moomin man 76 Posted April 27, 2020 Report Share Posted April 27, 2020 I was wondering if anyone had any copies of the programmes issued for speedway in Homburg (Saar)? I believe racing was held there in 1957-58 and 1960. Friends of my family live in Homburg and therefore I am interested if anyone could post a scanned copy of the front cover of a programme and/or would be interested in selling a copy of a programme... Failing that, any details of the venue would be appreciated... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iris123 Posted April 27, 2020 Report Share Posted April 27, 2020 (edited) Seems your friend must have missed a talk about the track and the races that was held late last year. But here is a report. It wasn't a speedway track, but a sand track. Held 17 meetings between 1952- 1963, although I think somewhere it states 1961 https://www.wochenspiegelonline.de/news/article/unvergessen-sandbahnrennen-in-erbach/ https://homburg1.de/homburg-vortrag-ueber-das-legendaere-erbacher-sandbahnrennen-von-1952-bis-1961-84369/ a programme here https://www.saar-nostalgie.de/Motorsport.htm and here are 3 programmes up for sale from meetings in Homburg. lot 7353 https://www.automobilia-ladenburg.de/aAPI/catalogs/en/4576acacc279e96599de02909e6b18bc/page/8 Edited April 27, 2020 by iris123 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moomin man 76 Posted April 27, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2020 Many thanks for such a detailed response - far more than I or my friend could have hoped for. From the information supplied, it appears that Homburg (Saar) was an established sand track for longer than I or my friend were aware. It also perhaps puts to bed the myth the feeling that I had, which was that if speedway had been held, it could only have been at 'Waldstadion,' which is the home ground of FC08 Homburg and has an athletics track around the pitch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moomin man 76 Posted April 27, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2020 Oddly, I have now been on the international speedway website, which clearly shows a front cover from a programme in 1958 that a four way tournament was held between West Germany, England, Austria and Holland with England represented by Danny Dunton, Tommy Sweetman, George Bason and Jim Tebby. The cover has 'Internationales Speedway-Rennen' whereas others are marked as 'Sandbahnrennen.' Aside from that the covers appear identical - were the same promoters staging both sand racing (longtrack) and speedway??? I would gratefully appreciate if anyone could clear this one up.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bavarian Posted April 27, 2020 Report Share Posted April 27, 2020 Quote http://www.internationalspeedway.co.uk/ger4team.htm I always thought that Homburg/Saar had a speedway track rather than a long-track, but from the information given by @iris123 it is obvious that there was long-track racing at Erbach from 1951 on. But could there have been another track, a proper speedway track, somewhere else in Homburg? It would really be interesting to know where a pukka speedway track could have been ? FC08 Homburg's Football ground, the "Waldstadion", looks very very likely. Perhaps @Gustix can help us with more info. I seem to recall that he was there with the English team in 1958. By the way, it is interesting to know that after WW2 the Saarland was NOT part of Germany, but a French Protectorate with self government from 1947 til 1956. They participated under theri own flag at the 1956 Olympics, and had their own national teams in football and other sports. (West-)Germany played against the Saarland twice in their qualifying group for the 1954 FIFA World Cup. On January 1, 1957, the Saarland was reunified with the rest of (West-) Germany. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saarland 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 27, 2020 Report Share Posted April 27, 2020 (edited) 6 hours ago, moomin man 76 said: Oddly, I have now been on the international speedway website, which clearly shows a front cover from a programme in 1958 that a four way tournament was held between West Germany, England, Austria and Holland with England represented by Danny Dunton, Tommy Sweetman, George Bason and Jim Tebby. The cover has 'Internationales Speedway-Rennen' whereas others are marked as 'Sandbahnrennen.' Aside from that the covers appear identical - were the same promoters staging both sand racing (longtrack) and speedway??? I would gratefully appreciate if anyone could clear this one up.... Interesting to see a leg trail rider in the England team - man of several tracks, George Bason: Wembley, West Ham, Southampton, Liverpool, Swindon and California (in England). He was also among the riders