iris123

From somewhere i seem to have a feeling Gerd Riss and Robert Barth didn't get along.....

Even worse for Croatia.I didn't realise that they were down to only the one rider!!!About 10 years ago now since i watched Croatia compete in the Euro U19 team championship and they managed to put together a team,whereas France struggled.Then Dino Kovacic was highly rated.Now France are fairly strong and set up their own league and despite having the great facility at Gorican you are saying only Pavlic is left riding!!!! Very worrying

Not sure what Wimbledon in the "late 1960s-early 1970s" has to do with the title "2002 Wimbledon revival and later happenings"

Good to have someone on the thread who knows what they are talking about

Good to see the Bulgarians still getting races in and keeping the sport alive.Seem to have missed out that Dennis Helfer is German? http://www.helfer-speedway.de/

Take your word on that first bit,but that second part is pretty poor.In the Ice Speedway, Austria had a manager/coach from Swindon,but the riders had to have Austrian citizenship

Bumpy ride????Looks like the passenger is hanging on for dear life

About time we welcomed the record holder onto this thread.8 time world champion Gerd Riss.Also managed to pick up 11 German Longtrack titles as well as 5 times the speedway title.Near the end of hi career also picked up 3 team Longtrack titles with Germany.Not bad going i'd say https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerd_Riss

None of the experts here can answer my query?

Don't understand how for an FIM event you can get a GB/USA pairing or some of the other combinations.Did they just put pairs together for this event or do these pairings ride the whole season together?

Yes at first it was a dirt track,i think.Described as crushed stone.That is why the loose stones were shifting.Think soon after it was turned into a brick surface and riders like DeRosier wanted the motorbikes to return.Not sure they ever did at that time.But DeRosier and others were riding dirt tracks elsewhere at the time and before

Desiree Daubert nicknamed "Crazy Daisy".Went on to partner Dutch rider Sven Holstein,who later took up Ice Racing for a few seasons

Another of the early US riders,Cecil Brown on the right was riding in Australia in 1925 or 1926 and was one of the first to come to the UK when speedway started.Doesn't seem to be in the Hall of fame,but a rider who was with him,Eddie Brink is http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/halloffame/detail.aspx?RacerID=33&lpos=-2460px&letter=B&txtFname=&rblFname=S&txtLname=&rblLname=S&discipline=0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sZReBEl8pI I was there.Great stuff!!!!

This is also a description from that first meeting at Indianapolis.Not conclusive of course,but along similar lines to the Johns description

Miny Waln and his wife Gwynie.Miny had a brief spell at Wimbledon in 1937,Gwynie didn't

1930,31 and 32? In 1931 Tauser had a very successful year,winning the major "Star Trophy" at Wembley.He also finished behind Billy Lamont in the Paris world championship and had some success in Australia,winning the "world dirt track derby" ahead of Vic Huxley and Dick Symthe.He only came back after the 1932 was underway and recieved a bad hand injury

3 time longtrack and of course world speedway champ,Egon Müller According to wiki,he won 785 meetings and held 36 track records!!!! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egon_M%C3%BCller

Jake De Rosier.One of the pioneer US motorcycle riders,who started out racing bicycles then moved on to motorbikes and held many speed records,was almost fatally killed in the very first Indianapolis Speedway motorbike meeting in 1909 http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/halloffame/detail.aspx?RacerID=95

I thought the use of the word "speedway" started in 1909 at the new Indianapolis speedway?A news article from the time i think called the first meeting,which was motorcycle racing "speedway races".Turned out to be a bit disastrous as the surface wasn't suitable for motorcycles and so the two day meeting was shortened to just the one day as some of the riders refused to ride An interesting article in a newspaper previewing the opening compares the speed records of both motorcycles and automobiles with the bikes being faster.Barney Oldfield the man who possibly invented the "slide" around the bends in his car holds a lot of the auto records at the time,whilst Jake De Rosier holds a lot of the motorbike records and so the fastest times http://www.firstsuperspeedway.com/sites/default/files/news81009.pdf Report from first meeting,August 14th,1909 "It is not as smooth as it should be-Crowd not as large as was expected" http://www.firstsuperspeedway.com/sites/default/files/IMSNewsmoto081409.pdf

The first point is the reason promising newcomers like Järf and Tschatschin left or couldn't progress further.Have to hope your boys don't hit the same problem And the second point is what i was refering to with an extended season causing problems for riders who do Polish speedway.The money in Poland is too good to get in the way of a problem of fixture congestion.You can bet that riders would rather ride for a Polish contract than Ice Speedway.I was just wndering if Ice Speedway as an FIM event would have priority and the Ice riders would be made to ride.But then knowing that they might just refuse to qualify for the GPs.Ok it is nly 1 or 2 riders anyway.....

Certainly the revival really got going with Autrey.But as you mention Keeter and even Steve Bast were in the BL a few years earlier.Wasn't it down to Jack Milne getting the revival going in California?

I think it goes without saying that the early riders were the pioneers.Maybe i am misunderstanding what you are questioning?

Got to give the Russians credit.They are trying to help by offering team spots to non-Russian riders.Sadly there just isn't the facilities in Europe to get enough riders interested long enough to really get that far.The world outside Russia is contracting.othing much from the Netherlands,Järf looked a good prospect but fell away as it seems has Weber for Germany.So along with Czecho and Poland neither the Dutch or Germans really have a decent prospect on the horizon and with the retirement of Seifter neither have Austria.The Russians look set to dominate for the next few years.What good would a longer series do as the title could well be decided long before the end and so would the domination of the Russian riders be even more enhanced One country dominating a sport to such an extent just isn't interesting to most people other than a novelty one off visit

Anyway,enough of that mularkey,let's get this thread back on track with the now sadly retired former world champion from either Finland or Sweden,depending on the way the wind was blowing