iris123

An action shot from the early weeks of the Lokstedt Dirt-Track showing 'the two best riders'.It states Ginger Lees is leading Niels Sorensen,but I wonder due to the styles(it looks like the rider on the left has his foot forward)if they have it the wrong way round? 10,000 turned up for the next meeting,but as a number of the German riders were missing they only held afinal for the Golden Helmet with no need for quali heats.Fritz Niss again won,but he was closely followed by Heinrichs with Max Plambeck 3rd and Johannes Wunder 4th So the totals at this time were Niss 10pts,Plambeck 4pts,Strachwitz + Heinrichs 3,Wunder and König 1.In the main handicap final of the night Plambeck,who had a 9 second lead on the top riders naturally was out in front for a while then the favourite Ginger Lees had bike problems and dropped out,leaving K:Hansen to win,closely followed by Niels Sorensen.Lees did manage to win the Handicap race for the English riders,beating the Wilcock brothers and Jack Wood,who all had a few seconds advantage It was said that the promoters sent out a telegram to England ....'Send someone to beat Lees' And so for the next sunday meeting Arthur Jervis from the Manchester White City team arrived in Hamburg.Unfortunately due to the bad weather a poor crowd of around 4,000 turned up to see this duel.In the first meet up Niels Sorensen came out in front of Lees and Jervis.Then there was a Denmark-England race in which Jervis beat Lees and the following DanesThen in the final handicap final Lees finished ahead of Jervis,Morian Hansen and Niels Sorensen,but all in all everyone seemed happy that Lees finally had someone of his class to race against The next Sunday was the day Ginger Lees,the rider who they had already named the 'uncrowned king of the Hamburg track' met his match in King Arthur!! The sunday meeting was staged in the evening for the first time.It was thought necessary to avoid a clash with Football and Boxing,but observers thought the racing under the floodlights was more exciting anyway.In the very first heat before a crowd of 16,000 Jervis made an attempt on the track record held by Lees.He went out storming ,and not only broke the track record but set a new world record for the mile of 73.8(73.4 was reported in the UK)In the highly awaited clash between Jervis and Lees,it was a bit of an anti-climax as Jervis was in a class of his own and Ginger Lees couldn't find a way past Niels Sorensen.Jervis finished almost 5 seconds ahead of Sorensen and the rest even further behind. Fritz Niss again won the final of the Golden Helmet ahead of Heinrichs and Plambeck and was now way out in front in the points total with 15.Heinrichs and Plambeck following with 6,Strachwitz 3,Wunder 2 and König with 1 In the handicap finalArthur and his brother Hubert were up against the Danes Einar and Kay Hansen,Walter Ryle and Niels Sorensen.Lees failed to qualify,having bike problems in his heat.Jervis amazed the crowd with his skilful riding just passing Einar Hansen who had a 4 second advantage, on the home straight

Only trouble is Nicki and Madsen won’t ride for one reason or the other,so Denmark are weakened.Might even be another who won’t ride.......

Yes,the same rider.It seems at this time and at least at Hamburg,that Niels Sorensen was the better rider,but Morian is probably better known.And possibly quite rightly so,at least for his exploits for the RAF in WW2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morian_Hansen

And Heerenveen have a contract until 2022,so I heard and it seems Assen is history

Super Cyclone!!! Amazing today to look and see that from the opening meeting on Sunday 07.07 they had managed to run 28 meetings up to the 15th September!!!.Think it was 5 days later when they had their first rain-off of the season,although one meeting was postponed but ran the next day. Almost 10,000 turned up for the meeting in question which had a match race between Arthur Sherlock and Ned Kelly which it seems Sherlock won 2-1.In the first heat Kelly won a hard fought race by a bikes length,then in the 2nd Kelly fell and in the 3rd it was another neck and neck battle that Sherlock won on the last bend In the B-Class final H.Krons won in 80.3,from W.Schauer,Joe Balastrand and Helge Jensen In the A-Class Johannes Wunder won in 78.6 from J.Rasmussen,Arnold Moore and Arnold Stölting In the Grosse Vorgaberennen over 4 laps Winks Rice won in 1.52.9,from Arnold Stölting,Kay Andersen and Th.Clausen Ginger Lees doesn't seem to have been at this meeting and in the report for the meeting on the 22.09 it states 'our Ginger is still in Copenhagen!!'Jst 3 days later for the Wednesday evening meeting (18.09.1929)turned!