who helped pioneer speedway at Oxford in 1939. In the 1960s he was a member of Victor Boston's speedway group in France. Edited April 27, 2020 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 27, 2020 Report Share Posted April 27, 2020 55 minutes ago, Bavarian said: I always thought that Homburg/Saar had a speedway track rather than a long-track, but from the information given by @iris123 it is obvious that there was long-track racing at Erbach from 1951 on. But could there have been another track, a proper speedway track, somewhere else in Homburg? It would really be interesting to know where a pukka speedway track could have been ? FC08 Homburg's Football ground, the "Waldstadion", looks very very likely. Perhaps @Gustix can help us with more info. I seem to recall that he was there with the English team in 1958. By the way, it is interesting to know that after WW2 the Saarland was NOT part of Germany, but a French Protectorate with self government from 1947 til 1956. They participated under theri own flag at the 1956 Olympics, and had their own national teams in football and other sports. (West-)Germany played against the Saarland twice in their qualifying group for the 1954 FIFA World Cup. On January 1, 1957, the Saarland was reunified with the rest of (West-) Germany. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saarland Sorry Bavarian! I was not at Homburg Saar in 1958. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iris123 Posted April 28, 2020 Report Share Posted April 28, 2020 (edited) 16 hours ago, Bavarian said: I always thought that Homburg/Saar had a speedway track rather than a long-track, but from the information given by @iris123 it is obvious that there was long-track racing at Erbach from 1951 on. But could there have been another track, a proper speedway track, somewhere else in Homburg? It would really be interesting to know where a pukka speedway track could have been ? FC08 Homburg's Football ground, the "Waldstadion", looks very very likely. Perhaps @Gustix can help us with more info. I seem to recall that he was there with the English team in 1958. By the way, it is interesting to know that after WW2 the Saarland was NOT part of Germany, but a French Protectorate with self government from 1947 til 1956. They participated under theri own flag at the 1956 Olympics, and had their own national teams in football and other sports. (West-)Germany played against the Saarland twice in their qualifying group for the 1954 FIFA World Cup. On January 1, 1957, the Saarland was reunified with the rest of (West-) Germany. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saarland It is an interesting one. Seems if gustix was there, he can't remember much about it. I guess it is also possible they had a speedway track built on the same area, even inside the long track ? I think there are one or two examples of this today ? Herxheim and Parchim ? Ludwigslust did have two tracks side by side until the long track was turned into a MotoX track I guess Ann Schindler is the person to contact. Seems she did another talk with a couple of the riders from that era, pus photos and film, this year. Maybe more are planned ? https://homburg1.de/homburg-erbach-multimedia-vortrag-ueber-das-legendaere-erbacher-sandbahnrennen-im-saalbau-88165/ Edited April 28, 2020 by iris123 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 28, 2020 Report Share Posted April 28, 2020 (edited) 19 minutes ago, iris123 said: It is an interesting one. Seems if gustix was there, he can't remember much about it. I guess it is also possible they had a speedway track built on the same area, even inside the long track ? I think there are one or two examples of this today ? Herxheim and Parchim ? Ludwigslust did have two tracks side by side until the long track was turned into a MotoX track I WAS NOT AT HOMBURG SAAR in 1958. All I did with George Bason's co-operation was find some riders to compete there. The only German tracks I have ever seen speedway at are Oldenburg and Bremen. That was in another year. Edited April 28, 2020 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 2, 2020 Report Share Posted May 2, 2020 (edited) On a tangent! I am now surprised that I ever went to Germany and also Holland in the 1950s to watch speedway. Different times now - I have not seen a live meeting since Wimbledon closed in 2005 and rarely watch speedway when shown on FREE TV - maybe parts of eight meetings in the past 15 years. Edited May 3, 2020 by Guest spelling error Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iris123 Posted May 2, 2020 Report Share Posted May 2, 2020 Very interesting John. Any more personal speedway experiences you want to share with us ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 3, 2020 Report Share Posted May 3, 2020 (edited) 17 hours ago, gustix said: On a tangent! I am now surprised that I ever went to Germany and also Holland in the 1950s to watch speedway. Different times now - I have not seen a live meeting since Wimbledon closed in 2005 and rarely watch speedway when shown on FREE TV - maybe about parts of eight meetings in the past 15 years. 