iris123

See a couple of years later 4 Aussies spent the season in the US . Ernie Evans , Clem Mitchell in San Francisco Bill Rogers and Bert Spencer in Fresno, The same promoter had them under contract and would swap them around the tracks, But at the start at least the locals were too good. Byrd McKinney who later rode for Wimbledon the stand out local

It was said to be compiled by Empire Speedways and an A.C.U official

This doesn't answer the question throughout their career, but it does show what I was talking about. It is a world ranking put together at the start of 1935 and strangely done for 3 different track lengths, but Langton appears in all 3 lists and Parker only for the smaller track and then below Langton 3rd of a mile 1.M.Grosskreutz 2.B.Wilkinson 3.T.Stevenson 4.L.V.Praag 5.D.Case 6.E.Langton and coming in at no.7 was Sebastian Roth of Germany!!! 1/4 mile 1.M.Grosskreutz 2.T.Farndon 3.B.Wilkinson 4.E.Langton 5.V.Huxley 6.D.Case 1/5 mile 1.V.Huxley 2.T.Farndon 3.M.Grosskreutz 4.E.Langton 5.B.Wilkinson 6.J.Parker

Another new piece of speedway history for me. Apparently after the 1932/33 Australian season Hoskins along with a group of riders set out to conquer America. A decent group including Frank Arthur, Billy Lamont, Jack Ormston, George Greenwood and Ray Tauser initially wanted to start off in Toronto, but couldn't find a suitable track. They then headed off to New York where the same situation met them, But apparently a US style speedway was going on at Coney Island, but the touring group found they had to ride at a slow pace to make a decent match of it with the locals. On the other coast things were different with 10 tracks running and a good standard of opponent The tour wasn't a great success, but Hoskins said they broke even. Yet again, Madison Square Gardens were said to be interested in the sport.Plans were for a group of US riders to head out for Australia and Hoskins and his group would head back to the US the next year Not sure if anyone can add to this, but it seems as far as I can tell neither of these planned tours took place. A US team did make Australia in 1935 though What happened to Hoskins UK career at this time? He left Wembley and took over at West Ham sometime around this period. Seems all the riders took a break from UK speedway this season ?

See a report from 1930 abut riders going out to ride in Argentina where they would be joined by 3 locals who have been riding in Britain. It mentions Pagano and Salinto(Salatino), who both rode at Belle Vue, but also mentions a rider named Mygano , who I haven't tracked down. Anyone know where he rode if at all. Possibly mis-spelt

Picking out Tauser here. Seen a news snippet that Tauser was forced to leave the UK by the Home Office in 1932 dated 09.06.1932 !!! Apparently he entered on a tourist pass and rode a few meetings before he had official permission!! Now in the Ian Perkins booklet he states 'Ray Tauser did not return to ride for Wimbledon until the season was well underway and then sustained a very painful injury to his hand, which restricted his point scoring in the latter part of the year ' Only things is looking at speedway researcher it seems Tauser was riding in the opening meeting of the season and a couple of other meetings, then goes missing from the team for a couple of months until he returns in July. Does anyone know if he was just injured or he really was forced to leave and then return ?

Just reading about him and apparently in the 1930 season he was undefeated in match races and won 11 scratch and 6 handicap finals, plus lowering 3 track records in Australia. In 1931 he won the 4 lap Australian Championship Harold Murdoch was his real name. Did he ride in the UK ?

See during her visit to Australia in 1929 she did beat Sig Schlam, which was no mean feat

Hope he is fit and can enjoy it My mums uncle was his mechanic for a while when Ronnie Moore was taking a break from the sport and I think they played together in the Speedway Riders XI as well

I thought you'd like it. Also found an interesting article about the opening of a new dirt track in Goulborn dated 27.06.1925 which states memories still linger there of Conoulty's wonderful speed of 63 mph over the old trotting track at Goulborn over 2 years ago, when sand was 2 inches thick over the track. Jack Sidebottom's hair raising skids on the corners in the same sand are also remembered Which would put this old Goulborn track earlier than West Maitland also, though I haven't tracked down an exact date for this Carnival meeting from 1922!! Featuring Benstead and a J.Datson, both of whom were later involved in later Dirt Track meetings .Benstead finishing 3rd in an Australian Championship in 1929 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/117594918?searchTerm=sidebottom motorcycle&searchLimits=exactPhrase|||anyWords|||notWords|||requestHandler|||dateFrom=1920-01-01|||dateTo=1924-12-31|||sortby The Goulborn meeting from April 1923!! https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/223457208?searchTerm=sidebottom motorcycle&searchLimits=exactPhrase|||anyWords|||notWords|||requestHandler|||dateFrom=1920-01-01|||dateTo=1924-12-31|||sortby

