I actually got everything I needed from Goddens of all places would you believe. I asked if they might have a complete gasket set for a Wessie laying about, as they used to do work on riders engines back then, they brought out a big cardboard box of bits and pieces, I think it cost me £20 for the lot, including two complete gasket sets and piston rings, plus a fair few other odds and ends. Apart from that blowup, it never ever let me down and was the most reliable engine I have ever known, that includes cars. I eventually sold the bike to a taxi driver called Stefan in Ipswich, as I had to retire with serious injuries to my knee and back, he got it for £150. It turns out it was Scott Nicholls very first 500 and the very one he started out on. Some years later, I was talking to Scotts dad and he said he remembered the bike well, it was in an aweful state, as the methanol had jellyfied in the carb. I hadn't drained it down after my accident, so they got it as it was. 6: Fav Track: I have three tracks that I absolutely loved, both to race on and also to watch at. Ipswich is the obvious one, although with the introduction of the Airfence it reduced the quality a lot, with the entrance and exits of the bends drastically reduced in width, but with the alterations that have been done over the past few weeks, I think it will once again be a track for true racers to have a go at. Wolverhampton is just so well prepared everytime I have seen it. It has numerous racing lines and just produces such great races time and again. The only minus point for me is the gap in the fence on the exit of the 2nd bend, where the track has an adverse camber and any rider going over is sucked into the backstraight fence and its game over. Other than that its a fantastic place. Saddlebow Road, Kings Lynn. When its prepared with plenty of grip, a better race track you will be hard pressed to find. Fantastic place, plenty of room to overtake. Again, it has one major flaw, that solid safety fence is a killer. I still suffer from a badly broken and dislocated shoulder I suffered there many moons ago. The shoulder is so weak it takes only the slightest wrong move to pop it out of joint and then its agony for a few days, although I learned a long time ago how to put the thing back in myself. 7: Have I been to any other Countries to spanner? Not to date, although I was on standby more than a few times to make trips abroad for riders. Toni Svab was the main one and I swapped a trip to Denmark to deliver some engines with my brother, 24 hours + on a Ferry wasn't possible with everything else I was doing. There's only so many hours in a day. 8: Funny Stories: Where do I start. There really have been so many its hard to choose. One that got more than a few laughs was Chris Louis asking me if I would cut down two pine tree's in his front garden. I hate heights, but drew the short straw and had to climb to the top of each one to 'top' them, cutting the top part away by hand. There was a slight breeze blowing, well Chris said it was slight, but it felt like a hurricane up there, some 30 feet up in the air, with the trees swaying back and forth like a pendulum. We finally came to actually chopping them down and realised we might hit the house. I disappeared back to the stadium and came back with a long piece of rope, to guide the trees away from the house. It worked a treat, apart from a slight miscalculation on where they would finally end up, right across Foxhall road. That must have been the quickest that two very large pine trees had been logged. We also discovered afterwards that we should have gained permssion from the council to fell them, as they were over a certain height. Chris looked bemused as we thought about trying to replant these giant tree's, akin to a giant wooden jigsaw puzzle. Another really funny one was with Tony Rickardsson. I took him back to Heathrow after a meeting. He had no hotel booked and we drove up and down to find a hotel with a room to spare. We finally found one, at which point we unloaded a filthy engine onto a very plush luggage trolley, all red velvet and gold handles. We then proceeded to have a standup row in the middle of the lobby, with the hotel receptionist looking on in bewilderment. Tony had taken the wrong wallet into the motorway services, so we paid for dinner. He wanted to repay us, but we wouldn't take it as he now had to pay in the region of £300 just for a room for the night, no food or anything, just a room and bed. So, there we were going at hammer and tongs with this dirty engine on this really posh trolley... I learn't some good Swedish that night, unfortunately I can't repeat it here.. And finally, the night Chris Louis and Scott Nicholls tried to pay me off over the upcoming British Final. I have only ever attended 3 British Finals and a Louis won it each time. Chris wanted to pay me to go, as I seemed like a lucky talisman for the Louis household and there was Scott offering to pay me not to go, sat with Jarek Hampel in the middle in the back of JL's car outside a hotel at Heathrow Airport... Jarek had no idea why they were offering all of this money to me at the time... the look on his face was priceless. At the end of the day, I have had a brilliant time being involved in speedway, from fan to rider, back to a fan and then the involvement with Ipswich on the trackstaff side of things and all the other odds and ends I got involved in. I no longer live on the Mainland these days, ill health dictates that I live an altogether quieter lifestyle, but I do watch on Sky and have my friends who keep me updated as best they can. I suppose I am lucky, with having made friends with some of the best riders to have ever worn the famous flying Witch, like Tony Rickardsson, Ben Eriksen, John Louis, Shrimp Davey, all of the 98 winning team, Jarek Hampel, who used to call me on New Years Eve with his then girlfriend, who he is now married to, Tomasz Gollob, who is one of the nicest guys I know, despite our initial falling out, Jem Doncaster, Kev Teager and last but not least Chris Louis, wonder if his Mrs has forgiven me yet... I put my foot in it after his serious crash in Sweden, when he had that back injury....never ask an injured rider about his comback just 2 weeks after the crash and specially when his wife walks in the room as you ask.... sorry Julie...honest. I could have told a lot more stories, mostly hilarious, of some of the antics, on the road to and from meetings, at the track working to get the prep done, Bob used to laugh til he cried sometimes, in fact so many I could probably write a book. Its ok, your safe, I'll save that for my retirement fund in about 20 years time. Hope you enjoyed some of Jerrys tales and many thanks again to him for agreeing to share some of his moments in speedway

On a more light hearted subject anyone think the start line girls were an odd choice for the final decider? Now i dont really like all that blowing kisses to the camera as we have seen all season but these girls were the complete opposite and looked completely fed up with the whole thing.cant someone get a happy medium between over doinng it and being grumpy.the one in the red really did look angry maybe she had a barny with her boyfriend just before start time!!!!

