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| 27th December 2007 |
Riders to Remember....Jackie Biggs(PDF Version) Dudley Jones shares his memories of this star of the fifties and sixties. He's best remembered for his World Final misfortune, but Dudley recalls some of his later exploits. If you'd like to write an article about a "Rider to Remember" and it doesn't have to be meticulously researched or cover every aspect of a rider's career, then drop us an email at speedwayplus@hotmail.com or use our new Online Form. |
Ice Track Pix: Inzell(PDF Version) For the next few weeks our 'Track Pictures' feature will concentrate on some of the ice speedways around the world. First up is Inzell in Germany, photographs are courtesy of Charles McKay. |
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"There's a saying K.I.S.S - keep it simple stupid. The really simple answer is make it a four team tournament. Most people who go to speedway and some of those who may be newcomers, could understand the four team format, and it gives you more races so lots more V.F.M value for money. " "Hi Stan, Just found this site and would like to congratulate you on your 80th Birthday and your award, even though it's a little late. I had my 80th Birthday this year too. We raced against each other many times in the UK and in Canada and enjoyed every minute." "I once rode at Exeter during the seventies and found it to be fantastic, my home track was Stoke and Halifax. Your photos are great and you should be proud." "Very interested to read Brian Buck's story on Sandor Levai. I had many adventures with Sandor in Sutton Coldfield and Debrecen when we stayed with his sister and family." |
| 20th December 2007 |
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This downloadable book contains supporters' memories and opinions of hundreds of speedway riders. These comments come from the 'Dream Team' feature that has been running on the site for several years. This book pulls them all together for the first time and groups them into individual rider sections. This entirely free book can be downloaded as a pdf (adobe acrobat) file, saved to a local disk or printed. Sincere thanks to everyone whose comments are included in the book. File size is 1.9MB Photographs are courtesy of Ian Adam, Steve Hone and Tony McDonald.
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2007 GLASGOW PICTURE DVD NOW AVAILABLE By Ian Adam Now that we have completed another Speedway season I thought I would let you all know about my new Picture DVD. Titled Ashfield Action 2007 this year's DVD contains approximately 3,000 colour images, yes 3,000, over 25 meetings which can be viewed on your Pc or Mac, you can print copies for your own use, you will also be able to view them on your TV if you have a DVD player that can handle picture files. The price will be the same as last year £18 which includes postage to any UK address. The DVD is available now and will be posted out by First Class post. Once again a percentage of all sale will be passed onto a Glasgow rider at the start of the season. In previous years David McAllan (twice), James Cockle, Robert Ksiezak and Trent Leverington received a donation towards their bills. Orders to
Ian Adam |
 Full details can be found on The Blunsdon Blog. |
| 13th December 2007 |
Walkerville(PDF Version) Some very interesting pictures this week from the Walkerville circuit in South Africa. The photos were taken by Gerald Richter the man who built the track. Gerald is now resident in the UK and is one of the best track curators in the business. Thanks to Graham Cooke for passing the pictures to us. |
Track Pictures: Sun Street(PDF Version) There's only one photograph in this article, but it's a most welcome addition to the site. Sun Street was the original home of the Stoke Potters and this old photograph gives a fair indication of what it was like. Thanks to Kathy Hitchen and Reg Fearman for tracking this down. |
Dream Team: Justin Sedgmen(PDF Version) Justin is a youth rider from Mildura and his team contains many of his local heroes. |
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"Don Hawley did indeed have two sons who raced, but their names were Don Jr. and Jack. They only raced Sprint Cars and Midget cars. The blonde haired Speedway racing Hawley brother's who went by the name Shane and Pat Hawley were not his sons and I do not think they were related to him at all.
I believe Johnny Gibson is still alive, but not 100% sure. For years he wanted to open another Speedway track and in 1984, he promoted a series of four races at the Bakersfield Fiargrounds in late October and early November." "
Just caught up with this; no idea when it was written but felt I had to respond as I, too, attended the '62 World Final won by Peter Craven. That man could do things on a machine, especially at corners (and especially during the following year's Final), that I've never seen before or since.
In '62 I was stood near a posse of Belle Vue supporters, families of 3 generations, many of 'em. I distinctly recall in his last ride in the lead whilst the kids yelled in encouragement one granny sat there eyes tightly shut until she heard the roar of celebration. Happy days..." "
I remember Peter when he came back into the Rayleigh team in probably 1970/1, maybe a year later and he had the bike with the strange handlebars, but could he race and was probably one of the fastest out of the gate at that time. I remember him riding for the Rockets down at Canterbury and I think we won that night either 42-36 or 41-37. The Crusaders fans mocked him and his bike but he soon shut them up. He was stylish and one of the true professionals and still wore those classic black leathers. He was a joy to watch and if only we had racers like him today, the sport would be all the better for it.
I put him in the same entertaining style as Jimmy Squibb, Terry Stone, Allan Emmett, Geoff Maloney, Ted Hubbard, Brian Foote etc all of whom were out and out racers. I started to watch speedway in 1969 and my local team was the Rockets and Saturday night at eight was not to be missed. We saw some characters but Peter Moore stands out as a veteran who could still show the youngsters a thing or two about track craft." |
| 6th December 2007 |
When Stan Beat Briggo(PDF Version) Robert J. Rogers recalls a night in the summer of '69 when journeyman Stan Stevens defeated the great Barry Briggs. |
Track Pictures: Lindarna(PDF Version) These photographs of this Swedish track were taken by Charles McKay. |
Dream Team: Gazmundini(PDF Version) This Stoke fan selects his favourite Potters from the Loomer Road era. 'Teapot Tom' leads the team from the number one position. |
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Full details can be found on The Blunsdon Blog. |
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"Before the war riders often referred to the Golden Helmet as the 'Brass hat' " "Debrecen is the home town of my old friend Sandor Levai who came to live in England after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and rode in second halves at Belle Vue, and Birmingham in 1957 and Leicester in 1958. Unfortunately he was using very poor quality equipment and made little progress before giving up at the end of 1958. He continued to live in Birmingham afterwards and established "Panonia Garage" a car repair business in Aston and later married a German lady Ilse Battenfeld and had one son Sandor Konrad who is my Godson and who now lives in Thailand.
Sandor Senior, (who became a naturalised Englishman and afterwards called himself Alec which the is the English equivilant of Sandor (pronounced as "Shandor") came back to speedway at Stoke in 1961 and moved on to Long Eaton after the old Sun Street track at Stoke was demolished, before joining Norwich where he made very good progress. After Norwich closed in 1964 he went back to Belle Vue before being allocated by the Rider Control Committee to Newport where he became the Wasps leading rider despite detesting the Somerton Park track. He later went to Ipswich where he again did very well until he decided to finally retire, but was persuaded to have a final fling at Cradley Heath where he finished his racing career despite a determined attempt by Ellesmere Port to get him to join them.
After his retirement he and Ilse separated and he eventually married a Yorkshire lady and he and his new wife June moved North to live just outside Sheffield and set up another car-repair business "Woolley Wood Service Station." After becoming unsettled a few years later, he decided to move back to Hungary and is now living in retirement back in Debrecen. " "Brilliant reading, brings back loads of good memories, keep it up! I am ex-supporter of Odsal (Bradford) since 1946 to its closure, also of Halifax Dukes. Have collected many Programmes from 1946+ also Speedway Gazettes from that era! Your website makes very interesting reading, and brings back many happy memories." |