martinmauger

Terrific commentator, so many of my early experiences and memories of speedway on TV were brilliantly described by Dave. Of Ivan Mauger (1973 World Final): "Here comes Mauger around the outside, come on Ivan my son!" Of Peter Collins (several times): "And Collins goes high, wide and handsome". And so many more. RIP....

As many already said: muchos kudos for time effort (and patience) keeping folk informed....

+ Redcar ? At Hull's Craven Park, I believe the speedway promotion only received income from season ticket sales, match day admission, programme sales, track shop rent and any sponsorship + fence / programme advertising, of which there was almost always a lot. Not sure about car parking income, but bar takings went to the landlords.. Early doors Craven Park had to be the ideal model for a stadium paying for itself as near to 7 days a week as possible staging, as it did, rugby, speedway, greyhounds + functions in the bar(s). Apparently future plans included a round of the short - track / flat - track racing series which was televised. Sadly, these days the Lightstream Stadium, as it is now known, only stages rugbny league with speedway totally out of the picture due to a new stand 'squaring off' what used to be turns 3 & 4. Sigh...

Some kind of promotion, anything, would be a good start. How often do we despair on replying to "speedway, what's that ?". Sigh. A guy at work is into stox and hotrods, well any motorsport really, lived around the corrner from Wimbledon stadium most of his life, untll quite recently, and was completely unaware speedway ever used to run there. Also I'm surprised Woffy's PR haven't gotten him featured in bike / music / lifestyle type of magazine, with his piercings and inkwork he looks more like a heavy metal biker guy than a speedway rider.......

Should have read "completing the race without even losing his position". And it was in fact 2004 I have it on DVD but unable to upload. Phil Morris: Wizzer, as in Wizard Of Wales ? Nice guy Phil; bought a few Reading v Hull vids from him and he threw in some DVDs FOC that he'd previously forgotten to mention. Lovely gesture :t: ....

Dunno either. I've made enquiries and it appears Emiliano has always been nicknamed Poty, even from his Trewlany & Glasgow days, and I believe it to be a common-ish nickname in his native Arngentina. At Hull we just knew him as 'The Crazy Argie' . One reason was in a 2005 race, I believe it was, at Craven Park and knowledgable he had entered turn 1 way too hot and was therefore unlikely to exit turn 2, he let the bike run and rode 2ft UP the fence, completing the race with even losing his position. Class ..

I recall Eriksen's van, hey it was 'just' a van (!), it even made the weekly motorcycle comics: MCN & Motorcycle Weekly....

Yeah, Briggo helped Tatum in 1985/86 (87?) on speedway then Mauger had a little involvment with Kelv's later longtrack wins. Think Mauger also had the odd word with with Simon Wigg, as again did Briggo I think, from time to time....

Think I read it in Briggo' book 'Wembley And Beyond' about Mauger's early Sprouts Elder-style handlebars. Moving slightly sideways, which is what we do on this forum, anyone recall or know who the rider was who needed a logo or slogan covering on his kevlars covering as it was offensive ? I can only remember him being a Dane (or maybe a Swede) who in his first ever meet over here wore kevvies from his 'own country' so all the lettering was in a foreign language and wasn't understood by us Brits - apart from this one word or phrase....

Could be, and prevous post, couldn't quote both. Personally, I used to think it came from his Exeter days when he wore green leathers for a while. Anyone know why Niels Kristian Iversen is sometimes called 'Puk' ?....

Indeed I do (at least I think I do). I believe it given to him by Barry Briggs due to his (Mauger's) handlebars on an early bike resembling those of American rider Lloyd 'Sprouts' Elder who rode in the 1920's & 30's. Coincedentally I read that somewhere recently, probably in a Vintage Speedway Magazine, though more than a bit before my time....

Indeed. Mauger also had an involvement with Mark Loram in 2000. As pointed put ex-World Champs don't seem to help along riders as they used to be, though Nielsen was Denmark team manager in this year's SWC. If Woffy does run training school(s) rider have nothing to lose just by listening to him....

As an ex-modeller, but current track anorak, I can appreciate the effort that went into his brilliant model. Great work. Think the Britains model bikes and riders are the wrong scale for this model and would be too big., a centre piece might work though...

Think Hancock had early tips and assitance form Bruce Penhall and Barry Briggs certainly learned from Ronnie Moore, but Mauger spent a lot of time with Jack Young prior to his 'second coming' (couldn't resist that) to the British League. And so it begat Ole Olsen spent a lot of time with Mauger in their Newcastle days and I believe Peter Collins, & Chris Morton, benefitted from some one-to-one tuition at Hyde Road with Mauger. Chris Morton was never individual Wolrd Chamipion of course but he did win the old World Team Cup with England and the World Best Pairs with Collins....

