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Name These Riders


Dick Darstadly

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I once lived midway between Mildenhall and Kings Lynn. I took some photo's at events at both these tracks. I recently remembered that I had these in my loft so I got them out and started to scan them in. There are quite a few in colour, but there must be several hundred in black and white, mostly action shots.

I have put some up here and I know who the portraits (I think) are but I have not got a clue about these action ones.

Time permitting I will get around to getting some more done.

 

Updated 22.10.03 Includes last action photo of Eric Gundersen(?)

 

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jim.blanchard/photographs.html

Edited by Dick Darstadly
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Billy Sanders leading Mr Lee.

 

In the portraits,

 

extra spotter marks for knowing Mike Lee drove a brown T reg new Porsche 928,

Ivan Mauger had one of those Citoen DS estates and John Louis a Ford Cortina Ghia....sad or what.... I think Gordon Kennett had a Cortina too.

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Billy Sanders leading Mr Lee.

 

In the portraits,

 

extra spotter marks for knowing Mike Lee drove a brown T reg new Porsche 928,

Ivan Mauger had one of those Citoen DS estates and John Louis a Ford Cortina Ghia....sad or what.... I think Gordon Kennett had a Cortina too.

extra spotter marks

 

Shouldn't this be extra anorak marks ??? :D

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John  Louis a Ford Cortina Ghia....sad or what.... I think Gordon Kennett had a Cortina too.

Think most riders at some point in that era had a Cortina :D

With a bike holder thing on the back! Not so many vans in them days, they used to look funny going down the motorway wi a bike strapped to the back, almost like wacky races, them were the days!!

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With a bike holder thing on the back! Not so many vans in them days, they used to look funny going down the motorway wi a bike strapped to the back, almost like wacky races, them were the days!!

And they used to drive along the outside of the queue in which you were waiting to make sure they got to the meeting on time whilst you were worried that you'd miss the start and there would be no programmes left.

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Makes you wonder if the bikes were more reliable in those days?

I'm sure if a rider turned up with only one bike now it would be deemed very unprofessional.

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John  Louis a Ford Cortina Ghia....sad or what.... I think Gordon Kennett had a Cortina too.

Think most riders at some point in that era had a Cortina :D

or the bulk of them had the Citroen Safari's....

you could get the bikes in them with the front wheel off (the bike)

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Makes you wonder if the bikes were more reliable in those days?

I'm sure if a rider turned up with only one bike now it would be deemed very unprofessional.

Two words. Dave Jessup.

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Nice pics Mr Dastardly.

 

Shazzy, there weren't that many Cortinas (well not brand new ones like louis) and my point in going off the point was that identifying the portrait pics was a bit too easy and so I'd try (and fail for you) to be humorous!

And how many riders or people do you know that have a brand new Porsche like Mike Lee did then??? A real "golden" era then????

Like Steve Hone says, the top GBL riders like Penhall, Collins and the other yanks followed the lead of Ivan Mauger and had Citroen estates so they didn't have to obey the 50mph speed limits for trailers. Maybe that was another reason to strap one bike to the back of a car.

That said, on my travels I rarely saw a rider keep their speed down.

 

See also pictured, "super Melvyn Taylor", who then had an old brown 1750 sport Allegro (yes there was such a thing) and Ray Bales who had a new blue Peugeot 504 diesel saloon.

 

Lots of the foreign boys had Mercs and BMs. Ted Hubbard also had a BMW 5 series then. I have never seen a man as angry as him after another Rocket (mullarkey?or Garrod?) flour bombed the inside of said luxury car at an end of season match at Rye (78 or 79). He went mental. Ah, end of season meets.

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The individual pics were taken at the Pride of The East meeting at Saddlebow Road on Sat 27/10/1979.

Gordon Kennett 5pts

John Davis 0 from 3 rides

Dave Jessup 14pts

Peter Collins 7pts (1 win)

Ian Turner 6 pts

John Titman 7pts

Michael Lee 14pts

Hans Nielsen 1 pt

Ole Olsen 12pts (2 wins)

John Louis 14pts

Terry Betts 1pt

Richard Hellsen 11pts (2 wins)

Finn Thomsen 2pts

Zenon Plech 5pts (1 win)

Ivan Mauger 8pts (1 win)

Pete Smith (res) 4pts

Bent Rasmussen 7pts

 

Dave Jessup won a run off in 64.8secs from Mike Lee with John Louis falling.

 

So I presume from the photo that Leo asked Ole to do the victory parade so he could go off, polish his Porsche, have a fag and clean out the glove box.

 

Mike Lee was once on the way to wolverhampton, racing Al Littlechild in a Big Merc and Dave Gagen who had a beat up BMW,bike on the back. They both slowed down to be passed in a cloud of blue smoke and screamimg engine by a triumphal Gagen. Triumphant until he saw the parked police patrol car that chased him and pulled him over........

 

Another boring car story unless you were there..

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The other riders in that crash were Jimmy Nilsen, Lance King and Simon Cross.

 

I think all four riders were injured in that crash and missed the rest of the meeting. I was there and it was announced that Erik was in hospital but was fine. My biggest worry at the time was if Jimmy Nilsen would be fit for Swindon's next match, and it was only later that the extent of Erik's injuries came to light.

Edited by Grachan
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