|
Defunct Speedway Tracks |
|
|
The Oldest Riders Lady Riders Sprouts Elder Ice Racing Miscellaneous Items part one
The
eight smiling Englishmen are (standing from left to right) Derrick Tailby,
Reg Fearman, Eddie Rigg, Bob Fletcher, Fred Yates. Kneeling (from left to
right) are Eric Williams, Jack Parker and Tommy Miller. There is a lot of information in the Eric Williams Collection thread of the History Forum, see http://speedwayhistory.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=eric Eric is not too good at the moment so if you have any feedback please send an email to Ross Garrigan who will see that Eric gets the messages rjgarrigan@ozemail.com.au
High Beech, Split Waterman & Jack Parker and Eric Langton
Frank Charles and Bluey Wilkinson
From Crystal Palace Motorcycle Football Top and Sidecar Polo below Early USA Riders
1929 Sprouts Elder. I have read that he could earn an appearance fee of £500.00. I have my doubts as that seems a colossal sum for the early era
Sprouts Elder on a Douglas
Sprouts Elder, 1920's mister speedway. He was speedways greatest showman and had there been a world championship he would likely have won it. Byrd McKinney
Here is Byrd McKinney in 1933. A USA rider mounted on a Twin Port Harley Davidson. Byrd was obviously a leg trailer as his left left shows padding to help him ride the bends. He was a Los Angeles rider.
A potent looking Harley Davidson. The picture shows the exposed Primary and rear chains, no front mudguard and a small rear mudguard. The bike looks as lightened as possible with even the primary and rear sprocket drilled out to lighten the load. In 1934 this bike was state of the art but it wasn't capable of competing with the British Jap machine. Perhaps American speedway needed Harley Davidson to seriously compete with the JAPS and at that stage they could have easily done so, but decided to pull out of speedway bike manufacturer. The British Bike maker JAP continued most successfully, from that point alone until the early 1960's.
The site benefits from Colin Greenwell's cigarette cards The Frank Arthur card shown above is one of Col's favourites
Sig Schlam
Spencer "Smokey" Stratton
Dave Gifford has been in touch and supplied the following text: New Zealander Smokey Stratton was a pioneer in the truest sense of the
word, a free spirit forever looking for new challenges and new horizons.
He left his homeland to race on the grass, dirt and concrete tracks in
Australia at the age of nineteen in 1923, the following year he
travelled to the USA to try his luck on the American tracks and returned
to Australia later the same year. At this stage of his career he had a
pair of Indians, one a 350cc and the other a 990cc. He survived an
horrific crash at the Hamilton Speedway in Newcastle NSW, promoted
incidentally by our old friend Johnny Hoskins. He recovered and resumed
his career setting track records at a number of venues in Australia with
the odd visit home to race in NZ. In 1926 it was back to the States to
ride as a member of the official Indian Works team, with several
meetings on the incredible board tracks at Altoona, Rockingham and
Fresno. After that he returned to Australia but when Johnny Hoskins
travelled to the UK in 1928 Smokey was a fellow passenger as the flood
of Aussie riders began to make their way to Britain. He switched to Dirt
Track Douglas bikes when he rode in the UK and in 1931 was a partner in
the company that built the Sheffield Speedway at Owlerton. During his
time in Britain he continued to look for new challenges and made several
trips to the Continent to race. He made a brief visit to New Zealand in
1933 but it appears he never actually rode on a New Zealand speedway at
any time in his career. In 1938 he was appointed Manager at Newcastle
Speedway but was tragically killed in a car crash at Cockermouth when
returning from a league match at Workington.
These 3 pictures are from Bill. He bought these for around 20p each in Ireland during the 1960's. Bill says the engines on the models are all JAP and the detail is quite good. Thought!! have you any model speedway rider that is worthy of showing on the website. John
As I was looking
at your 'Miscellaneous' page I saw some photos of toy speedway riders
that were sent to you by 'Bill'. I happen to have had that same set,
which I bought in 1970. There were originally four bikes and four riders
with different helmet colours. The set came with a sheet of tiny
stickers that could be peeled off and stuck on the riders' race jackets.
