Jason Garrity

[moxey63]

57 minutes ago, tigerowl said:

I've never met the lad and there can't be any on here who feel any sympathy at the sentence which is well derserved in my opinion, but he was an entertaining rider and a decent heat leader in the second tier.

Speedway is just a reflection of society though. The huge majority of riders are dedicated hard working professionals from good families but there will always be the bad apples and speedway is littered with riders who have fallen foul of the law.

I'm currently researching the pre war years for the speedway researcher website and it's amazing, even in the 1920s and 1930s how many riders appeared in court for stealing vehicles, breaking and entering etc.

We've had murderers, safe breakers, drug smugglers, burglars, riders stealing bikes from other riders, all sorts.

Some of these riders served their time and came back to the sport, others disappeared. Jason will be in his early 30s when he comes out and will be young enough to make a comeback, but I can't see any promoter taking a chance on him.

Although I was not around at the time, the career of 1940s/50s rider Bruce Semmens - the safebreaker - reminds me a lot of Jason Garrity, and the way it ended. 

Edited October 28, 2020 by moxey63

[Midland Red]

1 hour ago, jenga said:

 

wonder how many on here will not be around in years to come ! 

 

All of us, probably 

[chunky]

15 hours ago, False dawn said:

Bill had tremours for which he took betablockers. Unfortunately, the ruling body banned their use

When I was on beta blockers for my blood pressure, it was the worst time of my life. Not only did I not suffer any nerves, but I couldn't experience ANY emotion; it was like I was a zombie. Not feeling nerves is one thing, but I never felt disappointment or despair, and worse than anything - I never felt joy or elation at winning. There was no adrenalin rush, no relief, no nothing. It also prevented me from "digging deep" when I was in a pressure situation, which is very counter-productive.

Beta blockers may be good as far as your health, but they can destroy all emotion, and anyone in competitive sport can tell you that emotion is the biggest "hook".

[False dawn]

3 hours ago, chunky said:

When I was on beta blockers for my blood pressure, it was the worst time of my life. Not only did I not suffer any nerves, but I couldn't experience ANY emotion; it was like I was a zombie. Not feeling nerves is one thing, but I never felt disappointment or despair, and worse than anything - I never felt joy or elation at winning. There was no adrenalin rush, no relief, no nothing. It also prevented me from "digging deep" when I was in a pressure situation, which is very counter-productive.

Beta blockers may be good as far as your health, but they can destroy all emotion, and anyone in competitive sport can tell you that emotion is the biggest "hook".

Many years ago, I was also wrongly prescribed beta blockers. My experience mirrored your own. I also felt like I was unable to feel any sort of emotion, good or bad. I quickly stopped taking them and found better medical advice.

[chunky]

6 minutes ago, False dawn said:

Many years ago, I was also wrongly prescribed beta blockers. My experience mirrored your own. I also felt like I was unable to feel any sort of emotion, good or bad. I quickly stopped taking them and found better medical advice.

It's hard to explain to people that have never been through that, isn't it? It's a terrible feeling when your body won't react in the way that you want it to, or the way you are used to. You really do feel just like an empty shell...

Edited October 28, 2020 by chunky

[Humphrey Appleby]

13 hours ago, spiegal said:

I always find it disturbing that so few riders actually make any real, consolidated money to help them set up business or invest. The numbers who actually go on to achieve something positive in a new career after racing is minimal. Even world champions have been known to trek around begging favours. Famous names from the past often seem totally unable to hang onto their money in sensible manner...Obviously there are exceptions but given teh dangers and subsequent decent prize money, the end result is surprising.

Much the same with many sportspersons, even in the rarefied world of the EPL or whatever. 

They make it in their chosen sport because they're talented and usually dedicated at doing that, not because they're good at business. And only a handful of people in any given professional sport make serious money, and even if you can make a fairly good living wage, you'll usually only have a short time in which you're doing that.

