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iris123

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Posts posted by iris123

  1. Posted

    5 hours ago, Byker Biker said:

    Unfortunately there is no normal life for Jason, he is a talent on two wheels, very funny and a likeable guy but the but goes a long way back. Jason was kept out of a secure place to stay because of his ability on a Speedway bike when Chris Morton and David Gordon agreed/were persuaded by the probation services to train him and give him an opportunity to change his life. Those commitments kept him out of custody but when it came to formally signing a contract other clubs stepped in so off he went and became effectively unsupervised. The rest is fairly well known the negative almost feral influences around him put him back to square one. Others from our sport were influenced by Jason and got into similar difficulties with the authorities, one I know is certainly not riding anymore.

    What you see is what you get with Jason it's the bags and baggage that will be the problem I'd put him in a team tomorrow but wouldn't allow his entourage anywhere near a Speedway track.

    People say he is talented. Maybe so.But he never really produced much and was on the decline before he was banged up. Not many come back as good as they were before a long break. I doubt he would get a 5 point average in the second tier.

    Even with the lack of riders available, it would seem a major gamble to even bother ringing him up

  2. Posted

    12 minutes ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

    Garrity for all his sins (and there are many ) comes across as a very personable bloke (cheeky chappie and all that ) and was pretty well liked by the majority of riders but not all,

    Not sure what that tells us

    Apparently Fred West was a very likeable person. Charles Manson obviously had a magnetic personality that enabled him to attract and manipulate people. The criminal world is full of such people. And the world is full of charming people who manage to manipulate and rob the elderly.....

    And there is one problem with speedway. It has a large elderly fan base. Would it really be acceptable to have him in the spotlght and expect older generations to pay out money to watch him ? How would it come over if you expected a large amount of females to pay to watch entertainment from a wife beater or rapist at the extreme ?

    • Like 2

  3. Posted

    15 hours ago, chunky said:

     

    I know that people often question the accuracy of Wikipedia, but this is the first glaring mistake (related to speedway) I've found.

     

    I did stumble across one a good few years ago now. Sure it was about Johnnie Hoskins building the Custom House stadium. But of course it wasn't any speedway promoter, and Hoskins only came to West Ham a couple of years after the stadium and speedway had opened there. If i remember rightly norbold corrected the page

  5. Posted

    Funny, as talent goes, for some reason i recalled a discussion i had on here years ago with Phil Rising. Phil said he was talking to Gundersen at that time and Erik said that if you think this group of riders are good (Mikkelsen, Bech Jensen etc) just wait for the next lot, they will be even better. I said to Phil that i really couldn't see it happening, as i was a fairly frequent spectator at Danish junior racing at the time. Then one or two jumped in on me saying along the lines of 'how can you question someone like Phil/Erik

    I think the years have shown i was right, and there has been no top Danish riders come along really. Certainly no group, and barely a single elite rider

  7. Posted · Edited by iris123

    Similarly the gypsies of English football, QPR are having a tough time and could drop down to the third tier yet again

    Bit of a yo-yo team, who made according to Wiki, 18 changes of ground, although obviously some back to an old ground !! Is this a record ?

    But did have a couple of spells at White City London

  8. Posted

    Interesting to read the bit on early Danish racing, and what is one of the first purpose built motorcycle dirt track stadiums in Europe. The Glostrup stadium which opened on August 12th 1922.

    Interesting in many ways, but the importance maybe of an appearance of the US dirt track rider Paul Anderson in 1925. As mentioned on the Frank Arthur thread, he was also racing around this time in Australia. And it was also around this time that the 'American skid' style of braodsiding around the corners was described. So maybe seen in Denmark ?

    You could almost believe they had seen speedway/dirt track broadsiding from the cover of the opening meetings programme

    http://speedwaylife.com/danish-tracks/glostrup/

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/266200848818

  9. Posted

    Probably me personally. But i do find all this a bit disrespectful to a speedway rider and someone who lost their life serving their country. Just the same as i find the treatment of Morian Hansen, who has his own thread, shameful :rolleyes: 

  10. Posted

    As the thread title states, he was treated shamefully. You would like to think it couldn't happen today, but we have recently seen with Afghan helpers, how appaling they were also treated. You would think though with Hansens medals and service in the RAF, which had a better reputation that the army really, he would have had a few important people in his corner, who could and should have slammed ther fist on a table or two and pulled some strings

    • Like 1

  11. Posted

    1 hour ago, JamesHarris said:

    Afraid so. It is only fair she is given a few meetings but I've always said this looks certain to be a PR stunt and a box ticking exercise that will backfire and if it does then it will put women's speedway back again as no promoter will ever touch a female rider for a long time after. 

