iris123

Also must give a mention to the excellent Finnish mag,speedwaysanomat,to which i made many very good contributions to over the years for speedway and ice speedway.The guy that runs it does an excellent job in keeping the sport publicised in what is one of the back waters,not only of track sport,but of the world http://www.speedwaysanomat.fi/ I also made a few contributions to the Australian mag http://www.peterwhitesspeedwayworld.com/ Not only bikes in this though,but a lot of car stuff

The Swiss Motorsport mag,Speedweek which deals with motorsports in general,though had quite a good speedway-longtrack section started out as a newspaper style mag in 2008,then went to a glossy mag the year after.But has been an online only magazine since 2012.Currently has the good news for us in Germany that all the GPs can be seen live on youtube :t:I did make one or two contributions to Speedweek.A photo of Arthur Sissis doing a wheelie in Denmark springs to mind http://www.speedweek.com/bahnsport/ Then there is the long running Bahnsport Aktuell,which i think gustix had dealings with way back http://www.bahnsport-aktuell.de/

I think Finland has fallen foul to that one and had to pay out?

Bit of sidecar action on the Mariendorf Sand track in Berlin,1950 https://www.filmothek.bundesarchiv.de/video/585911?q=&xf%5B0%5D=Keywords&xo%5B0%5D=EQUALS&xv%5B0%5D=Motorsport

Just to show how ridiculous those allocations were/are Austria got 2 places.Now i see Wallner is injured.Even at his best he isn't great,but just what standard of rider would come in for him? Or will they hand a place back if he can't make it.......... A lot of that seems to have been going on over the past decade or so with countries giving back allocations because they don't have a rider to fill the sport.Recall one meeting in Rusia where it ended up being mostly Russian riders with a few east Europeans as no-one else wanted to go there.Though that was probably a European Championship quali Austria are just one case.There are a number of countries who would struggle to send a decent rider if one of their top guys get injured with those allocations

A bit of history from 1947 Erich Bertram winning a meeting at the 1,600m sand track in Berlin-Karlshorst https://www.filmothek.bundesarchiv.de/video/583546?q=&xf%5B0%5D=Keywords&xo%5B0%5D=EQUALS&xv%5B0%5D=Motorsport If you don't want to see all the other stuff go direct to 7:45 mins A little piece about the career of the Berlin rider and how when he finally reached retirement in 1987 formed the "Erich Bertram Motor Racing Team" that included Gerd Riss http://www.bahnsporttechnik.de/Jawa/Blijham/Triumph/bertram.html Also from 1947 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen,the famous winter sports town Sand track meeting in front of 30,000 people.The pace looks massive!!And afterwards a couple of children have their own race in what could be midget cars https://www.filmothek.bundesarchiv.de/video/583552?q=&xf%5B0%5D=Keywords&xo%5B0%5D=EQUALS&xv%5B0%5D=Motorsport Go to 3:42 mins Another nice piece this time from Austria in 1950.Showing Fritz Dirtl winning the meeting at Baden,near Vienna with 12,000 interested people watching and sidecars as well https://www.filmothek.bundesarchiv.de/video/585907?q=&xf%5B0%5D=Keywords&xo%5B0%5D=EQUALS&xv%5B0%5D=Motorsport Come in at 8:40 mins Back to Berlin(1950) and this time the track in Mariendorf.Hans Zierk was fastest rider,but not sure of the name of the rider who won.Sidecars again also in the meeting https://www.filmothek.bundesarchiv.de/video/585911?q=&xf%5B0%5D=Keywords&xo%5B0%5D=EQUALS&xv%5B0%5D=Motorsport In at 9:31

Interesting what you say.I will have to look further into this.I thought it looked like something out of those old Flash Gordon series with Buster Crabbe that i saw at the saturday morning pictures at the great Tooting Granada

Strange,on another thread about the "two pointers" Steve Hone is saying there are a good number of taented youngsters coming through,Think Tsunami has also said a few look good.All a matter of opinion of course and some will look good now and never really progress that far,but fingers crossed a couple do Just look at Denmark.All of a sudden a few good kids came through.Jepsen Jensen,Bech and Michelsen and Phillip Rising said the next lot would be even better as he heard from Gundersen,but where are they?Been 7 years or more since those riders stepped up and Denmark hasn't produced any rider better since Very happy for Robert.Maybe that will boost him even further