You could choose from all of the British League Division One teams, or a
national body colour of England, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, etc. I
have attached two photos of the one remaining bike I still have (I don't
know what ever happened to the little riders--retired, I suppose). It
has an amazing amount of accuracy for something that is only 2.5 inches
(6 cm) long. You can make out the pushrod and valve covers, oil pump,
girder forks, the shallow horizontal fins on the JAP crank case, and
many other details. The tyres are rubber, and the rear one has 'BRITAINS
LTD." and 'ENGLAND" written on the sides. The bikes came plain silver
metal, but at some point in my youth I painted this one.
Cheers, Cary
Great stuff Cary the JAP bikes are really excellent reproductions of the real thing. Keep them safe and some antique dealer may one day, pay you big dollars for them, or maybe they will gather dust in your house until your grandchildren chuck them out. Who knows? Wish I had them though.
1933 Start Championship riders lining up for a heat. L-R Norman Parker, Tom Farndon, Al Wilkinson and Stan Greatorex
Frank Arthur 1929: Before the world championships started we had the Star Championships and Australian Arthur was up there at the top of the Overseas Riders. Do you know what track he belonged to in 1929 John
Frank was the Star 1929 overseas champion and the rider shown above Roger Frogley won the British rider of the Star Championship. Roger is shown aboard a Harley Peashooter. Do you know what track he was attached to in 1929. John
John "Slider" Shuttleworth mounted on a Rudge
Text scan is from a John Chaplin book......from 1990....John Chaplin's Speedway Special. Is the story true? Mike Willig says: John Starkey Shuttleworth was my Grandad, so it's good to see that there's stuff on the web about him - he'd be chuffed, always loved being the centre of attention. He used to stand in Stockport's Merseyway precinct and play his accordion, happily collecting any contributions in his cowboy hat (which he often wore) As far as I'm aware, the story about him and the red ink is true.
Ex Army Dispatch Riders boots, Just after the war Riders could pick these up in Army Surplus stores for about 7 Shillings and 6 pence (35p), And the Gas Goggles were popular too, these would be about 9d for a pack of 10 (about 4p) these items were top quality, good value, those are my boots and are still going strong
Not much of the bike is visible but Tommy appears to be mounted on a Scot
Will Lowther
Billy Lamont on a Harley Peashooter
This is Colin Watson in, I think, 1932. The photo is great by anyone's standards. I assume the photographer wasn't about to be run down by Colin!
Charlie Pashley on a Sunbeam. He won the first ever
UK dirtrack meeting at Droylesden in 1927. His Sunbeam was a stripped down
roadster and as can be seen here it had a front brake. Charlie would
have disabled the brakes for the racing.
This racecard shows C Pashley 600cc So we can assume that
the Sunbeam he is pictured riding above is a 600.
Billy Lamont aboard the British made AJS big port
The Harley Peashooter in action in 1926 at Claremont Australia, ridden by Charlie Datsun
Paddy Dean 1929 Claremont Speedway Australia
The Hoskins, probably the most influential speedway family of all time Ian, Audrey and Johnnie
The Harley Peashooter had distinctive drop handlebars, It was the most successful of the early 1920's bikes until the Douglas Dirtrack came along
Board Racing
I believe this is American board racing from the 1920's before Australian speedway started. I think it is quite likely that Speedway actually started in the USA before it got underway in Oz. What are your views John
This form of racing started in the USA in the 1900's. The bikes were mainly Indian and Harley Davidson. Like speedway they had no brakes and a fixed gear so it is a close cousin to speedway.