There's also the issue that successful sportspersons will usually have always been successful from a young age, will invariably have people blowing smoke up their ar**s, and will often have others sorting their lives out for them. So they don't have perspective that the money isn't always going to be coming in, and they're not necessarily going to be successful at anything else they do. Plus it makes them vulnerable to hangers-on and those trying to rip them off.

We've been doing some work for one of the major rugby bodies, so I've got to know some of the former professional players. This is a relatively mainstream sport where the players are generally better educated than most, yet it's shocking how far so many fall when their playing days are finished. But they way they're treated when become surplus to requirements, simply dumped and suddenly losing their entire support network, is actually also appalling. And of course speedway is even further down the food chain in terms of money, prestige and public image where some benefactor is willing to help you out with some work. 

[Vince]

As far as drugs improving performance on a bike there was a grass track rider who suddenly improved his performances with the aid of amphetamines for most of a season. Certainly gave him a much bigger set of balls than he had without it, once people caught on and started suggesting he get tested he stopped riding.

I think one of the reasons so many sports people go off the rails is that they miss out on going a bit wild in their teenage years and try to make up for it when they retire as they are still relatively young. I know two very good pro MX riders who did very well out of the sport in the 80's, probably earning more than their counterparts do now who have nothing left due to taking up drinking and partying with all the dedication they once had for their sport.

[IainB]

21 hours ago, tigerowl said:

Speedway is just a reflection of society though.

Speedway is not a reflection of society though is it and that's part of it's problem imo. You can count the number of "BAME" people involved in the sport on one hand, Women? Can anybody name more than 5? Nobody in Speedway is Gay? The crowd is, in the majority, aging and male

[spiegal]

POULTEC is a really genuine, well run and thoroughly professional organisation. The owner is a former Grasstrack rider who knows all the pitfalls. I would be more than happy to send any son of mine there as a start on the sport. 

[Pinny]

6 hours ago, Vince said:

As far as drugs improving performance on a bike there was a grass track rider who suddenly improved his performances with the aid of amphetamines for most of a season. Certainly gave him a much bigger set of balls than he had without it, once people caught on and started suggesting he get tested he stopped riding.

I think one of the reasons so many sports people go off the rails is that they miss out on going a bit wild in their teenage years and try to make up for it when they retire as they are still relatively young. I know two very good pro MX riders who did very well out of the sport in the 80's, probably earning more than their counterparts do now who have nothing left due to taking up drinking and partying with all the dedication they once had for their sport.

Is the first paragraph referring to who I think it is ? 

[Vince]

1 minute ago, Pinny said:

Is the first paragraph referring to who I think it is ? 

I would think so!

[steve roberts]

2 minutes ago, Pinny said:

Is the first paragraph referring to who I think it is ? 

Do tell!

[moxey63]

4 hours ago, iainb said:

Speedway is not a reflection of society though is it and that's part of it's problem imo. You can count the number of "BAME" people involved in the sport on one hand, Women? Can anybody name more than 5? Nobody in Speedway is Gay? The crowd is, in the majority, aging and male

But there are people in society who hold up people with knives and demand money. Think that's what he meant.

[False dawn]

6 hours ago, spiegal said:

POULTEC is a really genuine, well run and thoroughly professional organisation. The owner is a former Grasstrack rider who knows all the pitfalls. I would be more than happy to send any son of mine there as a start on the sport. 

Olly Allen came to a meeting of the Nuneaton Supportes Club in February. He has been very active in getting the Poultec apprenticeship going. It provides for recognised engineering qualifications as well as specialist speedway knowledge. This includes bike and engine training, track craft (regular track days under the guidance of senior riders) and other aspects of being a professional rider such as diet, keeping in good shape and dealing with the fourth estate. Olly brought several youngsters from the course with him to the meeting and their appearance, ability to speak, and thier overall demeanour was very impressive.

Olly explained that he has been jointly recruited to the GB Team Management with Simon Stead because of his expertese with young riders. What he is bulding is a speedway academy and I, for one, wish him well in this endeavour.

