rusky

I was a mechanic from 1978 to 2003. In all that time I was always a friend, never an employee - simpler times I guess. I first got into mechanicing (is that even a word..) when there was an announcement on the terraces at King's Lynn one Saturday night that Bent Rasmussen was looking for somebody to help him out, I went and had a chat with him (actually i think we had a chat in the bar) and the rest was history as they say. So not quite a social media request, but very similar I guess. In my time I mechaniced for riders at league level in the UK, (both British League & National League as they were then), international level (WC qualifiers, World Final, WTC Final, GP's and individuals.) not to mention Long Track and the Drury / Thomas Ice meetings across Europe. I think that being Friends with riders, rather than an employee worked really well at the time, and I don't recall any heated moments at all with the riders I worked with. For me, I had a full time job which gave me the opportunity to get to the vast majority of meetings, and in some years i was doing British League and National Leage / Second Division and only missed an od meeting where there was a clash. My strengths were that I was quite a relaxed sort of person who could look at things logically and handled pressure well - could comfortably change gear or a jet when on 2 minutes and get it right (with one rider I worked with, that was, on occassion, a given it was going to happen). In those days, there were very few riders who had full time mechanics, and we were mostly British lads who were in the same boat, there was an occassional foreigner, but few and far between. There were many long term rider mechanic friendships taht endure to this day.

The Twitter editor is on form today, obviously didn't think much of yesterdays action judging by his comments in their tweet...

Have to say I went to this last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. It certainly was a spectacle, and the sight of 12 riders all entering the first bend, and exiting the 2nd bend together was amazing - how on earth anybody didn't come off I don't know. There really was some excellent racing too. Is this a subsitiute for Speedway ? Well, I don't think its a subsitute but it certainly can co-exist and could bring a new audience to both sports. I saw very few folks there that I recognised as speedway fans, other than @tellboy. There were plenty of folks there who were very obviously bike fans in general, and where we were standing there was plenty of noise made when the British boys were racing. An interesting point, every single one of the 23 riders completed a victory lap after every single one of the 14 races and were roundly applauded by the crowd - something the speedway boys could do with following in my opinion. It was interesting to note that there were 10 different manufacturers represented in terms of machinery. It was also good to see some of the ACU / FIM representatives again, and to have a chat with them. Obviously, many people were thinking of Tony Steele who had put quite a bit of time into this before his sad demise.......

Thanks for your reply Mick. My first thought when the government announced their plans was how would it affect the showground. Hopefully common sense will prevail, and speedway is running in Peterborough soon

Mick, is the new governments announcement on housing and changes to planning likely to have an effect. Is the showground classed as Brownfield, Greyfield or Greenfield do you know ? I appreciate its a bit early in their term of office to have definitive answers but they do seem quite keen to steam roller things through on lots of fronts.

Think it could be Peter Nahlin - He was sponsored by Godden I believe, and of course the guy who set up Omega was Swedish I believe ?

A thoroughly nice bloke too.... Edwin was without doubt one of the, if not THE, voices of speedway in the UK from the 70's onwards. RIP Edwin

Here you go Ray, a bit of a legend of the sport back in the day - A thoroughly nice chap too. https://britishspeedway.co.uk/miscellaneous/graham-reeve-1952-2024/

Riding for King's Lynn or Leicester, don't remember him riding for Wimbledon

Yes recognise your name too I believe. Still nothing from the BSPA though I believe.....

Ah, the email mailing list - I remember it well , and yes that was where i initially met him, and then with his sponsorship of both Wiggy & Chris before he came to Lynn. The outpouring of grief on his Facebook page is very strong, and its obvious from there just how highly respected he was in his chosen profession.

He was a top bloke. I loved chatting to him at meetings - he always had time to speak. I have been to a couple of his photography exhibitions too in London, and he was a very talented photographer, and we did keep in contact on social media. Who can forget his planning and presentation of the opening night for the when he & Waggy took over....... RIP Brian Attached is one of his photos that he was commissioned to take recording the rebuilding of St Pancras station by LCR ( London & Continental Railways)

It is being widely reported on Social Media that ex-promoter. and all round speedway fan, Brian Griffin has passed away in his sleep. As a promoter, Brian was (in my opinion) ahead of his time and I'm confident in saying that the opening night at King's Lynn when Brian & Waggy were the promoters was probably the most lavish & spectacular presentation you will ever see of any speedway meeting. Brian used his connections within the film & TV business to put on a show that was considered by many to be outrageous, but spectacular it was. I was travelling from the South that night having been working in London and the 'Movie Premiere Searchlights' could be seen for miles away. Nobody within a 10 mile radius of Saddlebow Road that night would not have known it was the beginning of a new era for King's Lynn speedway, albeit as the Knights, rather than the stars. It has to be said that several riders, notably Simon Wigg & Chris Louis benefitted from Brian's friendship. Not everybodies cup of tea, but I for one think that speedway could do with more Brian Griffin's (and indeed Grahan Drury - its been a bad week for Speedway promotion). RIP Brian, thank you for the memories

Sad news, had many enjoyable evenings across Europe with Graham at the ice meetings that he PROMOTED with Ian Thomas. Thoughts are with his family at this time. RIP Graham

I think you are right Mick. Air fences don’t come cheap I suspect, and then of course there is the BSPL bond that would need to be paid. Even if Buster was to sell ‘Peterborough Speedway’ for a pittance, the startup costs for any purchaser would run into many, many Thousands I would expect, without even considering signing riders

Just going to throw something in here - The Peterborough team improved once Buster & Rob Lyon were directly involved in team building and not anybody else ?

I have submitted my objections to both applications, but it set me thinking. Should we in some way be getting other showground users involved too ? The obvious one is Truckfest as its their flagship event, and I believe one of the premier events world wide of this type. Also the camping & caravan show..... I'm sure there are many others too. If we could show its truly multi purpose then there would be more objections and a greater chance of success ?

This made me smile....

That will be Getingarna, from Stockholm. That tour marked the first appearance of Jimmy Nilsen & Per Jonson in the UK if I recall. I was in the pits for that meeting as mechanic for rickard Hellsen and it is one of the meetings taht sticks in my memory. I remember them using rakes to clear snow right by the edge of the fence so that the riders could see where the fence was as the rest of the track was white with snow. My other memory was Tommy Nilsson with his twin cam Jawa screaming away. The journey back to Norfolk was quite interesting too with heavy snow on the way back

In the Swedish league in the mid to late 90's, the visiting team were given an opportunity for a short practice (I seem to remember 10 minutes but I may be wrong) at Elite League meetings, I'm not sure about the allsvenskan though. This used tto happen an hour before the scheduled start and it seemed to work quite well.

Can I put a different spin on it Tony (or perhaps less spin, more drive ) ? How about P-O Serenius, or indeed Erik Stenlund ? Brave, brave men who took on, and beat the Russians at their own game. Thoroughly nice blokes too,,

Could be a VERY long list for me Tony...

My understanding is that Transport for Wales are not affected by the Saturday strike, so you may be alright on local trains

Not one of my best photo's but I'm sure you get the ghist... anybody else remember the Erich Baier Red Rockets of the late 80's, early 90's ?

However, if you look on Discovery+ listings it does show it being on Eurosport 2, however it doesn't say which particular Eurosport 2 channel, it doesn't actually specify the British Eurosport 2. I guess it will be a surprise on the day....