As some sort of proof of this practice and that it was the US riders that introduced the technique to Australia, how about this article from 1923 entitled Steering into a skid : Dirt track methods ? https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/63782805?searchTerm=dirt track&searchLimits=exactPhrase|||anyWords|||notWords|||requestHandler|||dateFrom=1920-01-01|||dateTo=1926-12-31|||sortby

Now looking at my info, it was probably 26th April 1933, which was the opening meeting of the season. The next meeting was I the meeting v Australia in May 10,000 came, which was not bad and the 4,000 for the next meeting was quite a drop!!! Grosskreutz won all 5 of his races including a match race v Rumrich. Case won 4 out of 5. John Glass, Dicky Wise and Ernie Evans were riding and Herbert Drews was the best local rider on the night. The newspaper report states Grosskreutz, Case in partnership with A.J. Reynolds got the Dirt Track back up and running Can add some info that was sent to me from an article in Speedway Star and news May, 1959 about Grosskreutz In 1933 he travelled to Germany with Dick Case and several other riders to race at Hamburg but at the time the Nazis were coming to power and they frowned on the venture. At the very last meeting Case and Grosskreutz were desperately short of money. The only solution they could see was to stage an International All Star meeting for a valuable gold cup. Minus money, they sought out an enterprising pawnbroker and borrowed a gold cup from him with a promise to return it on Monday morning, the meeting being raced on Sunday. There was no doubt in either Case's or Grosskruetz's mind that they would be able to do this, for both were far ahead of the German and Danish riders who were to race against them. Unfortunately their plan misfired. Max had engine trouble in his second outing while Case when well placed in the lead broke a chain. This meant that a tough German farmer won the cup and refused point blank to hand it back. "I've win, I keep " he told them. They offered him as much money as they could raise: they asked to borrow the cup for a short while, but the German refused and they eventually went home..... I am not sure of the truth in this though. I only have found record of a third meeting, the next Wednesday 10th May. No mention of the above happening and it seemed the seasons meetings were all on a Wednesday, not Sunday as mentioned, but in the final Rumrich won after a great race just beating Grsskreutz with Case 3rd and then Drews in 4th. So it is possible this was the race everything hung on and it was Rumrich that refused to hand back the gold cup........No crowd figure given, just a note from the journalist that it remains a mystery why the Hamburg public don't support what is a great sport....... After that it was announced a short break of a couple of weeks would take place, as I stated above.......

Could be this meeting http://www.internationalspeedway.co.uk/gervaus.htm From memory I read it was announced there would be a short break in the season as some of the riders had contracts to ride in Sweden and it seemed the season never started up again

Some info I have put up, but haven’t got as far as 1933

That was the short season that Grosskreutz and one or two others were promoters there, I think . Season only lasted a few meetings then it folded never to run speedway again. Have details at home, but I am elsewhere at the moment . Bavarian might also be able to help The track was running into problems fairly early on. The first season 1929 went well but it was downhill from there really and neighbours were complaining about the noise and at least one complaint went before the local council. But I think it was more financial trouble and the German economy etc that was the big problem Great photo which I haven’t seen before

Just thought it interesting that 10 years ago 35 degrees was hot, but they are having temps of 40 degrees and massive bush fires at roughly the same time of the year !!!

The important thing is the track closed and I have even seen it stated that the nazis banned speedway, though never seen proof of that. Let’s hope Boris doesn’t go down that road !!!

Political rally at a speedway track !!! In fact that guy Adolf something or other held a rally at the old Hamburg dirt track way back in the 1930s !!!! And we all know what happened after

November 1941 Bit of a tragedy with one former top Australian rider, Roy Hindle, who finished 3rd in the 1926 Australian speedway championship Man Shot dead at railway workshops William James aged 22, the fourth son of Mr. Rowley James of the House of Representatives for Hunter was shot dead at the South Maitland Railway Workshops yesterday morning. Later Roy Hindle, aged 38 of Rockhampton, was charged with murder and was remanded to December 6th. James was only married 5 months ago and Hindle was formerly a leading speedway rider He was eventually acquitted. Apparently he only meant to frighten James with his sawn off shot gun......

