speedyguy

THE VOICE, No.36 The 36th edition of the Voice, the official journal of Friends of Speedway, is now available. Editor Stuart Towner and Treasurer Sue Towner preside over 24 pages packed with articles from various writers concerning speedway matters past and present. Sometimes controversial, sometimes blunt, but always interesting and guaranteed to brighten up a dreary winter's afternoon. By joining Friends of Speedway you will also be making a vital contribution to the development of under 15's speedway racing to which FoS were proud to have contributed £500 in season 2009. Every new member is another step forward so come and join us and do your bit to help maintain the future of British speedway racing. To join Friends of Speedway and receive your four quarterly copies of the Voice please send a cheque for £10, made payable to Friends of Speedway, to Stuart Towner at 117 Church Lane, Chessington Surrey KT9 2DP.

I understand the meeting at McDonald's Kihikihi on Sunday January 31 has been put back until Monday february1 because of rain. I don;t think there have been any other meetings in the series since January 24 at Rosebank??

I was at New Cross when they shot the crowd scenes - sadly I don't appear with them! I was at the other end of the stadium that night. The shots were taken after the meeting ended. Up the Cobras!

Bavarian This only shows the inaccuracy of the contemporary report in the Speedway Star. The reporter mixed the happenings of two accidents of heats 14 and 15 into one. The truth is that in Heat 14, another Polish rider, Krzesinski, had a heavy crash and was taken to hospital. In this race (Heat 14) were Kamper and Sidlo for Austria, and Kaiser and Krzesinski for Poland. Kamper and Kaiser were out in front when Sidlo fell in front of Krzesinski. This race was later re-run without Krzesinski. In the next race, heat 15, the fatal accident of Raniszewski happened, and that race of course was never re-run, the match being abandoned. Riding in heat 15 for the Austrian team was Josef Seidl and Phil Bishop, and for the Poles it was Kapala and Raniszewski. speedyguy STEFAN KUBIAK WROTE FOR SPEEDWAY STAR (Now edited): At the 13th heat the score was 45-38. In the next race, heat 14, Krzesinski overturned and suffered serious contusions (head injuries). In heat 15, Raniszewski and Kapala from the Polish team and Bishop and Sidlo from the Austrian team were the starters. Kapala reached the first bend with Bishop close alongside. Behind them and a little in front of Raniszewski was Sidlo. Coming into the straight, Sidlo fell in front of Raniszewski, who was thrown against the wall of the track (ie the staircase). Note: Further evidence is that Sidlo replaced Seidl in this race.

tigerowl  Jan 26 2010, 04:26 PM Phil Bishop serialised his life story in the Speedway Post in 1965 and he mentions the crash but I think he might have got some of the incidents confused. The story says: "I rode in an International team in Vienna against the first Polish team to leave their native country - a team that was told: ride to win, even if you kill yourself. It was the Poles' first International. They had spent thousands on machines and training and reckoned they were going to beat the world. They expected to meet a weak team of Austrians in Vienna...instead they met a composite side that included Josef Hofmeister, Albert Siedl, Josef Kamper, Fritz Dirtl and myself. By the halfway stage the Poles were behind by 12 points. They held an emergency meeting and told their riders: go faster, at any cost. In the first race after the interval one of the riders crashed, received severe facial injuries and died in hospital. I was in the next race. Both the Poles tried to chop me up going into the first turn. I kept going, one rammed my back wheel, lost control, knocked his partner off, climbed back on the careering machine, opened the throttle wide. There was no safety fence. Just 30 metres of grass then stairs leading up to the stands. The Pole crashed at full tilt into these stairs. The impact ripped his head right off. They've put up a safety fence in Vienna now" Speedway Post - August 1965. frigbo  Jan 26 2010, 08:44 PM Post #45  The article was attributed to a Pole called Stefan Kubiak (from Warsaw): "We have received sad news from Vienna. During the speedway match with Austri on April 19, two Polish speedway riders, Raniszewski and Krzesinski were involved in serious accidents. Raniszewski did not recover consciousness and died within a short time. Krzesinksi was taken to hospital but his injuries are not serious. The Vienns speedway track was unusually difficult. The hard surface of the track, the sharp bends and the cement columns by the outer wall of the track made riding dangerous. The leaders of the Polish team were unwilling to agree that the match should take place under such conditions. But after the organisers had confirmed that the Vienna track was approved by the International Motor Cycle Federation they agreed to ride. The decision to take part was also strengthened by the fact that the World Championship Competition would take place on the same track. Nevertheless, the Polish riders were advised to ride quietly and carefully. The members of our team conformed to this recommendation. They rode with sportsmanship but quietly against the strong opposing Austrian team which was reinforced with riders from the German Federal Republic. Speedway Star, May, 1956. speedyguy writes: These are two conflicting opinions on the meeting in Vienna. One by Phil Bishop many years after the meeting, the other an opinion from a respected Polish journalist Stefan Kubiak (not at the meeting) but reporting on news taken back to him in Poland. I tend to accept Kubiak's version of the Poles attitude to the meeting rather than Bishop's which was given some 10 years later. Bishop's comments are more akin to the way that myths are created and perpetuated in speedway.

