Issue 3

[TonyMac]

All subscribers should have received Issue 3 by now...

 

Four times World Champion and the biggest personality in the sport’s history, BARRY BRIGGS looks back at the start and through the peak years of his illustrious career in our major exclusive that runs over 12 pages. Briggo recalls his early struggles to find his way under no-nonsense promoter Ronnie Greene at Wimbledon in the early 50s and why he wanted away from the Dons all for the sake of £30.

 

He remembers happier days at Southampton and riding for showman Charles Knott, who paid him a fiver to deliberately miss the start in the second-half final at Bannister Court.

 

Barry led Swindon to the British League championship in 1967 but read why he believes he was not as good a captain as his Kiwi mate Ivan Mauger.

 

BB talks about his stormy relationship with great rival Ove Fundin, including their controversial clash that decided the 1957 World Final.

 

In 1964 Barry was officially declared runner-up in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award but speedway people still insist the voting was rigged. Briggo shares his own thoughts on that and what it was like being the most famous face in the sport throughout the 60s.

 

RICK FRANCE

He was a leading England international, BL star for Coventry and 1967 World Finalist but, as RICK FRANCE explains why a persistent shoulder problem hampered his once promising career .

 

Rick, now 70 and a great-grandad, recalls his escapades with the Bees and how he and his old pal and business partner Ron Mountford once landed themselves in trouble with promoter Charles Ochiltree.

 

He talks about his Coventry team-mates, including Nigel Boocock. Rick says: “At Newcastle one night we didn’t like the track, so we had words and pulled out – except for Nigel and John Harrhy. They were in every other race while the rest of us cleared off to the bar because we weren’t going to be taken for idiots. That was another one of Mike Parker’s tracks – it was terribly prepared.

 

“I remember Nigel being at a Control Board hearing after something or other had gone on and him saying that he’d ride on broken glass if he had to. Well, we wouldn’t.”

 

IVOR BROWN and the Internationale

IT was a big day out for Cradley Heath fans who had travelled down to south-west London from the Black Country for the 1965 Internationale. The amalgamation of the National League and Provincial League prior to the 1965 season had heralded the Heathens’ arrival in big-time speedway and the massed ranks of supporters bedecked in green-and-white were determined to enjoy themselves and show their support for their man Ivor Brown, one of the leading lights and tough guys of the Provincial era who had earned his call-up for this prestige meeting with a string of fine scores in the opening months of the season.

 

We look back at that meeting – in words and pictures (cheers, Britmet!) – that proved a disaster for the seriously injured Brown, who was stretchered off after a first bend incident with Ove Fundin in his opening ride. The Dudley Wood legend hardly rode again that season and he was never the same rider again.

 

LUBOS TOMICEK

On the 40th anniversary of his father’s tragic death in Prague, Lubos Tomicek talks movingly about the heartbreak and devastation of seeing his dad killed in action. The father of current Lakeside Hammer Lubos Tomicek junior also reveals how lucky he is to still be alive today.

 

ALAN HUNT

Alan, or ‘Whacker’ as the Birmingham legend was widely known, is one of speedway's immortals who lost his life in a racing crash. It happened in South Africa and he had risen to eminence, excellence and fame the hard way. When the Alan Hunt whirlwind first hit the cinder tracks of the Midlands, one promoter begged for him to be banned before other riders racing with him came to serious harm.

 

In this eight-page special on Hunt, we examine the eventful career of the former Cradley Heath, Birmingham and England.

 

To order a copy or subscribe for the year, go to http://www.retro-speedway.com

 

Please let us have your feedback - always much appreciated.

 

Cheers,

Tony Mac

 

[Guest Steve Dixon]

Yip, great read as usual.