E I Addio

Interesting comments from everyone but I think all of our memories play tricks on us at times. The Sad fact is that ALL forms of motor and motorcycle racing are dangerous and people are going to,get hurt at times. Although safety features , notably air fences have enhanced safety , that , in my opinion is cancelled out by the fact that there are far more crashes. I can’t remember a single meeting back in the day when we were 20 minutes into a meeting and had only run two or three heats because of crashes, yet it seems to be a frequent occurrence today. I remember talking to Olle Nygren not long before he died and he was saying that when he was riding he reckoned to do about 100 meetings a year and only fell off once or twice and that “Briggs Mauger and the others were the same” , but these days he reckoned most were falling off more than that every month. Speedway tracks are much harder to land on than most spectators realise. There seems to be little doubt that tuners have got a lot to do with it. You can’t get a quart out of a pint pot , and every time you squeeze more power from the engine you shorten the power band so power comes in more suddenly and unpredictably making the bike more difficult to ride. Incidentally, can anyone update me on what SS said about Graham Miles post accident?

Thank you . Everything I’ve ever read about Tommy Price suggests he was a far better rider than results suggest, perhaps not in his technical skills but he certainly seems to have been a “hard man” and somewhat ahead of the game mechanically. He apparently geared his bike half a tooth lower than everyone else round Wembley on the basis that if he got in front by the first bend, he was such a hard man to pass that he was likely to hang on to that a early lead. In the workshop he drilled extra oil ways to avoid the engine failures occurring to the early J.A,P’s in those days. He also used to start warming his bike up earlier than anyone else because had a special barrel in his JAP engine although I can’t remember what it was made of, or whether it actually was a special barrel or just psychological mind games to con or intimidate the others ! Certainly one rider I wish I’d seen and it’s probably fair to say that if WW2 had not intervened he would likely have had a much better record than he has today.

I’ve only just noticed that sad announcement. Always a double tragedy when a rider suffers life changing injuries as the innocent victim of track crash. Does anyone know the circumstances of the crash and how he rebuilt his life subsequently ?

Apologies if this has been mentioned before but I was looking at some material about Tommy Price recently and it suddenly dawned on me that he must have been about 37 when he won his world title. I know there have been some , notably Greg Hancock , who became World Champion and an older age but I can’t think of any off hand who were older at the time of their first win ? I am sure Bobbath and maybe a few others have the information to hand so can anyone give us a table of the oldest first time winners? Thanks

Hi Dean, is there a foolproof way of limiting revs to 10,000, and what would be the effect on the racing ? I ask that because some years ago Lewis Bridger did a pre- Season warm up meeting on an upright and he got blown away by everyone mainly, I think he said, because he lacked acceleration out of the bends. I know everyone would be in the same situation but would it affect the spectacle do you think.?

No more than two per rider are normally allowed in the pits and that seems to be the norm for most TV meetings. Two per rider means28 personnel, plus 14 riders, plus Clerk of the Course, plus Pit Marshal , plus team managers plus promoters, and Machine Examiners. I make that 50in total before TV crew. Ŵ

I think there is much more to it than that. Sitting in a freezing cold stadium for two months of a six months season is not going to get modern punters through the doors, especially the times when you are 30 minutes into the meeting and have only run maybe three or four races due to delays. Most people have fairly comfortable homes these days and a variety of TV channels and choices. It’s not like the ‘50’s when people had at best poorer quality homes and BBC only on TV. No incentive to stay at home in those days. And all that is before we even get to what goes on at the track . Dog racing is the same. There were around 40 dog tracks in London alone in the ‘40’s and 50’s but only one I think left today. People just don’t want that sort of stadium based entertainment anymore. In many ways the sport has shot itself in the foot but I very much doubt whether it would even be big again in the modern world but even if the sport got its act together . I think less and less people want that sort of entertainment.

Yes, he could be a bit prickly in his younger days but looking back over his career it has been quite outstanding. Never gave less than value for money, and as everyone seems to agree a great servant to the sport and always seems to have had time for the fans. Sad to seem him go, but a great career over 20+ years

I’d take Mike Parker any day over , Godfrey, Chapman. , and the present shower.

Speedway Researcher quotes a report from Speedway Star claiming their were 15,000 there but I don’t know how accurate that is. The Researcher also says that for the second meeting the crowd were so many that it took Bjorn Knutsson half an hour to get into the stadium.

Thanks. The last two paragraphs were something I didn’t know.

A nice history norbold, but something I’ve often pondered on is when did speedway become “ speedway “ . It seems to me that there was common ancestry with grass track, long track and arguably board racing. Even early films around High Beech only suggest a loose relationship with the sport as we now know it . Certainly films of the very early 1930’s are clearly identify it as the sport we see today. Do you happen to know by what date it was being marketed and recognised as “Speedway “ ? Personally I would have said 1928 when the first dedicated stadiums where built over here, but that’s without much knowledge of how things panned out abroad . So what in your opinion would be the date my which it was universally recognised as the sport we know today?