Wrecking crew member Otto Walker with rather strange head gear

An article from the German magazine Der Spiegel from 04.12.1948 Without horn, without brake, without lights The barrack and ruin dwellers at the sports field Langenfort in the bombed-out Hamburg district of Duisbert(sic) like to think back on the days when handball was played on the sand in front of their houses. For eight months now, popping exhausts of British Dirt Track machines have plagued their Sunday naps. In Germany, the sports authorities after 1938 were not keen on dirt track races. There was never any explanation for the reasons for this "dislike." After the war the Tommies brought the Dirt Track across the Channel again. In all the larger garrisons, they built their oval tracks with two hairpin bends and two short straights. Dirt Track is just for iron men. Courage, skill and good nerves are important. The machines only play a secondary role. When the drivers, muffled with helmets and thick leather suits, enter the narrow curve, the spectators cling to the iron lattice at Langenfort Platz. Black ash sprays. Rear wheels slide. Using an iron shoe on the left foot, the men brake and keep the balance. Sparks spray from the ground. The straight line is full-throttle. For four rounds go these hunts. The Tommies assemble discarded army motorcycles for the dirt track. Mudguards and brakes are removed. Likewise, all superfluous screws and ornaments. The machine must be very light over the axis line. The fuel tank is not larger than a floor wax can. For two years, the English troops rode Dirt Track amongst themselves. Battles between the garrison revive the racing program. The Hamburg Speed-Way-Club experienced the best reputation. Their riders, McCarhy, Hill, and Farr, made such long laps, until they were immortalized in all the record lists with track records. Even to Sweden and Denmark, they were invited and not beaten. In the last few weeks, a few hundred more German spectators stood on the terracess of Hamburg-Duisbert . Herbert Drews, once Germany's dirt track-matador, is racing with the English. The spectators know the 42-year-old from his glory days 15 years ago. Even today, it is rare that he isn't the first to cross the finish line with his shining number 2 on his back. When he competed for the first time in a dirt track race in 1929, he finished last. But he is born with a marked ambition and tried further. Already the year after, he was able to win the "Golden Helmet" at the end of the season. This prize was awarded to the seasons best scorer. In all, he won more than 500 prizes on all European circuits. On his Dirt Track machine with a built-in 350 cc Jap engine, master mechanic Herbert Drews worked for two years getting it ready to race. Now she is tip-top in order. The rear wheel suspension amazes the English colleagues every Sunday. "The whole thing is my Sunday pleasure," says Drews. He does not get a penny for his exciting rides. He also has to pay for gasoline, spare parts and insurance. For the time being Herbert Drews and the 20-year-old Reinhold Möller (Drew's apprentice in the profession and on the track) are racing for the German colors around the 400-meter-long track. But the British would like to have more. An invitation was therefore sent to all German dirt track drivers to participate in a big event on the Langenfort train in Hamburg on December 12th. NoteThe area is Hamburg-Dulsberg instead of Dulsbert in the article

http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=83386&hl=michie&do=findComment&comment=2907697 http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=64105&hl=michie&do=findComment&comment=1947978 http://www.world-sra.co.uk/scott%20michie.html 1931 in Hamburg for England http://www.internationalspeedway.co.uk/ger3team.htm 1930 in Leeds for Scotland http://www.internationalspeedway.co.uk/scotveng1.htm

DMU release

No not seen it.Not even heard of it until your post,but on looking at info i did find this bit

Indian Motorcycles return to racing after a gap of 64 years!!! And are the presenting sponsor of the meeting

Looks like this might be a portable board track from the size with Margaret Gast Cross between a board track and a wall of death???

On a previous link i posted there was an item mentioning a portable board track run by J.A.Barnaby.Wonder if anyone(Chunky) has any more info on this? Found some info that there was one doing the rounds in the US up until the 70s.Probably used for cycle racing though going by the source of the info

Interesting article on early dirt and board track racer,Jim Davis http://www.ridingvintage.com/2012/11/jim-davis-motorcycle-racing-legend.html http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/halloffame/detail.aspx?RacerID=24

Not so good looking as the Indian as it hasn't been restored,but one of the iconic board and dirt racers of the early days,The Flying Merkel.Made famous by pioneer dirt track racer Maldwyn Jones.They go for big money now http://silodrome.com/flying-merkel-motorcycle/ http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/halloffame/detail.aspx?RacerID=47 http://www.theflyingmerkel.com/site/merkel-racing,42.html Article on Margaret Gast born in Germany lived in New York,who raced a Flying Merkel and is "supposed to be the only lady board -track rider in the world" http://www.nagengast.org/nagengast/Gast/Cycle/ARticles/Driver-Cycle_name.JPG https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Gast

Lucky to have something like that not too far away.Don't think i have anything similar to visit nearby.Went to a US car and general vintage car/motorbike rally last month.The vintage part was presented by Egon Müller.Some old German motorbikes a modern speedway bike and a very old motorised bicycle made in London around the turn of last century.But nothing like some of those great US track bikes.Some very nice cars in the US section though with Pontiacs and the like

Blame the April weather.........

http://www.arizonamile.com/

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-early-deadly-days-of-motorcycle-racing-787614/

Hope for the best.Comes just a week after i saw terrible news about former German-Russian Ice Speedway rider Dmitri Tschatschin,who it seems was paralysed from the waist down in a MotoX crash.