After years of Danish domination, it was time for another country to take the spoils. Which nation would be wearing the Grin by the end of the evening?
The site relies heavily on contributions and assistance from so many people within the speedway family. In our final update of the year, we'd like to pay particular thanks to all those who have helped us make it through another year. With sincere apologies to anyone we've missed, here this year's roll of appreciation:
* Keith Avery
* Gerry Bates
* Ivan Blacka
* Neil Burrows
* Stuart Calvert
* John Chaplin
* Graham Cooke
* Ivor Craine
* Frank Crook
* Philip Dalling
* Ray Davidson
* Bill Elliot
* Reg Fearman
* Zdenenk Flajshanz
* John Fray
* Arnie Gibbons
* Ian Gill
* Paul Goodwin
* Michael Hansen
* Ian Harwoood
* Peter Heinzl
* Jim Henry
* Gareth Hinton
* Dave Hitchen
* Tracy Holmes
* Peter Hunter
* John Hyam
* Geoff Langley
* Nick Lee
* Gillian Marks
* Tony McDonald
* Charles McKay
* Paul Monroe
* Tom Newey
* Ken Nicholson
* Ryan Penhall
* Seth Perkin
* Ian Presslie
* Phil Rice
* Robert Rogers
* Jeff Scott
* Ralph Smith
* Stuart Towner
* Paul Waites
* David Walsh
* Tony Webb
* Howie Zechner
I'm sure nobody will mind us singling out Tracy Holmes for special thanks. Tracy contributes more articles than anyone else and always manages to raise a smile with his inimitable writing style. Tracy's other big love is classic TV series 'Auf Wiedersehen Pet', if you're ever struggling to work out what he's talking about, then there's a fair chance he's working an Auf Pet reference into the text.
"It was a pity Todd Wiltshire got injured like he did at the 1992 Aussie title at the old North Arm Speedway in Adelaide, that put a halt to his career for about 5 years. I was at North Arm that night and saw him crash. It looked fairly harmless until he didn't get up. And apparently (from what I've been told by others who were there in an official capacity) he would have been ok if not for a light tower located directly behind the kickboard where he hit.
As for Leigh Adams.....the best rider I've seen who never won the World Championship. Won 10 Aussie titles though (the record by 4 over the late Billy Sanders), plus 4 Aussie Under-21 titles, the 1992 World Under-21 Championship and a 3 time World Cup/Team Cup winner. And despite the injury he's reportedly doing well. He's even provided television commentary for World Series Sprintcars here in Australia so he is definitely recognised as an Aussie speedway legend by both the car and bike brigades."
"Thank you for this piece Gareth, I very much enjoyed it! He certainly won THE biggest events he could enter. On top of those 6 World Titles were 3 World Cups as you said, 3 CZ Golden Helmets, 2 ELRC titles and was World Pairs Champion. I never get sick of watching him beat Hans Nielsen and Craig Boyce in the 1994 World Final Gold Medal run-off, genius! A true Mega-Star of the modern era. Cannot argue with him being just as you say, 'The Best' !"
In 1991 the championship reverted to four rider races, but each 'pair' now consisted of three riders. Tracy Holmes helps us keep track of the numbers.
Robert Griffin is scaling back on his collection of speedway DVDs. Drop him an email at sparrowhawk3@ntlworld.com and he'll send you a list of what he's clearing out.
"Australia will finally see the return of international speedway with the 2015 SGP of Australia to be held on an artificial track in the 53,000 seat Etihad Stadium (another one with a retractable roof) in Melbourne.
While I can fully understand Etihad Stadium being chosen to stage the event (which has a 5 year contract), I do find it hard to understand that they are taking the meeting to a city which has had no regular speedway track since the Melbourne Speedbowl shut down in the late 1980's. The Sydney public didn't really show a lot of interest back in 2002 (though a crowd of 32,000 is nothing to sneeze at), but Sydney had not had regular motorcycle speedway racing since Liverpool shut down in 1989. Sure there is the poorly attended Nepean Speedway in the north-western suburbs, but motorcycle speedway in NSW had basically been running out of Newcastle and Gosford for 13 years (with the odd meeting at both the old and new Sydney Showgrounds).
For mine, the better choices would have been to use either the Ekka in Brisbane or the Wayville Showground in Adelaide. Both successfully staged meetings of the Series 500 that ran from 1995 until 1999 and both were known to draw big crowds to international meetings. For whatever reason the Ekka never really got a look in, but Wayville was considered by the SGP management in the late 1990's. Unfortunately they decided that Wayville wasn't up to standard and that was the end of that, though considering some of the venues the SGP has used over the years most felt that it sounded more like an excuse not to have to leave the European/British comfort zone than any valid reason.
But Melbourne, despite having run speedway for many years, has not had one for many years so who knows what the local attendance will be? I know there will be a number of people coming from interstate (Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane and Sydney) and there will be those who come from overseas....I just hope that the 2015 SGP of Australia attracts a good (30,000+) crowd and shows that speedway in Australia does have a future."