Assuming Richie is factually correct. Bottom line is if he never had cocaine in his system he wouldn’t have got a £1,500 fine if he took his punishment instead spouting off all over social media he wouldn’t have got the £3000 fine. No point in blaming everyone else.

He has always had the habit of going on social media to bad mouth people. I still remember when he was signed by Lakeside early in his career then Belle Vue stepped in and bought him. Without going into the rights and wrong’s of that messy episode, he went on social media calling Jon Cook names when most people would not have known the back story. It doesn’t look good when professional people are washing their dirty linen in public. Even back in those days Ritchie had a high opinion of himself. As others have said, his bother Steve is very different and maybe that’s why he is more successful.

I don’t think he will find it that easy . At 33 years old next June his career is more likely to go down than up. He will have to find a club that can fit his average in and take a bit of a chance on him, especially as by June others will be race fit and he won’t. He might get in somewhere perhaps as a temporary signing to cover injuring but might well have to go to a club a track that doesn’t suit him. The repercussions will probably go beyond the period of his suspension and hit his pocket in more ways than one.

Yes, they would certainly have their licence suspended if they had cocaine in their system while driving in the course of their employment.

Probably spiked by one of those pigs that flew over !

Comparison with rock stars is nonsense. Worrall and Boxall were taking substances deemed to be performance enhancing. I can’t think of any other sport where someone would not get a ban for doing anything, drugs or otherwise, that was deemed to give an unfair advantage over the other competitors. In essence it’s no different to going to the line with an oversized engine.Its just another way of gaining advantage over riders who play by the rules, and ultimately to cheat the spectators. In addition they both knew full well they were breaking the rules. After Morris, Worrall and Boxall one would hope the message would get through to any other riders minded to act similarly.

Yes it was a quarry of some kind and my understanding is that as a result it became contaminated which made it unsuitable for housing, and that’s the reason Chick Woodroffe was able to get the land relatively cheaply and build a stadium in the first place. When. similar parts of land get contaminated the cost of cleaning is usually astronomical and not cost effective so I don’t know how the prospective buyers will get round all that. However, even if permission for a speedway track were given tomorrow there are still the same problems that I mentioned in my last post, in particular finding someone to put up the money and a promoter to make a go of it. You only have to look at the problems facing Wolves , Peterborough, and Swindon, and they are all in better positions than a brand new Lakeside would be. This is only my opinion of course and there may be other things going on behind the scenes that we don’t know about, but it doesn’t look like it at the moment.

I agree . I am the last person that wants to pour cold water on the project, and Mark Sexton is to be applauded for his fantastic efforts to get the project this far. I would like to think it would be a success but realistic it’s now 5 years since the club closed and likely to be at least another 4 or 5 at least, if Swindon is anything to go by , before we see any racing. What state will Speedway be in at that stage and how difficult is it going to be to attract sufficient new fans from scratch to make it pay ( and it will take a lot of new fans who have never heard of speedway as the old guard are getting less and less). Then we have the problem of building a new track and spectator facilities. I had affection for the scruffy old stadium, rather like a pair of comfortable old slippers, but the fact of the matter is that people will expect something more sophisticated than they put up with in the 1980’s, and it all costs money. The reality is that Stuart Douglas and Jon Cook who were Lakeside won’t be back, with Stuart living abroad and Jon sadly no longer with us.It was Douglas and Cook that picked up the corpse that Ronnie Russel left and made it into a viable club for the next ten years, only for a duplicitous combination of Rob Godfrey and the stadium owners to put the club out of business with debts of £24,000. I hope I have got wrong and I would love to see the dream to become a reality but there are enormous obstacles to be overcome.

Bewley is a great sportsman and a credit to any sport. Speedway is lucky to have him. Lambert is a spoilt brat, always was, always will be . If you hear or see his parents behaviour, especially his mother, you will see why he is the way he is. Tai is is own worst enemy. On a personal basis he can be very polite. It’s just a pity that he doesn’t know how to project himself to a wider audience at times. Tai and Lambert are professional entertainers. If the fans don’t come they, and others will be out of a job. Both are old enough to know how to behave in public. They will probably never learn now.

Those running the sport haven’t got a clue either. It’s one thing to get a guest, such as bomber for example who is a bona fide supporter of the league , but something quite different to bring in a carpet bagger who is just making up his money as the Polish season winds its way to an end. No wonder clubs are struggling to get fans through the gates. It’s a pity they don’t have the ability to rule “ Not in the best interests of Speedway “ to give the league and play- offs some sort of meaning.

It’s down to the rider in the sense that he is the one that gets excluded but normally the pits marshal is responsible for assembling the riders and the team manager, if he is on the ball keeps an eye on these things. Not the sort of thing that gets past Peter Adams for example. The same if a rider is on two minutes a decent team manager and/or pits marshal will be nearby with a stop watch giving a countdown without getting in the way.

Most tracks would be glad to get 1000 supporters through their own gates most of the time , let alone send them to Cardiff.

Quite honestly , what sort of crowd is going to pay to watch that circus over 3or 4 rounds.? Take away the tension / excitement of seeing a one - off result, there’s not much left with a field of riders of which around half would be second strings or even reserves in the top league.