Steve Gresham

[Eastville Bulldog]

If I recall 'The Mad Wellie' was the only one happy to ride with him?

I was chatting to Malc at Oaktree Arena back in 1999/2000 about Steve Gresham. He told me some stories about him and I was in stitches! He said he was the scariest rider he ever met, he said SG had no regard for safety nor did he look after his fellow team rider on track. If you got in his way you were gonna get knocked off whether you were on his side or the opposition. Mad Wellie was still quite annoyed at the fact that he lent Gresham a spare back wheel and tyre and he never gave it back - well he couldn't not really... He went back to the US the following week and took it with him.

[steve roberts]

I was chatting to Malc at Oaktree Arena back in 1999/2000 about Steve Gresham. He told me some stories about him and I was in stitches! He said he was the scariest rider he ever met, he said SG had no regard for safety nor did he look after his fellow team rider on track. If you got in his way you were gonna get knocked off whether you were on his side or the opposition. Mad Wellie was still quite annoyed at the fact that he lent Gresham a spare back wheel and tyre and he never gave it back - well he couldn't not really... He went back to the US the following week and took it with him.

 

 

Strange that Steve Gresham and Scott Autrey were pals...such complete opposites.

Edited July 31, 2017 by steve roberts

[Sidney the robin]

Strange that Steve Gresham and Scott Autrey were pals...such complete opposites.

The Holloway/Gresham partnership1981 was a very fruitful one they beat the likes of Collins/Grahame which over time was one of the stronger partnerships.

[Eastville Bulldog]

 

 

Strange that Steve Gresham and Scott Autrey were pals...such complete opposites.

Steve and Scott came to Britain together at the same time. You would think they were total opposites, Scott...the humble quiet polite guy, Steve...the arrogant, loud aggressive guy. But Steve off of the track was actually very quiet, polite and well mannered.Competition brought out the worst in him, I saw it first hand!

[Gresham]

SG and SA still seem good mates now...always lots of banter between them on FB.

 

SG seems to have history with tyres and wheels.

 

Midlo is always reminding him of tyres he still owes him lol.

 

Can concur about SG being polite and well mannered off track.

 

Will always be my speedway hero...so many happy memories from Brizzle and Swindon

[Eastville Bulldog]

Scott was living in a house on the outskirts of Poole when riding for Exeter. Steve was living just off the M4 near Bristol in a cottage, apparently he had a visit from the police after complaints of black choking smoke after he set light to his worn bike tyres.

If you want to find out more about Steve, see John, the machine examiner down at Oak tree arena, he knew Steve well.

If you want to find out more about Steve, see John, the machine examiner down at Oak tree arena, he knew Steve well.

If you want to find out more about Steve, see John, the machine examiner down at Oak tree arena, he knew Steve well.

If you want to find out more about Steve, see John, the machine examiner down at Oak tree arena, he knew Steve well.

If you want to find out more about Steve, see John, the machine examiner down at Oak tree arena, he knew Steve well.

[RastaPickles]

Just came across this site.

I got into speedway in the 70s when it was hosted at Eastville, Bristol and Gresham was one of the Bulldogs.

Gresham was a revelation; he was average for the first year I watched, averaged 7-ish.  The following year he was up there with the best, I don't know what happened to him between seasons.

And I was at Eastville when Gordon Kennett was a guest rider for another outfit and the two clashed; Kennett was quickest away from the gate but Gresham was all over him like a bad rash.....Kennett went down under a challenge, threw his arms up in the direction of the referee and the referee obviously bought it, red-lighted the race and disqualified Gresham.

The two of them had some fisticuffs on the track immediately afterwards.

I admired Kennett up until that point, afterwards not at all; he was outridden by Gresham and chose to bite the dirt and bellyache.

[steve roberts]

On 6/19/2019 at 6:49 PM, RastaPickles said:

Just came across this site.

I got into speedway in the 70s when it was hosted at Eastville, Bristol and Gresham was one of the Bulldogs.

Gresham was a revelation; he was average for the first year I watched, averaged 7-ish.  The following year he was up there with the best, I don't know what happened to him between seasons.

And I was at Eastville when Gordon Kennett was a guest rider for another outfit and the two clashed; Kennett was quickest away from the gate but Gresham was all over him like a bad rash.....Kennett went down under a challenge, threw his arms up in the direction of the referee and the referee obviously bought it, red-lighted the race and disqualified Gresham.

The two of them had some fisticuffs on the track immediately afterwards.

I admired Kennett up until that point, afterwards not at all; he was outridden by Gresham and chose to bite the dirt and bellyache.

There apparently was some tension between Gresham and Kennett. I recall Gresham riding hard under Gordon during White City's visit and Kennett falling and was excluded but was clearly the fault of Steve. The tension may have started back in 1975 when Steve rode for Newport and on a visit to Cowley clearly rode thru' Gordon and prompted Promoter Bob Dugard to leap the fence pushing me aside to attend to the riders in what was a pretty alarming crash.

I did put the question to Steve via Facebook some years ago regarding a possible vendetta between the two but he brushed it off saying that Gordon was one of the stars during that era and was a tough competitor and they were there to be beaten.

[Sidney the robin]

On 7/31/2017 at 10:19 PM, Eastville Bulldog said:

On 7/31/2017 at 10:38 AM, steve roberts said:

 

 

Strange that Steve Gresham and Scott Autrey were pals...such complete opposites.

