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This must be a contender for the greatest race ever!


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21 minutes ago, Grachan said:

So Simmons, who deliberately chucked races when riding for Swindon so he could drop down a league, lost respect for Rickardsson over his first bend manouvre in the Grand Prix?

I know which one I have more respect for.

Wasn't the manourvre that was questioned but that Rickardsson claimed that he had meant to carry it out...nine point nine times out of ten it would have ended in a crash. Doesn't matter who made the comment really (only that it was Simmo who went into print) but most speedway fans/observers would have come up with the same opinion. Spectacular move, but not calculated as Rickardsson afterwards claimed, that paid off... on that occasion. He was mighty lucky!

Edited by steve roberts
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4 hours ago, steve roberts said:

...which of course was a fluke despite Rickardsson's claims to the contrary. Malcolm Simmons lost a lot of respect for him when Rickardsson later claimed that it was a calculated risk rather than admit it was pure chance and a manourvre a rider wouldn't normally expect to take or get away with.

I'm sure Rickardsson is devastated.

As Iris says, Simmons is one of the BIGGEST reasons for the decline of the sport in the UK.

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2 hours ago, steve roberts said:

Wasn't the manourvre that was questioned but that Rickardsson claimed that he had meant to carry it out...nine point nine times out of ten it would have ended in a crash. Doesn't matter who made the comment really (only that it was Simmo who went into print) but most speedway fans/observers would have come up with the same opinion. Spectacular move, but not calculated as Rickardsson afterwards claimed, that paid off... on that occasion. He was mighty lucky!

So was Emil lucky too then? Or did he plan to try it?

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On 5/22/2019 at 12:07 PM, IronScorpion said:

It looked like on that last bend he shut off, not sliding, but just let the bike run( how he did not end up in the fence??????????) then opened the throttle to pass. SUPERB!!!!!! 

Apart from the Tony Rickardsson single first turn move at Cardiff. I've never really seen anything quite like that....a rider deliberately using a berm of dirt resting ion the fence as a tactic to overtake. He came out of the turns more like a motocross rider than a speedway rider. Quite unique. I wonder if we will see other riders attempting this one from now on? It would be very risky business for those less skilled than Sayfutdinov...he should really issue a "Don't Try This At Home!" statement.  :blink:

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Brilliant as it was I'm more in awe of the way a few top riders use the fence to drive them harder into the corners now. Think Jason Crump was the first I saw do it and it amazed me then and still does now.

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28 minutes ago, Vince said:

Brilliant as it was I'm more in awe of the way a few top riders use the fence to drive them harder into the corners now. Think Jason Crump was the first I saw do it and it amazed me then and still does now.

Believe a routine ploy by Ivan Mauger  when he was at at Exeter

Edited by wealdstone
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4 hours ago, wealdstone said:

Believe a routine ploy by Ivan Mauger  when he was at at Exeter

I think Vaclav Verner may well have used the same ploy around the County Ground? He certainly got thru' gaps others feared to tread!

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1 hour ago, steve roberts said:

I think Vaclav Verner may well have used the same ploy around the County Ground? He certainly got thru' gaps others feared to tread!

We were talking about respect? Now there is somebody for whom I had the greatest respect, as a rider and as a person - dear old Vaclav!

Steve

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2 hours ago, steve roberts said:

I think Vaclav Verner may well have used the same ploy around the County Ground? He certainly got thru' gaps others feared to tread!

He certainly used the same ploy at Romford. I can still remember the pain i felt getting filled in by his back wheel at Brooklands. That low concrete wall offered very little protection for those of us silly enough to stand near it.

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This thread got me thinking about strange lines some riders used to take on their way to the chequered flag. There was no better sight than watching Dag Lovaas ride the notorious adverse camber on the pits bend at Cowley as he swept round the opposition. He was one of few who were able to negotiate that move successfully before it was removed some years later.

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Ivan was known to deliberately give the Exeter steel fence a clout exiting the bends, sometimes bending his silencer, or when going into them for added speed.  Vaclav Verner did the same at Hull, a loud 'thud' denoting his successful exit from the bend, accompanied by a cloud of shale thrown into the air....

Edited by martinmauger
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On 5/26/2019 at 2:42 PM, martinmauger said:

Ivan was known to deliberately give the Exeter steel fence a clout exiting the bends, sometimes bending his silencer, or when going into them for added speed.  Vaclav Verner did the same at Hull, a loud 'thud' denoting his successful exit from the bend, accompanied by a cloud of shale thrown into the air....