Further items on Keith McKay. An item from 29.12.1928 Interesting facts concerning dirt-track racing on the Continent were related by Mr. Keith McKay, who with Mr. G.S.Meredith introduced that sport to Europe. He is a Sydney man and is returning there on the Orama. In company with 13 motorcyclists from Australia and New Zealand, the two men left for England at the end of last year. Mr McKay estimates his profits from dirt-track racing alone during the year amounted to 3,600 pounds. When the little band of dirt track racers first arrived in England a company was formed with a capital of 24,000 pounds...............once the success of the sport had been firmly established in England, Mr McKay sold his interest in the company and has since been riding under short contracts in Europe. He ended the season in Copenhagen, where , he said , in spite of intense cold, there were regular attendances of 30,000. Next season dirt-track racing will be introduced into Barcelona and Cannes. Mr McKay himself is under contract to Mr Tex Richard, the famous boxing promoter to appear in New York at the Madison Square Garden on March 15th for a period of 6 weeks. He will appear in Copenhagen for the last week in May, and will afterwards journey to London, Brussels and Paris. He remarked that no Australian rider had made less than 2,000 gbp during the season And on 07.02.1929 the sad news of his death It was with much regret that Delegate people heard of the death of Mr. Keith McKay, which took place in Sydney on February 1. An old Delegate district boy, Keith was well known to all old residents. He had a pleasant personality and was very popular. He was having a holiday in Australia, and intended to take his wife and two children with him to England on his return. On the day of his burial a cable was received from London asking him to return immediately. We take the following from the Daily Guardian of February 2 Keith McKay, well known in local motor and motorcycling circles died in St. Vincent's private hospital yesterday as a result of a crash at speedway royal at Xmas time. The deceased was connected with T.D Chapman Ltd and the late A.V. Turner for several years and became interested in motorcycle racing about 3 years ago. He competed with a fair amount of success in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide. Together with the late Geoff Meredith, he took a team of Australian riders to England last year, and was partly responsible for the boom in dirt track racing there. When his partner died, he carried on alone, but came home before Xmas for several weeks holiday Competing at the Speedway Royal on December 22 he crashed heavily into a post, as a resut of which a leg was amputated . Blood poisoning set in, and although he fought gamely for his life for over a month, he started to sink about a week ago, and passed out yesterday. Only 26 years of age, the late Keith McKay was popular with all whom he came in contact with and will be greatly missed Another interesting article from 24.06.1927 states he is contemplating a trip to South Africa having considerable experience in motorcycle and light car racing. Having left home at age 16 he went to the US and got a job in a motor factory and mamanged to have a fair amount of success in motorcycle racing at Sheepshead Bay track. Then he started as a car racer and had some success in South America .Then had a win on a track in France then took up road racing, which was considerably more difficult, but for 4 seasons had numerous wins. In 1925 he had a bad smash after competing in Italy, Spain and even Le Mans !!! The he returned to Australia and Adelaide where he was popular with the motorcyclists at the speedway

While browsing Australian newspapers I came across a couple of interesting snippets 04.11.1926 When it was learned that Spencer Stratton had arrived back from U.S.A the management of the Newcastle speedway immediately booked him up for a special match race with Pat Hamilton, the world's champion, on Saturday night next Now Pat Hamilton did hold what was described as one of the world records, Strattons bike didn't arrive in time and so Hamilton won quite easily with Spencer of somebody elses machine 01.10.1927 The carnival to be held at Newcastle speedway tonight will be a contest to decide who is the best riders of Brisbane, Sydney and Newcastle. Each city is well represented and some fine displays of skilful racing should result. Paddy Dean, who is considered as the world's champion motor cyclist, Is riding to represent Newcastle and looks like carrying off the honours for the coaly city, but he meets serious opposition in Jack Hollis (Brisbane) and L.V-Praag (Sydney)

Could be right there. He is listed in the local Sydney paper as being from England. Just as Stratton is listed as being a NZ rider Thanks both

A wonderful film about speedway on the island. Taking the bikes by crane off the boat. And one or two great Swedish riders of the time including Olle Nygren and Ove Fundin

What is interesting in the development of broadsiding I that in a meeting at West Maitland in 1925, which incidentaly was a 'benefit' meeting for injured riders and their damaged bikes, under the auspices of forementioned J. Hoskins it seems 3 riders were fined and banned for 4 weeks for 'dragging their feet' !!! C+ J. Datson and J.Sweeney

See in early 1928 (January) before the High Beech meeting there was an English rider listed as riding at the Speedway Royal in Sydney- A. Hunter !!! Looking at the first season in the UK I don't see his name turn up Does anyone have any info on who this pioneer English rider was ?