R.I.P.

[chunky]

Just looking through some stuff...

While we are used to speedway things happening during European summers, let's not forget that elsewhere, they race during our winter. Today, December 17, is the anniversary of no fewer than three speedway tragedies.

27-year old Stanley Box passed away in a Melbourne hospital after crashing at Maribyrnong Speedway on December 17, 1949. Ironically, that was also a Saturday.

On Saturday, December 17, 1965, Peter Stirling (25), crashed heavily at Rowley Park Speedway in Adelaide. He remained unconscious until December 28, when he passed.

Des Noble, another 27-year-old, was killed at Perth's Claremont Speedway on Friday, December 17, 1971.

[salty]

Sadly I don't recall any of those guys you mention, but I do remember most winters there used to be news of some tragedy on the racetracks Down Under in the local paper. Gordon Guasco and Geoff Curtis are ones I particularly recall from the early 70's.

 

[Bavarian]

They are all here https://speedwayinmemoriam.yolasite.com/

[Bavarian]

17 minutes ago, Bavarian said:

They are all here https://speedwayinmemoriam.yolasite.com/

I have some additional info on a German rider listed here under the name "ERNST". His full name was Paul Ernst, he was from Hamburg, and he died on Sunday, September 1, 1929, form internal injuries sustained when he crashed on one of the bends in the 350cc race of the Fichtenhain Grass Track meeting at Heide in Northern Germany.

[steve roberts]

2 hours ago, salty said:

Sadly I don't recall any of those guys you mention, but I do remember most winters there used to be news of some tragedy on the racetracks Down Under in the local paper. Gordon Guasco and Geoff Curtis are ones I particularly recall from the early 70's.

 

Yes I well recall reading about Geoff Curtis (Sydney Showground). Strongly rumoured that he was to join Oxford the following season. Used to lodge in Oxford I remember. Alan Sorensen who was Geoff's protege came over in 1974 and rode in second halves at Cowley and Swindon.

[chunky]

22 hours ago, Bavarian said:

I have some additional info on a German rider listed here under the name "ERNST". His full name was Paul Ernst, he was from Hamburg, and he died on Sunday, September 1, 1929, form internal injuries sustained when he crashed on one of the bends in the 350cc race of the Fichtenhain Grass Track meeting at Heide in Northern Germany.

Thanks, I really appreciate it!

[Bavarian]

Here is another addition of a pre-war German rider, who was killed in a race accident in 1936.

The rider is Hans WINKLER, who was from Munich in Bavaria. He was one of Germany's best long-track riders of the early 1930s, twice finishing on the rostrum of the Pardubice Golden Helmet Grass Track (2nd in 1932, and 3rd in 1933). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Helmet_of_Pardubice

Winkler lost his life in a crash on a road race circuit "Rund um Schotten" at Vogelsberg in Germany on Sunday, July 19, 1936.  

[chunky]

On 12/28/2022 at 1:50 PM, Bavarian said:

Here is another addition of a pre-war German rider, who was killed in a race accident in 1936.

The rider is Hans WINKLER, who was from Munich in Bavaria. He was one of Germany's best long-track riders of the early 1930s, twice finishing on the rostrum of the Pardubice Golden Helmet Grass Track (2nd in 1932, and 3rd in 1933). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Helmet_of_Pardubice

Winkler lost his life in a crash on a road race circuit "Rund um Schotten" at Vogelsberg in Germany on Sunday, July 19, 1936.  

Thanks again!

[Tsunami]

On 12/21/2022 at 7:34 PM, salty said:

Sadly I don't recall any of those guys you mention, but I do remember most winters there used to be news of some tragedy on the racetracks Down Under in the local paper. Gordon Guasco and Geoff Curtis are ones I particularly recall from the early 70's.

 

Was Guasco's death not caused by a road accident ? 

[BL65]

17 minutes ago, Tsunami said:

Was Guasco's death not caused by a road accident ? 

Intending to ride again for Poole in 1971, Gordon returned to Sydney at the end of his second season with the Pirates, ready to race in the Australian Speedway season.  Gordon was to be based at Liverpool Speedway, but in his first meeting he was involved in a crash when laying his bike down to avoid a fallen rival.  He was struck from behind by another rider and suffered severe head injuries.  Tragically, he never regained consciousness and died in hospital eight days later on 16^th November 1970, a week before his 30^th birthday. 

[Tsunami]

4 minutes ago, BL65 said:

Intending to ride again for Poole in 1971, Gordon returned to Sydney at the end of his second season with the Pirates, ready to race in the Australian Speedway season.  Gordon was to be based at Liverpool Speedway, but in his first meeting he was involved in a crash when laying his bike down to avoid a fallen rival.  He was struck from behind by another rider and suffered severe head injuries.  Tragically, he never regained consciousness and died in hospital eight days later on 16^th November 1970, a week before his 30^th birthday. 

Many thanks for that BL65.  I remembered he had laid his bike down and was hit, but I thought it was a road accident. 

[BL65]

3 minutes ago, Tsunami said:

Many thanks for that BL65.  I remembered he had laid his bike down and was hit, but I thought it was a road accident. 

It happened when Jim Ryman fell on the pit bend on the first lap.  His bike collided with Guasco, causing him to fall.  He was then struck on the head by the bike of Roger Brooks who was immediately behind the fallen pair.

[BOBBATH]

I always recall Gordon from the 1965 British Final at West Ham, he almost made it to the World Final that year. He had a good British semi-final at Poole that year also-any forumlanders besides me and Norbold at that 1965 British Final.

[andout]

On 1/19/2023 at 3:52 PM, BOBBATH said:

I always recall Gordon from the 1965 British Final at West Ham, he almost made it to the World Final that year. He had a good British semi-final at Poole that year also-any forumlanders besides me and Norbold at that 1965 British Final.

Yep!

[Bavarian]

There is another one of our German old-timers who lost his life during his racing career. That's Sebastian Roth, one of the very best of German dirt-trackers and long-track riders of the early 1930s. He was from Münsingen, near Stuttgart, Germany, and had begun his motorcycle racing career in 1929 at the age of twenty, as a novice on the Stuttgart Dirt-Track.

Roth was 27 years old when he died on Friday, May 1, 1936, apparently of a heart attack, at the Bremgarten circuit near Bern in Switzerland, during the official practise for Sunday's Motorcycle Road Racing Grand Prix of Switzerland. Duirng his run, Roth pulled his 500cc NSU bike to the edge of the track and fell dead. Although the event's medical crew was on hand almost immediately, paramedics could do nothing to save his life.