Jump to content
British Speedway Forum

What ever happened to team riding?


Recommended Posts

One of the finest sights in speed way was to see two riders ,either home team or away , riding together as a team keeping the opposition out. One rider going wide the other riding the  white line. The late Jack Millen used to do it a lot whilst at Sunderland keeping close to a young Dave Gatenby  and provided exciting racing. It was always a rare sight ,something I have not seen in a long time. There have been occasions in a meeting when team riding could have been used only for the faster rider to power away leaving his partner behind turning what could have been a5-1into a4-2 or worse. Having never ridden a speed way bike I don't know what type of view a rider has of behind him, so perhaps or perhaps the team manager could from the centre green signal to his riders what is going on

Edited by Thornaby48
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cant see how that will be easy to execute.  Many times one member of the team is having to slow down to help his mate, at the same time an opposition rider can well be snapping at his or his mate trying to get past.  By the time a rider has interpreted what his manager on centre green is "saying", the opposition could well have got past.  Of course not all team riding is like that but it could happen a lot.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, Thornaby48 said:

One of the finest sights in speed way was to see two riders ,either home team or away , riding together as a team keeping the opposition out. One rider going wide the other riding the  white line. The late Jack Millen used to do it a lot whilst at Sunderland keeping close to a young Dave Gatenby  and provided exciting racing. It was always a rare sight ,something I have not seen in a long time. There have been occasions in a meeting when team riding could have been used only for the faster rider to power away leaving his partner behind turning what could have been a5-1into a4-2 or worse. Having never ridden a speed way bike I don't know what type of view a rider has of behind him, so perhaps or perhaps the team manager could from the centre green signal to his riders what is going on

Saw many great riders who were able to team ride....Ronnie Moore, Ivan Mauger. Ole Olsen, Hans Nielsen, Ken McKinlay, Sam Ermolenko etc etc and dictate a race. Personally I felt that the advent of fixed gates limited opportunities and have read that the introduction of lay downs made it more difficult as they were somewhat unpredictable?

I always thought it was one of the spectacles of team racing and there was no finer sight in speedway. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Bagpuss said:

Personally I hate team riding, would rather see my team take a safe 4-2 than risk a 3-3 by trying to team ride to a 5-1. You have to be bloody good at it and very few riders are.

...Tony Rikardsson was a case in point. One reason I would never put him in the same class as Ivan Mauger despite his six World Championship wins.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw a good example the other week when Charles Wright had a heavy crash at Sheffield, he (maybe foolishly) came out for his next race, and Ty Proctor practically carried him around to a 2nd place in a 3 - 3. 

As a Sheffield supporter who saw Alan Molyneux's disastrous year with the Tigers, I have no doubt as to Ole Olsen's team riding capabilities, even if I only ever saw the Bees once a year at Owlerton! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Shale Searcher said:

In the bygone years, riders could, and were excluded for looking back/behind. Team riding is a modern phenomenon.. But not a current one.. 

I wish mauger had got excluded then  in 1969  at the world final ,  team riding with Sjosten ,to knock Boocock off the rostrum . in 50 years of speedway I have never heard of any rules against team riding 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. Privacy Policy