[tigerowl]

On 10/29/2020 at 8:41 AM, iainb said:

Speedway is not a reflection of society though is it and that's part of it's problem imo. You can count the number of "BAME" people involved in the sport on one hand, Women? Can anybody name more than 5? Nobody in Speedway is Gay? The crowd is, in the majority, aging and male

That wasn't really the point I was trying to make. I was trying to point out that most of society is good on the whole and there are a few rotten eggs that take a disproportionate amount of the headlines, and that is the same for speedway.

I wasn't trying to make a point about equality in society. However, speedway is one of the few sports where women are able to compete on equal terms with men and I would hope that if gay men or prospective riders from minority ethnic groups were more prevalent, speedway crowds are largely decent people and would welcome them accordingly.

[djr]

On 10/23/2020 at 10:15 PM, cinderfella said:

I'm not aware of the technicalities but I think I read it in one of the posts in this Forum regarding allegations of an engine that was used in a Polish meeting a few years ago with, sadly, fatal consequences.
I believe both Jawa(JRM?) and GM still manufacture both short and long stroke engines so both must be used.

 

I think what you mean is - using a long stroke crankshaft , with a short stroke barrel & piston , this would create an oversize engine 

you could do this by mixing parts from a manufacturers short & long stroke engines ,

or if you really wanted to cheat really well , you would get some parts machined / made  to be even more oversize

[IronScorpion]

17 hours ago, djr said:

I think what you mean is - using a long stroke crankshaft , with a short stroke barrel & piston , this would create an oversize engine 

you could do this by mixing parts from a manufacturers short & long stroke engines ,

or if you really wanted to cheat really well , you would get some parts machined / made  to be even more oversize

Sorry if this sounds a bit thick(ish) but wouldn't the long stroke push the piston into the cylinder head. Thought it would be the other way round.

[Tsunami]

43 minutes ago, IronScorpion said:

Sorry if this sounds a bit thick(ish) but wouldn't the long stroke push the piston into the cylinder head. Thought it would be the other way round.

Could be that a short stroke piston is shorter than a long stroke one.

[djr]

2 hours ago, IronScorpion said:

Sorry if this sounds a bit thick(ish) but wouldn't the long stroke push the piston into the cylinder head. Thought it would be the other way round.

the piston for the short stroke engine may have a lower crown height , or the long stroke crankshaft may have a shorter con rod ,

or you may need to put a spacer under the barrel { although this would be visible, so maybe not a good idea if cheating }

 

Capacity of an engine can only be increased by either - increasing bore size, increasing stroke of crankshaft , or increasing both of these sizes

If a manufacturer offers long stroke & short stroke versions of the same 500cc engine , then the short stroke engine would need a bigger bore size than the long stroke engine to bring it up to 500cc

Depending on how the engine has been designed, It may be possible to combine the short stroke piston/barrel with the long stroke crankshaft to create an oversize engine with off the shelf parts 

{ although I don't think you would get a massive increase in capacity this way }

 

 

[jenga]

2 hours ago, djr said:

the piston for the short stroke engine may have a lower crown height , or the long stroke crankshaft may have a shorter con rod ,

or you may need to put a spacer under the barrel { although this would be visible, so maybe not a good idea if cheating }

 

Capacity of an engine can only be increased by either - increasing bore size, increasing stroke of crankshaft , or increasing both of these sizes

If a manufacturer offers long stroke & short stroke versions of the same 500cc engine , then the short stroke engine would need a bigger bore size than the long stroke engine to bring it up to 500cc

Depending on how the engine has been designed, It may be possible to combine the short stroke piston/barrel with the long stroke crankshaft to create an oversize engine with off the shelf parts 

{ although I don't think you would get a massive increase in capacity this way }

 

 

forget all about long stroke, short stroke and V stroke engines . the best and only way to increase power  from the downward  power stroke of any engine  is to fit what is called a piston return spring . by fitting a return spring on most, if not all fuel powered race engines . a further %25 on the power stroke can be possible . 

forget all your carbs and clutches . this is the ting to go for in modern day race engines .