    I just don't think promoters work that way. Regardless of how successful or not Celina turns out to be, if some team needs a rider, in the ever decreasing market, and the best bet available is a female, then they will turn to her

    A young female finished 2nd in the junior event at Güstrow the other day. Who knows how her career turns out ?

    • Like 3
    • Haha 1

  12. Posted · Edited by iris123

    From Mechanic to the Dirt Track

    From an early age he is trained as mechanic and he is eventually employed by the Ford Motor Company. He earns the nickname Morian Hansen in this period; Morian is an old and depreciatory expression for a coloured person. As one story is told he was repairing a Ford T when carbon from the engine soiled his face. From this day on his colleagues called him “Morian.” Another story, told by him self in 1981, relates to the dirt of the dirt track.

    In the 1920’s Morian Hansen is involved in motor racing – primarily motor bikes, but also racing cars. This eventually brings him abroad. In the 1930’s he moves to England with his family for a career as professional dirt track rider (later known as speedway).

    Speed in the blood, he does not stick to the ground. In 1935 he receives training as pilot in the Hearts and Essex Flying Club at Broxbourne and he gets his certificate on 12 October 1935. Many of the British riders of the time take up flying in exactly this club.

    https://www.danishww2pilots.dk/profiles.php?person=35

    https://po-bandzie.com.pl/zuzel-zuzlowy-forrest-gump-bohater-dunczyk-morian-hansen/

  14. Posted

    Latvia: LEBEDEVS Andzejs, MIHAILOVS Olegs, KOSTIGOVS Jevgenijs, KOLODINSKIS Daniils, GUSTS Francis
    Germany: GROBAUER Valentin, RISS Erik, WÖLBERT Kevin, WASSERMANN Sandro, BLÖDORN Norick
    Sweden: THORSELL Jacob, LINDBÄCK Antonio, LINDGREN Fredrik, NILSSON Kim, HENRIKSSON Casper
    Ukraine: LEVISHYN Marko, KARPOV Andriy, MELNYCHUK Stanislav, LYSAK Vitalii, PARNITSKYI Nazar

  16. Posted

    4 hours ago, norbold said:

    No, I'm sure Steve is correct.

    Ok. I do remember someone on the forum explaining the gate. When or why it was changed etc. There were a couple of track staff who used to post on here. the post or two are probably buried in the forum vaults somewhere

  17. Posted

    7 hours ago, stevehone said:

    i mean when the gate was on the home straight and the finish post was a bit further on .. were league meeting times taken from the finish post, but FIM meetings at the tapes?

    Wouldn't it have been the ther way around, as i thought the difference was because of complying with FIM regs ? Maybe introduced when Wimbledon hosted the Internationae ?

  18. Posted

    Good to hear.

    I just wonder how Ray Grant got credited with the championship, especially as he was missing a good bit of the season due to injury. I wonder if he won something else ?

    I also came across a Mexico v California meeting. Though disappointed that the 'Mexico' team was just the US riders that had ventured down to race in Mexico, rather than any Mexican speedway riders

  19. Posted

    On 12/11/2023 at 5:18 PM, iris123 said:

    The Paris meetings in contrast were billed as world championships. As were maybe one or two others ?

    There was even a world championship in the UK that Jack Parker won in 1931 was it ?

    All so confusing. And i d think it shuld be left as it is and not revise things

    As i posted elsewhere. If you look at my profile, there is an old poster advertising that World Champion Sprouts Elder was coming to Hamburg in 1930....

    A couple of days ago saw a US newspaper report from 1933 and Elder was also mentioned as world champion. So I guess something he was fond of telling people

  20. Posted · Edited by iris123

    23 hours ago, Puma23 said:

    1933

    Emeryville Speedway - 29/11/1933

    1. Wilbur Lamoreaux

    2. Byrd McKinney

    3. Miny Waln

    Jack Milne, Cordy Milne and Earl Farrand rode too. Only six riders competed.

     

    On 1/2/2020 at 5:27 PM, iris123 said:

    Got a report from the previous year, which confirms Lammy as champ. At this time it was points accumulated over a number of meetings

    Wilbur 'Lammy' Lamoreaux, lithe Frenchman from Pasadena, today holds the title as the result of a scintillating performance turned in at the seasons final meet in the Emeryville Motorcycle Speedway last night.