Yes, I've seen riders clout the fence at Exeter and gain the benefit - some deliberate, some not so! But I think that's different to the 'wall of death' tactic in this instance. I don't think that's something Mauger, nor anyone else has deliberately deployed.

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4 hours ago, falcace said:

Yes, I've seen riders clout the fence at Exeter and gain the benefit - some deliberate, some not so! But I think that's different to the 'wall of death' tactic in this instance. I don't think that's something Mauger, nor anyone else has deliberately deployed.

Ivan mentions it in his book and subsequent interviews that he would purposely run his back wheel up on the fence at the County Ground which would then give him the momentum to pass a rider up the inside (where they least expected it) on entering the next bend. If I recall he used to say that it would take him a couple of laps in which to build up the necessary speed.

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On 5/26/2019 at 2:42 PM, martinmauger said:

Ivan was known to deliberately give the Exeter steel fence a clout exiting the bends, sometimes bending his silencer, or when going into them for added speed.  Vaclav Verner did the same at Hull, a loud 'thud' denoting his successful exit from the bend, accompanied by a cloud of shale thrown into the air....

Saw Vaclav Verner use the same tactics at Halifax when riding for Exeter,lost count the number of times he touch the fence on the 3rd 4th bend.At the time just thought he was out of control( not so):D

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On 5/28/2019 at 3:16 PM, steve roberts said:

Ivan mentions it in his book and subsequent interviews that he would purposely run his back wheel up on the fence at the County Ground which would then give him the momentum to pass a rider up the inside (where they least expected it) on entering the next bend. If I recall he used to say that it would take him a couple of laps in which to build up the necessary speed.

Hmm...still not convinced its the same. This was two wheels along the fence. Ivan will always be arguably the best ever, but did he ever perform a wall of death overtake? He was a very calculated rider and let's be honest - not averse to blowing his own trumpet - but was this type of thing he would engage in? I'd be interested to hear from any neutrals who swear blind he did. 

image.png.de5b700ce6a63e3913dd9ecfea6db2a1.png

 

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9 hours ago, falcace said:

Hmm...still not convinced its the same. This was two wheels along the fence. Ivan will always be arguably the best ever, but did he ever perform a wall of death overtake? He was a very calculated rider and let's be honest - not averse to blowing his own trumpet - but was this type of thing he would engage in? I'd be interested to hear from any neutrals who swear blind he did. 

image.png.de5b700ce6a63e3913dd9ecfea6db2a1.png

 

I'll just quote from an interview that Ivan gave in 'Backtrack'  to perhaps help explain and/or qualify which I hope Tony Mac doesn't mind me quoting :-

"At Exeter I had contests with myself. If I was riding very well, I'd go up around the banked part of turns three and and four and let my back wheel hit the fence - it would give me a ricochet and fire me down the the home straight. I used to practice doing that because, occasionally, if I was second or third in a race, and went up and got that ricochet on turn four, I  knew I would have enough speed to pass guys on the inside by the start line. They were not expecting it. Instead, they expected you to creep round the outside. It would take me about a lap-and-a-half to build up to but I'd pass a lot of guys by riding in about the the gate one or two positions down the front straight - after my back wheel had deliberately clouted the fence. When we first used mufflers, I would tend to bend them on the fence - yes, Exeter was a really good fun place to to race at."

Not a 'wall of death' feat by any means or in any way similar to the above race but a move using the fence to gain momentum which he apparently used successfully.

Edited by steve roberts
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2 hours ago, falcace said:

Hmm...still not convinced its the same. This was two wheels along the fence. Ivan will always be arguably the best ever, but did he ever perform a wall of death overtake? He was a very calculated rider and let's be honest - not averse to blowing his own trumpet - but was this type of thing he would engage in? I'd be interested to hear from any neutrals who swear blind he did. 

image.png.de5b700ce6a63e3913dd9ecfea6db2a1.png

 

Correct, it's not the same at all.

I doubt that 99.99% of speedway riders have ever done what Sayfutdinov did here.

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On 5/28/2019 at 7:44 PM, falcace said:

Yes, I've seen riders clout the fence at Exeter and gain the benefit - some deliberate, some not so! But I think that's different to the 'wall of death' tactic in this instance. I don't think that's something Mauger, nor anyone else has deliberately deployed.

I remember Craig Watson at Exeter using the fence to superb effect to pass Mark simmonds round the outside, he had the white paint marks on the handlebars to prove how close he got to the fence as well. 

Watching from the 4th bend bar looking directly down at the track was without doubt the best viewing place I have seen in speedway. Breathtaking 

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