Fritz Niss from Hamburg,although in this illustration he doesn't seem to be riding Lees-esque with his foot forward!!

http://www.podium.tv/nl/live

Is there a track or even a club in St.Petersburg?

Well I can at least come to the German Dirt Track Championship later...... It is also interesting about the track being built by United Speedway Ltd,as the publicity blurb and the press only mention Motordrom A.G and one or two of those in charge.A Herr Lütgert and a Dr.Götte and I think another Count,not Strachwitz was also said to be in charge.No Danes or English,but maybe these were just the managers on the ground? This would appear to be the President of Motordrom A.G https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolaus_zu_Dohna-Schlodien https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/item/CRUBGLBEMCTNU2VHOL2DW3QNWQDHYG3Z Anyway,to carry on the story......The next meeting was again on a sunday afternoon and this time only 6-7,000 came to see 'Ginger' Lees and the rest.In the press it stated that one of the reasons for this might be the cost of 1.5 Reichsmark for the cheapest tickets,which was thought to be expensive when travel and food costs were added.And I guess especially so when at this time they were hosting 2 meetings a week.Plans were to add another meeting to the two!!! The first heat was an attempt by Ginger Lees to break his track record.He done the warm up lap and went flying through the start and was going like the clappers when he lost control and flew over the bike,the to the shock of the crowd,his bike straightened up and weaved 30m over the track and suddenly turned and headed for the fence and after the impact lay on the track still running as the crowd ducked for cover.Lees managed to get to his bike and turn the engine off,before the 5 track staff got there. Fritz Niss stepped in whilst Lees had time to check things over and recover.He went out to attempt to break his national record and it was noted was riding in a Lees style with his left leg forward.I'd guess Lees and some of the other had spent some time training and even giving tips to the locals.He done the 3 laps in 79 seconds,which took nearly 6 seconds off of his previous best!! Then Lees came out and took the track record down to 75 seconds.In the final of the day Lees just lost out by 2 meters finishing behind K.Hansen who had a 4 second advantage over 'Ginger'.George Corney and Arthur Wilcock finished 3rd and 4th

You come in and give the ending away when I am just starting the story!!!

The second meeting was just a few days later on Wednesday evening where another 16,000 turned up to see a Dirt Track meeting under floodlights.The promoter had taken on board some of the criticisms from the first meeting.This time all races were flying starts,the main handicap race was over 4 laps instead of 3,to give those riders starting last a chance to make their way through the crowd, and the racing was much more exciting than the first.It was felt that an average crowd of around 8,000 should be achievable once the novelty wore off. From a press report at the time a party of riders from Manchester were leaving on the 02.07 for Hamburg including brothers Arthur and Cyril.Wilcock,'Ginger' Lees,George Corney,Rex Kirby and Rex Trickett.I think all,as well as most riders that followed during the season came from the northern,English Dirt Track League and stayed for a few meetings.I guess they all had some practice on the new track before the first meeting.A couple of the german riders, Stölting for one,had a fall and ended up missing the first meeting due to injury from the session.It was also noted that a few of the german riders were known to motorcycle racing fans,so I guess they were racing at the trotting tracks like Farmsen in Hamburg In his first heat Lees broke his own track record and took it down to 76,6 and the German record was taken by Fritz Niss,knocking a second off of the previous record.Count Strachwitz once again showed he was no push over.In one of his heats he was leading the English riders,Cyril Wilcock and Jack Wood for quite a while until he injured his hand and was praised for his courage to even finish the race.The second meeting also saw the start of a 'Golden Helmet' competition for the german riders,which would be run as a series over the season,collecting points along the way to the title.5 points for a win......In the first final Fritz Niss won the 5pts beating Count Strachwitz,who it was said rode far too wide and made it easy for Niss The highlight was the main handicap final where 'Ginger' Lees was giving away seconds to his rivals.Morian Hansen and George Corney had 2 seconds,A.Jackson,A + O.Hansen(in the first meetings there were 4!!! Hansens riding,which caused a bit of confusion)received 4 seconds.Lees passed one after the other to finish 100m ahead of the next rider after 4 laps In the British press it was stated the track is extremely wide and the start line is just before the first bend,so the inside gate has a big advantage and the racing is boring,but from the german press reports this really doesn't seem to be the case.They are full of praise for the organisation and after the first not so great meeting,for the racing as well

