WHAT WIGGY! IS ALL ABOUT...

Speedway, grasstrack and longtrack racing lost one of their all-time greats in November 2000, when Simon Wigg died of a brain tumour, aged 40. He left behind his wife, Charlie, and their two children, Abigail, then aged six, and Ricki, who was just three.

The charismatic Wiggy also left us with a million memories of his illustrious career the time and effort spent climbing the ladder of success from early days as a hard-up, young grasstracker to the pinnacle he achieved as a World Champion in both speedway and longtrack, where, as Britain's greatest-ever exponent of the fastest of all tracksports, he won the coveted FIM gold medal five times between 1985 and 1994.

It was some time after that last World Championship victory that Simon conducted a series of candid interviews about his life and eventful career with Gareth Rogers. The plan was for the completed work to become Simon's life story. But time moved on and, tragically, he succumbed to his illness before the project could reach publication.

Now, thanks to the full co-operation and enthusiasm of Simon's close family, who gave the publishers exclusive access to Simon's personal collection of scrapbooks, photos and other mementoes, the story behind the key stages of his fascinating life, on and off track, can now be told. In Simon's own words, you will read of his childhood days and his emergence as the finest British grasstrack and longtrack rider ever.

In speedway terms, he looks back at his fun days at Weymouth in the early 80s before going on to more serious business with England, Cradley Heath, Oxford, Hackney and Bradford, in a brilliant shale career that also embraced spells with Coventry, Exeter and King's Lynn before his enforced retirement in 1998.

Simon Wigg loved to have fun.

But he also cared very passionately about whatever he did and it frustrated him that the people responsible for running the sports in which he excelled did not share his hopes or professional ideology, or possess his drive to take them forward. He loved the thrill of racing but, for him, all three of his tracksports have so far failed to fulfil their potential to attract bigger crowds and the media coverage he believed was possible. His thoughts - and frustrations - on a number of contentious issues are a fundamental part of this book.

From his elder brother Julian's foreword and his widow Charlie's equally heart-rending personal account of their all too brief time together, to the poignant tributes from many others who remember Simon - family, friends, team-mates, rivals, promoters, team managers, media, sponsors and fans, WIGGY! will make you laugh and cry.

Above all, this book is a tribute to the life and times of a motorcycling legend who will never be forgotten...

A donation from every copy sold will go to the children of Simon Wigg.

www.retro-speedway.com

This article was first published on 2nd December 2005