    Although Lamoreaux's riding was of the sensational variety, and he had clinched the championship before the meet had reached the half way mark, he was given plenty of competition by Byrd McKinney and Garland Johnson, the latter something of a dark horse so far as last evenings program was concerned.

    Ed Jones of Stockton secured the Northern California title by some consistent riding although A. Chasteen of Oakland, runner up copped a special match race.

    Lamoreaux climaxed a great evening of piloting to win the final scratch race, with McKinney 2nd and Miny Waln, deposed title holder, third

    The Milne brothers, Jack and Cordy, expected to sparkle..............and motor trouble eliminating them early

    :rolleyes:

    forty motorcycle racers vie tomorrow In the first daylight program ever held at the Long Beach Motospeedway. Eighteen races, including both scratch and handicap events, are scheduled, with “Sprouts” Elder, world champion, and Miny Wain, national champion, heading the entries which also include Ray Grant, Bo Lisman, Cordy Milne, Lammy Lamoreaux, Earl Farrand and Rusty Roberts. Elder and Wain will hook up in several of the events in starting their race for 1933 honors. Wain will be presented with the speedway trophy he won last year by Miss Glenda Farrell, motion picture star.

    August 1933

    Fresno Republican 8-31-1933

    The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California)24 Aug 1933, ThuPage 26

    September, and i am not sure if this refers to the US championship. In the paper it talks about West side championship. But to me from the earlier paper about Lammy already having the title befre the last meeting had reached half way, means it was a GP style series, which ties in with this. I also can't believe that it was just down to 6 riders. And to me it looks like Puma has misunderstood that the scratch race final was the final for the title....

    BYRD M'KINNEY, who grabbed the lead in the, championship  a month ago, will face Wilbur Lamoreaux, Cordy M)lne, Miny Wain and Jack Milne to-. night in the races at Loyola. Motor Races ..Due Tonight .at Loyola speedway b?gin bearing down tonight in the race for the championship of the west side racing plant. Lammy" Lamoreaux, Burton Albrecht. Cordy Milne, Jack Milne, Miny Wain and. other hot shot speedsters are all here intent on passing Byrd McKinney, Who grabbed off the lead a month ago and has held it ever since. . Tonight's big drawing card is the three-way match race doubleheader" between Cordy Milne, .Wilbur Lamoreaux and Miny Wain for the "Undisputed championship - of Southern California. Milne will Jsattle Wain for two excursions around the fast and spectacular track, with Lamourcaux challenging the winner.

  23. Posted · Edited by iris123

    Well-organized A.C.U.-sanctioned team racing greeted Jack and Cordy upon their arrival in Great Britain after a six-week sea voyage. Eight teams, enthusiasticaly cheered on by “supporters’ clubs” from the towns they represented (Wembley, West Ham, Wimbledon, New Cross, Hackney Wick, Manchester, Bristol and South-hampton) vied for national honors. Riders received team assignments from the governing body itself, and rider swapping or purchasing was allowed, much like present-day ball club bargaining. American competitors, however, were exempt from purchase and could only change teams at season’s end. Jack was assigned to the New Cross team, while Cordy joined forces with the Hackney Wick riders.

    As Jack says, “If you waited for good weather in England, you’d NEVER race.” 

    Riding styles of the ’30’s and ’40’s were, as in present-day racing, varied. But few spectators at current closed-course meets are aware of the fact that Jack Milne pioneered the now-accepted cornering technique of placing the left foot firmly forward upon entering each turn. Until Milne proved the advantages of this method, both in slowing a brakeless machine and “squaring the corners,” most riders depended primarily upon balance (as did Lammy), or relied upon the spectacular but now-obsolete practice of “drag-legging” a leatherpadded knee, as did “Sprouts” Elder.

    https://magazine.cycleworld.com/article/1962/04/01/night-speedway-racing

    and

    https://magazine.cycleworld.com/article/1962/03/01/night-speedway-racing

    • Like 1

  24. Posted

    9 minutes ago, chunky said:

    Well, I don't think he had the internet to help him! :rofl:

    Oh I was into researching family history before the internet came along. And that sort of thing always seems to be very important to a lot of Americans 

  25. Posted

    Also a coincidence that he rode for Wimbledon. The club based not far away from one of the main Hugenot areas of the UK in Wandsworth. Passed the old cemetery just a few months back

    Seems Wilbur was also involved in auto racing in Southern California 

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