"Update on update; September 19. Vojens International Classic. Vojens, Denmark. I don't have heat details but Collins won with 14 points, beaten only by Ivan Mauger. 1st COLLINS 14, 2nd O.Olsen 13, 3rd G. Kennett 13. Simmons scored 4. So final score; Collins 12, Simmons 7."
We're into the final four laps of Tracy's history of the World Pairs Championship. A series of horrible accidents in 1990 hastened the end of six rider races.
There's an online petition calling for new residents near UK motorsport venues to be obliged to sign a noise waiver - http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/72458. Take a look and sign if you agree with the principle.
Jeff Scott's "Strictly Shale" has been listed amongst the 15 Greatest Christmas Motorcycle Book Ideas by morebikes.co.uk
"There are more surprises in store when you consider a whopping 15,848 are into knitting, while a measly 314 enjoy going to pubs and nightclubs. Are we turning into a nation of couch potatoes? However, when you consider The Guardian readers are over represented by a factor of 30 and 15 in relation to The Sun and Mirror, then maybe we shouldn't worry too much about the few respondents who like speedway! "
"Just some info. Claremont Speedway opened on 14 May 1927 and had its final meeting on 31 March 2000 making it Australia's longest running speedway. The track was some 561 metres (614 yards) long. It was initially used for bike racing and the biggest star in the early years of the speedway was Sig Schlam. Due to its size it also catered to car racing with Speedcars (Midgets), Saloons and Super Modifieds (which in the 1970's became Sprintcars). The track was a regular host of the Western Australian Solo Championship until its closure and saw many great home grown riders such as Chum Taylor and his son Glynn, David Cheshire and Glenn Doyle. Claremont also hosted the Aussie title of just about every category run in Australia from Solos, Sidecars to Sprintcars, and in 1987 hosted the only official World Sprintcar Championship ever run. Claremont was promoted as "The National Capital of Speed" and with its sheer size few would dispute that claim."
If you're more of a blue persuasion then you may prefer this one. Concentrating on 'The John Berry Years' this one is a must for every Christmas stocking in the Ipswich area.
Tracy Holmes series reaches the 1989 final. Surely it couldn't be a fourth successive win for the Nielsen/Gundersen alliance?
Still looking for that present for the speedway fan in your life? Why not check out our Book and DVD pages. Plenty of choice in there for fans of any vintage.
"I found out recently that Wayville was considered as a venue for the Speedway Grand Prix of Australia back in the late 1990's. From what I have been told (by someone who was involved in the bidding process), the SGP management decided against it because they felt the showground was not up to scratch with its facilities (it wouldn't have needed much work to change that and for an World Championship event the South Australian Government would have definitely funded most of that). Considering some of the venues the series has used since 1995 I think that sounded more like an excuse not to have to have to travel outside of Europe for the series than any sort of valid reason.
Pity really because Wayville has a rich heritage of speedway dating back to 1926. In fact, the main arena/speedway still looks the same today (2014) as it did 80 or 90 years ago. Its been preserved extremely well and is one of Adelaide's major outdoor entertainment venues. It's centrally located less than 2km from the CBD and within a short walk (less than 10 minutes) from train and bus services. Just about everyone who rode there loved the place. It's big, fast with wide open turns that allows for good racing. And when they had the international meetings annually from 1986-1999 they always got capacity crowds so the public support was definitely there."
"I lived in Cornwall for 3 years and never missed a Trelawny match. I loved the place. Chris Harris, Matej Zagar, Ben Barker - I watched them all when they were Trelawny Tigers. Very sad when it had to go. Matches against Exeter were always great."
Tracy Holmes takes us through the action from Odsal. Could anyone stop the Danes?
Here's a sneak preview of the latest version of Steve Luxton's 'Garage Mahal' museum. We'll hopefully bring you more from this hidden treasure in the new year.
"How it took so long for a Speedway World Championship Final to be held in Australia I'll never know. Not only did we give speedway to the world back in the 1920's but we had some brilliant speedways that could easily have hosted a World Final or two or more....Sydney Showground, Rowley Park, Claremont Speedway, Brisbane Exhibition Ground. But when we got one it was at.....Liverpool, the only major speedway in the country that didn't have a safety fence on the outside of the motorbike track!!!
In 1974 they actually needed special permission from the NSW State Government to build the track without a fence on the infield of the original speedway after the "D" shaped track had a surface change from dirt/clay to asphalt (following the American trend for saloon car racing). I guess it helped that the promoter of Liverpool, Mike Raymond, was also a motorsport television commentator with Channel 7 in Sydney (notably being the lead commentator at the Bathurst 1000 touring car race for over 20 years). He could guarantee first class television coverage for the Pairs Final without any problems. Strange, after the 1982 WF in Los Angeles, LA got a few World Team Cup Finals during the 1980's, but Australia had to wait until 2002 when the SGP series raced in Sydney before they returned. And even then it was a one-off. We haven't had one since, though that will change in 2015."
"The funniest article I have read for ages, the comments about Nigel & Kelvin are priceless and just thinking about them now make me chuckle. Well done to Ian."
"It was Malmo Stadium that they used for the World Final in 1961 I believe. I guess that's what you are referring to. The very same stadium where local football team Malmo FF used to play. As far as I know the track they use now was built at a later time."