16 hours ago, iris123 said: Very interesting John. Any more personal speedway experiences you want to share with us ? Not anything to answer. My years of mainly following speedway were 1946 until1954. Then on Good Friday 1954 at New Cross came a major change. A sellout crowd and more locked out went there for the first British stock car meeting. I was captivated by the spectacle and have been a dedicated follower of oval track car racing ever since. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1128250810570567/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/1593360700937855/ Edited May 3, 2020 by Guest spelling error Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iris123 Posted May 3, 2020 Report Share Posted May 3, 2020 But your love of the sport must be ingrained, for you to stick around on here so often and share your very interesting pieces now and again How they have entertained us over the years. What would we do without you(is that an exclamation mark or a question.....who cares?)?!?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iris123 Posted May 11, 2020 Report Share Posted May 11, 2020 On 4/28/2020 at 3:52 PM, iris123 said: It is an interesting one. Seems if gustix was there, he can't remember much about it. I guess it is also possible they had a speedway track built on the same area, even inside the long track ? I think there are one or two examples of this today ? Herxheim and Parchim ? Ludwigslust did have two tracks side by side until the long track was turned into a MotoX track I guess Ann Schindler is the person to contact. Seems she did another talk with a couple of the riders from that era, pus photos and film, this year. Maybe more are planned ? https://homburg1.de/homburg-erbach-multimedia-vortrag-ueber-das-legendaere-erbacher-sandbahnrennen-im-saalbau-88165/ Couldn't track down Ann. But managed to find one of the riders, Franz Boßlet, who also gave a talk and has a driving school in the area, where one of the bikes used to be on display. Asked him about the speedway and hope to get an answer soon 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moomin man 76 Posted May 18, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2020 On 5/11/2020 at 4:03 PM, iris123 said: Couldn't track down Ann. But managed to find one of the riders, Franz Boßlet, who also gave a talk and has a driving school in the area, where one of the bikes used to be on display. Asked him about the speedway and hope to get an answer soon Many thanks for taking the time to investigate and if anything comes from Franz Boßlet, I would be most grateful to hear what he had to say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
secondbend Posted May 21, 2020 Report Share Posted May 21, 2020 I think I can help you with some informations about the longtrack/speedway in Homburg. They are taken from a club chronicle published in 1993. The longtrack was opened on May 25th 1952 and had a track length of 750 meters. A crowd of 20.000 people had been there for the first races. The 9th longtrack meeting (on August 15th 1957) was staged as a speedway event with a 4 Team Tournament. The riders did represent winner Germany (40 points), Austria (28), Finnland (28) and Sweden (21). The next meeting (on May 1st 1958) was also run as a speedway meeting. Germany (34) was the winner again with Austria (32), Netherlands (31) and England (17) following. The last ever longtrack meeting at this track (in Homburg district named Erbach) was on May 14th 1961. The track was then declared as a building site. The club later did stage grasstrack meetings from 1962 until 1965. If someone is interested I can send you copies of the 5 pages from the chronicle (in german) which tell about the longtrack/speedway/grasstrack history of the Homburg club. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bavarian Posted May 23, 2020 Report Share Posted May 23, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bavarian Posted May 23, 2020 Report Share Posted May 23, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bavarian Posted May 23, 2020 Report Share Posted May 23, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iris123 Posted May 23, 2020 Report Share Posted May 23, 2020 Good stuff. Heard nothing so far, but looks fairly certain all meetings even the ‘speedway’ went ahead at the same track Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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