chunky

Well, I have just found some newspaper references to Wilbur Lamoreaux as the 1933 "National Champion", which does seem more likely than Ray Grant. They are all in the 'Fresno Bee'; from August 15, 1934, August 19, 1934, and October 18, 1935. Two of them also reference Miny Waln as 1932 Champ, and one mentions Cordy Milne as 1934 Champ. These tie in with the info on the 'Speedway Champions' website. Seems strange how the different resources agree on the other years, but not 1933.

Thing is, the US was really a prominent speedway nation in the early days of the sport. Having evolved from board-racing into Class 'A' racing (flat-track) into speedway, there was a ton of quality American riders (and Canadians) back then.

I love how you dig up these old articles!

Thing is, Americans have such a mix of ancestry, going back back just two or three generations. Personally, I don't have much idea of mine. I think that my mum's side was largely English, but not so on my dad's side. One grandad was Swiss, and he married a Dutch woman!

Well, I don't think he had the internet to help him!

I don't think so, as fewer than 900 people live there!

It's in the middle of nowhere, between Peoria and Burlington, IA.

When people talk about the "great" Americans, Hancock, Penhall, Autrey, Bast, the Milne Brothers, even Ray Tauser, are the names mentioned. Why not Wilbur Lamoreaux? When you look at his achievements, he certainly deserves to be considered as one of the best. Born in Roseville, IL, on February 26, 1907, he didn't start racing until he was well in his 20's. "Lammy" came to the UK in 1937 to ride for Wimbledon, and finished the year with a fine league average of 8.14, recording three maximums. The following year, he upped that to 10.93, (second only to Jack Milne), posting fourteen maximums. He further improved in 1938 with a brilliant 11.06 (second only to Cordy Milne), and improved his seasonal maximum count to fifteen. By the time he returned to Britain after the war, he was in his 40's. That didn't stop him from recording a 9.71 in 1948 (for Wembley), with eight maximums, which left him third behind Vic Duggan and Ron Johnson. He was even better the following season with a 9.86 (and twelve maximums) for Birmingham the following season. That left him a terrible fourth place behind Duggan, Graham Warren, and Jack Parker. Remarkable figures when you look at them, but what about the World Championship? Going into the 1937 final, only Jack Milne scored more bonus points than "Lammy", and on the big night, four wins wasn't enough as he was pipped to the title by his buddy Jack, Going into the 1938 final, only Bluey Wilkinson scored more bonus points, and on the night, he picked up four more wins, which left him third overall. Going into the 1939 final, only Cordy Milne scored more bonus points, and of course, Adolf got the final called off. Going into the 1949 final, he was only the sixth highest qualifier, but was just three points behind top qualifiers, Tommy Price and Graham Warren. On the night, "Lammy" scored 9 from four completed rides to finish fifth. Had his machine not given up the ghost in his fourth ride (against Louis Lawson), a third rostrum finish was likely. I knew Wilbur Lamoreaux was good, but until now, I wasn't quite sure HOW good. When you look at the above stats, you can see how he truly was one of the all-time greats of the sport.

Ah yes, Mike "Zoomer" Coomber! Again, one of my earliest childhood memories, along with "Slim Jim", "Hedgehopper", and Olle "White-boots"!

I seem to recall reading about an individual whose "First ever race" was at New Cross on Wednesday, April 17, 1946. Perhaps iris123 noted the identity of that individual?

You know, I thought it was just me... Sounds like midlandred has sand in his ** again!

I was a Dons fan - crazy Dons fan. However, I always loved the sport as a whole, and often missed our meetings on Bank Holidays so I could take in three meetings! I would travel all over the country just to watch speedway.

Are you talking about World Finals, or just World Champions? Seeing that you mention Hancock, I would think the latter. Well, the first one that sprang to mind was Tomasz Gollob. He was 39 years and 5 months old when he won in 2010 Tommy Price was 37 years, 9 months and 20 days old (1949) Egon Muller was 34 years, 9 months, and 9 days old (1983). Sam Ermolenko was 32 years, 9 months, and 6 days old (1993). Jason Doyle was 32 years and 22 days old (2017). Anders Michanek was 31 years, 3 months, and 7 days old (1974) Artem Laguta was 31 years and 19 days old (2021). Jack Milne was 30 years, 2 months, and 29 days old (1937). These are the only riders who won their first titles in their 30's.

Well, look at the 60's/early 70's, and the amount in Britain. Off the top of my head, there was Mauger, Moore, Briggs x 2, Cribb, Gifford, Andrews, Andrew, McKee, Coombes, Timmo, Shuter, Burt, Peterson, Moulin, Tucker, Smith, Ovenden, Malskaitis, O'Neal, Brown, Shearer, Wells, Moulin, Wright, Lacrosse etc. They were followed by Goodall, Stapleton, Millen, Ross, Farquharson, Fullerton, Adlington etc.

Ah yes, the days when the BL was stacked with Kiwis. What went so wrong for them?

Definitely agree with you there...

Not strictly true. He averaged 9.32 in 1970, and was over 9 again (9.02) the following year. It was 1972 when his scoring nosedived to below 6.

Sorry, Dan and Robert are DEFINITELY in the Top 15 - no, Top 10.

You only need one bike per rider. You only need one bike rack per rider (on the back of your Cortina). You only need one tyre per rider (and a Stanley knife). You only need one helmet per rider. Those were the days...

These days, you need to add in nutritionists, therapists, influencers...

I was looking for it last night; might be difficult to get hold of. I was looking to see if there were any free streams...

That was the exact reason why Wembley finals were special - the atmosphere!

Yeah, I loved doing the BLRC 2/BLRC; the crowds and support for each rider was incredible. Funny thing is, I never went to the Internationale! Not sure why, although in later years, we always had a dart tournament that weekend.

Except that it wasn't in 1981...

What about speedway in Japan? There were several western riders who made a name for themselves over there. Rioner Revy, Loy Claighead, Lonnie Moole, Rouis Rawson etc...