Stefan Kubiak was a respected Polish speedway journalist and also a TV commentator. He was also a sub-editor on a Polish magazine specialising in speedway called "Motorowa." Kubiak played a major part in the introduction of the World Team Cup in the 1960s. Regarding this report: I doubt if he was in Vienna but got the information from someone in the group after the team had returned to Poland. His reports were written in Polish and sent on to the Speedway Star. The error has probably come about in its translation into English for the Speedway Star. These translations were made by a Pole resident in England who had no knowledge of speedway racing.

Most likely this match report was just a write-up by somebody at the match, probably a supporter. Is there any by-line to the report? I doubt very much if a programme of the meeting was sent to the Speedway Star.

Only if they had a programme...?

I wonder if his research led him to the previous Speedway Star report? Such is how myths are created in speedway.

Or could the report have become 'garbled' either because of translation from German into English, or because the report was written by a German who had a poor grasp of English and the report in question was confusing for the person putting it into basic English? Glad to see the matter has been cleared up after all the years - sadly though it looks as though yet another of speedway's many myths has now been created? That Star report will always be accepted because it is the first reference to the fatal accident.

It was written by Marc Petrier. I know that a much respected English speedway historian has already contacted the FIM about the article in their magazine - which most times gives speedway excellent coverage.

On form, it's likely that Josef Seidl would have been leading the race. He was a top international performer.

Shock for me! I didn't know that three messages had been transmitted. I'll hit the delete key.

I'm not sure if the person you indicate has been in touch from dealings I have with down-under at the moment, but a prominent colleague of yourself is on the matter.

Myths usually start when an error is made by an incorrect reference to an original source. Or worse still, the original writer got it wrong in the first case.

Here's an interesting point. Are we blaming an innocent man - ie Johnnie Hoskins for something he did not claim but what others wrote about him? --- In oldtimespeedway@yahoogroups.com, "fastfire212" <fastfire212@...> wrote: > > John Hoskins wrote many books and articles over the years but did he in any of them make claims that he invented speedway and he was at High Beech or involved with it in 1928 or are these all appendixes to his reputation made by certain speedway writers over the years. That needs sorting out because we may be blaming Hoskins for something he didn't do but what other people decided to put pen to paper about him.

Correct - but no matter how much "the facts" surrounding JSH are disproved these days they will always live on.

Ad infinitum.

The sudden projection within the past 24 hours of dear old Johnnie S Hoskins back into the limelight!

Len Silver a promoter.

How interesting? One of life's mysteries how these things come to light...

In what way a Freudian slip?

There was a Canterbury rider who was also a serving policeman - late 1960s early 1970s. His name escapes me at the moment. I think he later became a small oval car racer.

Thank you for clarifying the date and where Fritz Dirtl was fatally injured.

Yes, I thought this was an FIM sanctioned meeting. That means the venue mst have met their standards.