Kick, schmick. I remember reading of one rider, forget who but think it was at Mildenhall, had a cat, dog & pig of a meeting mechanically and proceeded to bodily pick up his bike and launch it at a wall . He then loudly proclaimed to all in hearing range "don't anyone touch that flipping bike, it's blooming scrap!" . Or words to that effect. Presumably it was loaded up and taken back home (or maybe to a skip)....

As above, various commitments prevent more fequent visits. As an aside, I took my father to watch Scunny Amateurs the week before - his first live meet since watching Hull Angels in 1949 - and he thouroughly enjoyed it and woulda loved the JAPs in 2nd half of the Redcar match. Beat that anyone for re-introducing 'lapsed fans' . Thanks for the missing info, such a blooming shame for the Devils....

I was there: good racing and shame Scunny didn't start the season with this line-up. I arrived just as Rob Godfrey announced 'some track', didn't catch which one, "had their air fence cut up by vandals and so we are lending them our spare one", anyone any idea which unfortunate club he referred to ?...

Same here, though I wasn't there Monday, I just didn't have the bottle . Going slightly off topic, after paying (wasting ?) my entry at Reading's Smallmead, while they were still the Racers I should point out, I noticed many gained entry via the pit gate, walked straight through the pits - totally unchallenged - and so onto the terraces ....

The mystery to me on visits to the Abbey was why anyone bothers paying to get in . The low wall at the car park end turns one & two seemed low enough to be easily hopped over (should one be so inclined) and there never seemed any staff on the other side, inside the stadium, to prevent such free-loading activities ....

Thoughts with Charlie, all the very best for speedy recovery....

Wasn't being disrespectful or ignorant, I'd much prefare to remember Ivan for his sporting life and how he was the last I spoke with him, in 2010 I think it was, as he expanded stories from his book. We also discussed the dozens of photos I gave him which he was genuinely surprised to receive and was very appreciative of and he patiently answered my (hopefully not too many!) questions. 2 of my relatives suffered from similar conditions in the last cople of years; one alzheimers, one dementia and it was upsetting how their personalities changed, one was totally 180 degrees from their usual self. Mercifully both seemed completely unaware they were having such issues. Having in all liklihood having lost more relatives and friends than most over the last few years, I prefare to think of people as they were when fully well and also embrace the fact none appeared to suffer. Such is life at times....

As above ^^. Ivan also turned around the fortunes of every team he rode for and accelerated the careers of at least one team mate at each club he rode for: Ole Olsen (Newcastle), Peter Collins (Belle vue), Scott Autrey (Exeter) + Joe Owen & Dennis Sigalos (Hull). Re his gold bike: Ivan himself told me he only expected messers Wenn & Bokelman to polish or maybe chrome plate parts of said machine and was more than blown away to find they had gold-plated the entire bike. Incedentally, if the frame on said bike looks a tad out of line, well it should because it is. Ivan went on to inform me that he considered such an 'altered frame' would be an advantage for the 1970 World Final in Wroclaw. So, in his own words, he, Peter Oakes and others performed the unusual set-up change by altering the frame geometry with the aid of a sweeping brush handle (!). Seemed to work as he won the 1970 World Championship with a full 15 pt maximum and he needed to as in each and every heat the other 3 riders were literally breathing down his exhaust pipe.....

Thought Team GB did great. After watching the first events and how the Swede,s Poles and Assies went 'Woffy v The Rest' and therefore a home pasting seemed on the cards. But all the Brit riders did great; seeing off the Swedes and Aussies and getting within touching dstance of the 'always gonna be quick on this track Poles'. 2nd in the World Cup Final - I'll take that all day long. Freakin' brilliant ....

All the above plus: Viking Heads And, somewhat surprisingly, not knowing within hours (minutes) a result and the exctement / surprise discovering how your team or rider faired: e.g. I never found out until the Monday morning that Mauger won World Championship again '79. That said, I do like to know as much possible about any subject I'm interested in and appreciate being able to research quickly via the 'net, but still miss the anticipation of not knowing everything almost instantly. If that makes any sense....

Even before I played the speedway game on my Amgia I had International Speedway on my C64, on cassette cost 2.99. Viewed from over head you controlled your rider against opposition such as 'Ivor Major, 'Olle Olson', 'Ronnie Briggs, 'Barry Moore', etc. Bringing things up to date, one of my grilrfriend's mates has 'Super Speedway 2' (or Speedway 2) on her fone which she downloaded if not 'freemans' then very cheaply. Not surprisingly much better graphics and sound than the 2 above games, the look is very similar to the Speedway Grand Prix games on the PC. So someone, somewhere has already wrtten such a cheap, easily avalaible speedway game for the popular mobile fone platform....