USA 1920. at Dodge City
This book has just been released within last few days (5th September 2008). Liz Palmer is Gordon's niece. The book is £9.99 + £2.00 p&p. If you want a copy send me an email John
Harold Tiger Stevenson
1981 Ventura (California) programme
Two of England's best
Dave Jessup leads Michael Lee at the Coventry British Final. I have included this photo as I think it is a great action picture. Australia 1950
1950 Australian team at Kilburn Speedway in Adelaide-
(track long since gone.)
I am reminded by Mike Moseley that the Angels had their home matches at Kings Lynn and Ipswitch
Mike Moseley says there has only been one meeting under the Northside banner at Workington so what's gone wrong there, anyone know? This programme has to be quite rare then?
Top 1960's Russian Boris Samorodov ESO mounted leaving England's best in his wake
This is Mike Broadbanks an Englishman who could match the mighty Russians in the 1960's Mike's unusual riding style came about by him sitting well forward and gripping the handlebars well away from the ends. He was great to watch. Who Are The Oldest Surviving Riders
Presently the oldest living rider is Newcastle's Gordon Byers he is 96 years young at the time of writing (April 2008). Gordon still lives in the city, he won the first ever race at Newcastle's Brough Park, way back 17th May 1929. He started his Career at Middlesbrough and Newcastle then moved south, Leeds first then Wembley. After Gordon there appears to be quite an age gap which it
appears can be measured in terms of was a rider riding Pre war because the
only other pre war rider alive today is Riskit Riley shown below
Douglas mounted Riskit Riley. I don't know how old Riskit is now. If you can help please email me John Norman Jacobs has been in touch he says:
There is another pre war rider who is still alive. He is Jack
Tidbury who rode for Hackney in 1938
This is from a 1938 picture showing Jack in Hackney Wolves colours, do you have a better picture John
To buy the book send an email to Stuart
Well before the days of women's lib, 1929, here we have 2 ladies mounted on Douglas DT's and below not only a lady rider but a lady mechanic too.
This is Eva Askquith who came from Bedale in north Yorkshire I have a book that says Eva rode against Gordon Byers in match races at Brough Park Newcastle...Eva won the first..Gordon the second but before the decider Eva was involved in a triple crash and had to withdraw from the meeting....She did ride at Gosforth the next night against the likes of Charlie Barrett and Smiling Jim Kempster......At West Ham she beat Tiger Stevenson 2-1 in match races......She rode as a reserve for Leeds at Sheffield and got a second place............... They should write a book about
her......She rode point to point....played cricket for the local cricket
team....not sure if that was a ladies team....was Despatch rider for the
national fire service during the war and was also a fire engine driver
Fay Taylor at the Douglas factory
There were other Ladies riding the dirt tracks:
Babs Neild
Dot Cowley
1929 Jack Parker & Ron Johnson mounted on Douglass's, can anyone say what track?
1929 Squib Burton on his Douglas
Ice racing takes place in Russia, Scandinavia and Holland (Not sure why Holland?). If you can add to this shortlist and say why Holland has the weather conditions suitable for ice speedway please let me know. John Hi
John Hi Gerrit, I am fascinated by Ice Racing and would love to see your pictures. The sport looks much faster than dirt track speedway despite the older engines John
Maybe this will attract some sponsors!;), You want to know why
Holland has ice racing. Well in early days there was bit more strong
winters and we have a lot of lakes, you do the math! and of course we have
a lot of crazy ( read fanatic ) speedway riders. there not a lot of riders
left, now about 3 of 4 active riders, if we get more winters it will be
more. Assen, ( place from TT) has a organisation who organizes a world
championship every year still, and the riders who are active are very
driven to ride it. Ok
Gerrit, I would be pleased to hear you have a sponsor after putting this
on the website. Best wishes to your friend on reaching the GP...John
|
|
|
Copyright
© 2005 John Skinner. All rights reserved. Do you want a website? I
can do it for you,
email for the price. Advertises welcome on this site.
email for the price.
|