AJ Please

Sorry cant agree with that,in my opion Zorro has got better the older he has got but Scott going the other way!!. look out when zorro gets to 40 whats he gonna be like?!!!!

THANKS FOR INFO

ANYONE know weather Daniel Nermark would have rode for Solkatterna if the meeting was on tonight?

THANKS FOR INFO

do you know what daniel Nermark is up to on the 20th-will he ride in sweden or the uk?

very good match and a superb ride from lindback in heat 14 to team ride.Not so good was Holtas team riding!! clearing off from PK when PK made the space for him then i dont know what he was doing by blocking team mate gollobs every move to get past him!!! Dont think mr goolob was tooooooooooo happy!!!!!

Anyone know what happens if the 1st event on the 24th is cancelled?

The ref was none other than mr wojaczek,say no more,he must of had a great time pressing all the buttons in the refs box !!! I can just picture him now red excluded ,yep blue excluded and so on...... bet he even messed that up!!!

Blimey poor Tai,he spent a large chunck of his life in aussie,most prob grew up with troy batch,someone gave him an aussie t shirt,so what,i dosnt worry me in the slightist.

??????????? MUST BE A REPEAT AS THIS MEETING WAS CALLED OFF BECAUSE OF WTC(00000000PS SORRY FOR CAPS)

tv match also off rain(z Gora-leszno)

congrats on the arrival of the little un,i wonder what they will call it on the day poland won the WTC, MAYBE Thomazspeedway7nightsaweekTai Pearson!!

Firstly well done to the GB team who tried so hard last night.BUT all this about blooding youngsters i judt dont agree with.Team GB should always put their strongest team out for the WTC.This is the WTC for christ sake,its not a practice for the real thing,this is the real thing!Im sure its a British thing saying splendid,bravo etc but you know whats going to happen 4 years down the line .Nothing.AGAIN this is nothing against the riders who tried their best its about doing things properly.

But Lyons is there to manage the squad,look at denmark thet practice as a team all over the place including eastbourne!!Yes Danny king should be involved but its no good having a practice at kings lynn,get Danny out to poland with others time and time again,talk to people who could help him improve on big tracks and take kennett with him.Lyon should have been plannig his world cup dream as soon as the tracks were known,thats where Jan s the danish manager is so good.

NOT having read all pages on this topic to sorry if im going over old ground but why did pearson keep on saying we were the underdogs and blooding youngsters for the future when clearly denmark were weaker then us but there wasnt a word mentioned about Klindt and patrick H STEPPING UP INTO THE BIG TIME.Its like Pearson and co have got blinkers on as i thought we clearly had a chance to get to the final.Chris Holder and davey watt havnt had it easy in the elite this year with a lot of british boys beating them on a regular basis,but they stepped up to the plate and delivered.I cant beleive Rob Lyon saying we are planning for 3 or 4 years down the line,we should be ready now.If i was lyon i would try and arrange for the likes of King,Bridger etc extra track time in poland on a regular basis not using the actual world cup as a poor excuse to blood the younsters.simon lambert is doing the correct thing in riding in div 2 in poland most weeks to gain experience on polish tracks ,the trick being let the poles train our lads and get something out of them!!

Have to admit i was another one who questioned charlie being involved in speedway but she did much better tonight,so fair play to her,even chaseing around to interview riders like Aj!!!.Chris Louis on the other hand with his years in speedway could ask better questions!! Ken Bjerre had problems with his goggles in 3 races but did he ask him why,no,just the same old spill about track conditions,its like hes on auto pilot.Shame really as he speaks quite well but just asks duff questions!!

What started emils problems was a few heats back when Aj came from another planet to pip Emil on the line,in that heat Emil was so far ahead i think he was coasting a little bit but when Aj beat him on the line the red mist came down and you could see in his next heat(the one before the crash) that it had got to him and he was determined to try and reverse his slip up which fair play to him is good but not at all costs.Think he was mad with himself! and completely lost the plot .

LOL BUT they also on that funny wacky backy type smoke thingy they puff out there,so with the drink and the funny wacky backy we should get some top decisions are the bsap out there as well?

Terrible decision,one of the worst ive seen,the rider behind zagar got into trouble all on his own,he just made a mistake and bailed out,Zagar didnt even touch him anyway.What was Zagar reaction at being told he was excluded?

well ive seen it all now,pick a rider in King who is having a superb season in place of lee richardson who is having one of his best seasons for a long while.The mind boggles what is goING on in the speedway world of GB!!

MUST tune all GB riders bikes free of charge for thr WTC and have spares bikes ready for anyone that wants one!!!