Steve and Scott came to Britain together at the same time. You would think they were total opposites, Scott...the humble quiet polite guy, Steve...the arrogant, loud aggressive guy. But Steve off of the track was actually very quiet, polite and well mannered.Competition brought out the worst in him, I saw it first hand!

I met  Steve once and what a nice guy he was very quiet not like his reputation at all.As a rider he was very tough indeed took no prisoners i do remember when poor old Steve took the blame at Reading when clearly Milan Spinka caused carnage which caused Tony Briggs to crash.Steve and Barry Briggs had a right old ding dong over that the crowd loved it though all part and parcel of speedway then.

[lucifer sam]

A few excerpts from Steve's interview for Backtrack:

Reflecting on his hard man image, that gained him the nickname ‘Steve The Heave’, he recalls: “I think my reputation was more for things that happened off the track rather than on it, because I stuck up for myself.

“I never took any crap.  If you get pushed about and you don’t stick up for yourself, then the rest of the riders will take advantage.  That’s just human nature. 

“I saw other riders who got pushed around all the time.  That didn’t happen with me, because people knew they couldn’t get away with it.”

On track, Steve reflects: “I moved riders out of the way.  There were certain times you needed to nudge a rider out of the way, and certain times that they wouldn’t move.  I felt I had to be aggressive.

“There were certain riders who would take you out to the fence and leave you in never-never land, and I didn’t do that. 

“But if I went into a corner and I was looking to get inside someone, and they moved across to block me, I didn’t like being forced off the throttle.  So then I would put pressure on them, and a lot of the guys would buckle under pressure.

“It didn’t bother me having to come from the back.  I never intentionally took another rider out of a race; I wouldn’t go into a corner and not turn.  That wasn’t a safe thing to do in any case, because you’d just go with them.  You’d tangle and both end up in the fence.

“If you tried to go around someone and got pushed up against the fence, I always thought I was partially to blame for putting myself in the wrong place and allowing them to do it.  I should have known better.

“If someone rode me rough into a corner, I didn’t go up and bellyache at them.  But I remembered what they’d done to me.  That was the way I was raised - it doesn’t do any good to yell up and down.

“You should be a gentleman and play fair; and if not, then at some point, they’re going to have to race you again.”

AND:

On July 21, 1980, Swindon travelled to high-flying neighbours Reading for a BL match.  Crump had recently returned, after missing the start of the season to set up a motorcycle business in Australia.

With Autrey also in their ranks, Robins were keen to prove what could have been had Crump been available for the whole season, in what proved to be an explosive local derby.

In Heat 8, Racers’ Jiri Stancl led, while Milan Spinka forced a way under Tony Briggs with Gresham following through the gap.  Briggs crashed spectacularly, with Gresham excluded, even though some felt his team-mate Spinka was the one at fault.

“From what I recall, I returned the pits and was walking out to the watch the racing (the re-run of Heat 8), when Barry Briggs, Tony’s father, tackled me from behind.”

Blows were exchanged and the racing was held up for around 20 minutes.

“I never had a problem with Tony over that incident; we never even really talked about it, because it was just racing.

“I bumped into Barry not long ago at a race meeting, and I decided to go over and talk to him.  It was a private conversation, but we chatted for a couple of hours and we were getting on well by the end of it.”

Swindon won at Smallmead by 40-38, but Reading still ended the season as champions.

AND:

Steve looks back to his decade in Britain with great fondness.

“I had a wonderful time.  Coming to Britain was the best time in my life.  I feel I grew into an adult in Britain.  People took care of me, and I met lots of friends and learned how to control my money.

“I gave up a formal education to go racing, and my family thought I was crazy.  But it was because of speedway that I learnt how to control my money and set up a successful business.  I learned about life and don’t regret any of it.

“It gave a sense of what life was worth and how to respect other people.

“I still go for a ride on my bike every now and then. You don’t forget how to ride and it’s a lot of fun.” 

 

 

Edited July 10, 2019 by lucifer sam

[fatface]

Looks like a good piece! 

It's a bit late now, but I would be interested to know what his thoughts were on an infamous 1982 meeting at Hyde Road, where Steve kicked off Louis Carr, had a centre green scrap with Ian Thomas and then had more fisticuffs with team-mate Bobby Schwartz! No doubt he was a hard rider, but he wasn't averse to cross the line into being down right dirty at times. Always worth watching of course!

[Sidney the robin]

Can't wait to get a copy as i enjoyed watching Steve he was also terrific in the test matches for the USA and raised his game for them.Another memory i have  of Steve was a meeting at Eastbourne we had just signed him and he had to ride borrowed aquipment what a heep of junk he was on and i can remember him not being to happy about it a real character.

[lucifer sam]

On ‎7‎/‎14‎/‎2019 at 10:27 AM, Sidney the robin said:

Can't wait to get a copy as i enjoyed watching Steve he was also terrific in the test matches for the USA and raised his game for them.Another memory i have  of Steve was a meeting at Eastbourne we had just signed him and he had to ride borrowed aquipment what a heep of junk he was on and i can remember him not being to happy about it a real character.

Hi Sid, it's actually an old article that appeared in Backtrack a couple of years ago.  You've probably got it.