Stats Posted March 9, 2015 Report Share Posted March 9, 2015 Came across the following post on an American message board about car racing - and the colour green being unlucky. Can anyone tell me if there was ever a green helmet colour????? It originated from solo (bike's) Speedway in England and Europe and related to the gate colours. Solo's run different helmet colours for each starting gate red=1, blue=2, green=3, white=4. Back in the day several riders were killed and seriously injured (safety wasn't real good then) and because gate 3 was difficult due to riders being on either side it was seen to be the most dangerous and it was quite often the green helmeted rider caught up in the incident. Many riders began to refuse to wear the green helmet covers and still do today because of the superstition; instead they will wear a yellow helmet cover with a black cross on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chunky Posted March 9, 2015 Report Share Posted March 9, 2015 I don't know where the information in that post came from, because white was always the helmet colour for gate 3, and yellow & black for gate 4. Plus, the yellow & black was either striped (in the old days), or quartered. Green has long been considered an unlucky colour in speedway, which is why very few riders would have green leathers. As far as a green helmet colour, it was used in six-rider races, and in recent years, Sky replaced the white helmet colour with a green one. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iris123 Posted March 9, 2015 Report Share Posted March 9, 2015 Few years back we had a thread along these lines about Leathers/Kevlars http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=44544&hl=%2Bgreen+%2Bleathers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
customhouseregular Posted March 9, 2015 Report Share Posted March 9, 2015 Was there not a rider in the 60's who bucked the trend and wore green leathers?. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lucifer sam Posted March 9, 2015 Report Share Posted March 9, 2015 Simon Wigg was hugely successful wearing green leathers, including 5 World Longtrack Championships. All the best Rob 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsunami Posted March 9, 2015 Report Share Posted March 9, 2015 Simon Wigg was hugely successful wearing green leathers, including 5 World Longtrack Championships. All the best Rob Yes, and Tom Brown, a Welsh lad, rode in green with the Welsh dragon on them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ommer Mon Posted March 9, 2015 Report Share Posted March 9, 2015 Eric Broadbelt wore green leathers too if I remember rightly and he did ok at Belle Vue!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldace Posted March 9, 2015 Report Share Posted March 9, 2015 Came across the following post on an American message board about car racing - and the colour green being unlucky. Can anyone tell me if there was ever a green helmet colour????? It originated from solo (bike's) Speedway in England and Europe and related to the gate colours. Solo's run different helmet colours for each starting gate red=1, blue=2, green=3, white=4. Back in the day several riders were killed and seriously injured (safety wasn't real good then) and because gate 3 was difficult due to riders being on either side it was seen to be the most dangerous and it was quite often the green helmeted rider caught up in the incident. Many riders began to refuse to wear the green helmet covers and still do today because of the superstition; instead they will wear a yellow helmet cover with a black cross on it. Green was introduced instead of white about 8 or 9 years ago, it was to do with sky if I recall but only lasted a year or two before white came back When there are six rider races (Ivan Maugers farewell was one such meeting) the extra 2 colours were green and black/white) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iris123 Posted March 9, 2015 Report Share Posted March 9, 2015 (edited) Simon Wigg,Eric Broadbelt,George Stancl,Kevin Wölbert,Zdenek Kundra,Ivan Mauger,Okoniewski and lately Kacper Woryna have all worn green at some period in their career.Some longer than others.But a couple of polish teams have green in their official colours.Just seen a team line up and the guys are all in their official black/green shirts including Batch,Dakota North and Chris Harris!!!!! Edited March 9, 2015 by iris123 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The White Knight Posted March 9, 2015 Report Share Posted March 9, 2015 First Rider I saw wearing Green on his leathers was Dave Gatenby at Sunderland. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
customhouseregular Posted March 9, 2015 Report Share Posted March 9, 2015 Diverging slightly...Was it Ken le Breton who rode in White leathers? I remember Nigel Boocock in Blue and Mike Broadbank in Red. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The White Knight Posted March 9, 2015 Report Share Posted March 9, 2015 Diverging slightly...Was it Ken le Breton who rode in White leathers? I remember Nigel Boocock in Blue and Mike Broadbank in Red. Indeed it was CHR. He was known as the 'White Ghost'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
customhouseregular Posted March 9, 2015 Report Share Posted March 9, 2015 Thank you WK...good to know my 2 remaining brain cells are still functioning. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney Rabbit Posted March 9, 2015 Report Share Posted March 9, 2015 First Rider I saw wearing Green on his leathers was Dave Gatenby at Sunderland. First rider I saw in green leathers was John Bowerman of Scunthorpe in a World Championship qualifier at Peterborough. Diverging slightly...Was it Ken le Breton who rode in White leathers? I remember Nigel Boocock in Blue and Mike Broadbank in Red. As did Todd Wiltshire, if I remember correctly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The White Knight Posted March 9, 2015 Report Share Posted March 9, 2015 First rider I saw in green leathers was John Bowerman of Scunthorpe in a World Championship qualifier at Peterborough. As did Todd Wiltshire, if I remember correctly. .............. and also Graeme Smith former Reading, Sunderland and Canterbury Rider. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iris123 Posted March 9, 2015 Report Share Posted March 9, 2015 And there was the guy known as Diablo Rojo or something when he toured South America because of his red leathers.Ex Belle Vue rider and promoter? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aces51 Posted March 9, 2015 Report Share Posted March 9, 2015 (edited) El Diablo Rojo - Frank Varey Edited March 9, 2015 by Aces51 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRITISHSPEEDPOWER Posted March 9, 2015 Report Share Posted March 9, 2015 Steve Schofield, Tommy Palmer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsunami Posted March 9, 2015 Report Share Posted March 9, 2015 When we first opened up at Newcastle in 1997, we got Wulf jackets purposely designed and made by Wulf sports. All was well till a rider noticed that Wulf sports have a green laurel leaf crown and WORLD CHAMPIONS on the lefthand breast of the jacket. He handpicked it off because of the bad luck thing. The stupid thing was he was our representative that agreed the design with Wulf. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salty Posted March 9, 2015 Report Share Posted March 9, 2015 Pretty sure when I first started following Cradley at the end of the 60's and early 70's the clubs injury jinx was partly blamed on the green club colours. This was one of the reasons for the "United" rebranding in 1973 and the introduction of red into race-jackets/colours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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