Must have been some money around for that sort of prize!! It was reported that Eric Langton’s brother Oliver,who made the trip to spanner for Eric,but stepped in when his brother had to pull out sick,sent home 50 pounds in prize money(around 3000 today)after a week in Hamburg.Just wonder what Lees was earning there.A year later Arthur Jervis was suspended for staying in Hamburg too long,so I guess it was worth it

Wasn't that the point you were making or were you only talking about Birmingham,the Midlands or the south of Scotland?

Funny being in this section because wasn't one of the press people at BSI a woman?Nicola something... And also in this section have you seen the news that Team GB have been taken over by a male/female duo? Then there was a Polish female promoter?Marta something.... Brokstedt have had a female team manager for a decade or more in the Bundesliga And the press boss or one of them at Russian ice speedway team,Ufa was/is also a woman,although I think she has just taken a job as a press officer for the Russian Football World Cup

In what seems like an incredibly short amount of time(just 6 weeks!!!)a 50,000 capacity stadium(track length 560m!!!) was built in Hamburg in 1929.A few years later an estimated 80-102,000 went to the stadium to see a boxing fight between German heavyweights Max Schmeling and Walter Neusel!!! It is interesting looking at the reports at the time to see the development of the Dirt Track and some of the criticisms that seem even today relevant.The report was talking about a crowd of around 20,000 for the opening night,although later it seems a crowd of 17,000 was accepted.Describing the opening night of a new sport it mentions the names of the riders,the winner of each race and the times were announced over the loudspeakers.The whole evening was very professional and 18 heats plus a 10 minute break was finished within 3 hours!!The view from all parts of the stadium are equally good,but the interesting part of the race occurs in the bends.Strangely thee parts of the track were less full than the straights,but in the next meetings that should change.The heats were over an English mile and this was one of the problems with Dirt track racing,as it made the races less exciting as usually a good start or a mistake meant the heats were won.Only once did someone(in this case 'Ginger' Lees)manage to overtake and win a heat One part of the meeting was particularly questionable and that was the starts.The heats had both standing and flying starts and it was the flying starts that caused a bit of head scratching amongst the crowd.They were told that all 4 riders should cross the start line together,but couldn't understand why the race had to be re-started when 1 rider was behind the other 3.It seemed it was his fault and to his disadvantage and wondered why the delays and new starts........and why no explanataion was given for this!! Ginger Lees won the main race and also set the track record of 78,4 seconds.A German record of 85,3 was set by Count Strachwitz!!! Less than a week later and after the first meeting under floodlights the promoters were so happy they were talking about building a track in Berlin in the same amount of time!!!!

I wasn’t doubting,just adding how false info was making its way around the newspapers of Europe

Just came across a newspaper report complaining that Steve St.George from Australia failed to turn up for his match race against Ginger Lees in one of the first meetings at the Hamburg Dirt-Track in 1929

That is your opinion,which you have a right to hold,but a rider that threatens to kill another,bullies and apparently cheats,is in my opinion infamous

Bit lost myself without speedway.org.She has kept the last 5 years,but all the old stats going way back for both speedway and ice speedway seem to have gone And it was always handy to look at her fixture list to quickly see what was coming up in the next week or two I don't know of an equivalent site,sadly.At least the DMU have a decent fixture list for Denmark

https://www.gettyimages.de/detail/nachrichtenfoto/motor-cycle-racing-london-england-27th-january-1931-a-nachrichtenfoto/79668165 https://www.gettyimages.de/detail/nachrichtenfoto/australian-speedway-rider-vic-huxley-takes-his-nachrichtenfoto/914940674

I blame that ginger nut Stuart McCall for a lot,including this

Not sure who it is,but if you do a google photo search you get a photo of this rider alone.And it mentions flat track.The last photo is of the infamous Jack Parker

Obviously has for a Royals fan Come on you Lions As for the meeting,i am in agreement with some of the others.Just had the feel of a training meeting with a stadium 25% full,if that.Turned off after 5 heats.One or two of the teams didn't even have team suits!!!!

Because it has been delayed until tomorrow and this is stated on the right thread in the other sectionOne below this