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Was that when he came back with one leg shorter than the other ?

Thanks. I love when these old memories come back. I am not sure if I ever saw Ron Mountford ride but I knew of him. Coventry in those days seemed to have a very stable team back then, keeping the same riders year on year. While we have Coventry under the spotlight, what memories do fans have of Tony Lomas and Ken McKinlay. Tony Lomas was a tester for Triumphs in Meriden. I only saw him a couple of times but if I recall correctly he was an all round motorcyclist, who came to speedway a bit later than most and if my memory is right he was a road racer before that. As for Hurri-Ken McKinlay I loved watching him at West Ham. Probably the best tactician and team rider I can remember, on a par with Leigh Adams. What was he like at Coventry ?

Thanks Sid.

Yes thanks for that correction. I had forgotten about Ron Mountford. Now I come to think about it, was Ron Mountford, rather than Les Owen that seemed to be regularly getting injured , or were they both somewhat injury prone ?

Wasn’t Les Owens entire career plagued by injury? I think he lost the sight of one eye in a workshop accident, and I believe he had one leg a bit shorter than the other as a result of a track crash. I think he was one of those riders like Paul Hurry who spent more time on the injury list than he did on the track . Is that correct Sid ? Did John Harrhy race again after that crash?

Norman Hunter owned a motorcycle shop.

Fantastic pictures. Not sure they answer my query but at least I now know why the Harley Peashooter was called a “peashooter” . Just my guess work again, but looking at the position of the handlebars and footrests it sort of leads one to take up a leg trailing position. Interesting also is the front fork design which remained almost unchanged for 40 years. Probably the best pictures of a bike from that era I can ever remember seeing. Thanks for posting them

Does anybody know what sort of tyres they were using in the early days of broadsiding ? I would imagine that they must have been basically road tyres. I doubt if the sport was big enough to make it worthwhile for a manufacturer to produce special track tyres, and even if they did technology was probably no advance enough to make it financially viable. This very likely affected the way the bike handled and might well have had something to do with the riders style ( maybe one of a number of factors). Even as late as the sixties they were using trials tyres with the treads on one side cut at an angle to help with cornering. At a guess I would say specialist trials tyres only came available after WW2 when trials bikes themselves became more specialist and as far as I know purpose made Speedway tyres only became used in the UK and Australia when Ove Fundin started using Barums around the mid- sixties( even then I think they were bannned at first ) . This is something I’ve never thought about until this discussion and my thoughts are more or less guess work, but does anyone know any more about it ?

Yes that was a nasty article by a nasty man. I think the article was actually in the Sunday Mirror and the farce was that Leitch was trying to say that most of the public had never heard of Speedway, when it was the Sunday Mirror that sponsored the World Final and contained a regular Weekly column on Speedway by Don Clarke. The thrust of Sam Lietchs article was that Speedway was not a proper sport. Subsequently there was a strong reaction from Speedway fans and Briggo went to lunch with Leitch explaining what was involved in riding a Speedway bike , and Leith wrote another article more or less climbing down, no doubt in part because the editors were concerned at maintaining the readership of Speedway fans in a sport that was much more popular then than it is today

I suppose the question has to be asked WHY riders started to ride foot forward. Certainly in the ‘30’s most riders leg trailed so obviously that was the most effective style at the time . I have heard it said that foot forward enabled the rider to take the shortest route round the white line whereas leg trailing was better round the fence but I don’t really buy that one . My Guess is that it is connected to frames and engine development but I can’t think how. Anybody have any ideas on this ?

You might very well be right Norbold, especially as I think Jack Biggs had been dominant in the qualifying rounds and topped the list of qualifiers . However there is another version that I am sure I got from Classic Speedway . That version was that as Biggs started to get troubled by an old back injury and started to get an attack of nerves as he got closer to the possible tile. That could possibly explain why he came last in his last two rides, especially getting passed by Young and Waterman in the run off . However who of us really knows what was going on in Jack Biggs mind at the time ? It’s a funny old sport. Jack Young was only about 10th highest qualifier in the qualifying rounds, but had a good night, got second bite of the cherry in the run off grabbed his chance with both hands, and as a result got into the history books as a great rider and the first to win back to back World Finals whereas the history books view Biggs as something as an also ran . Time to recognise both as great riders. I was gutted when Jack Biggs lost his life in such a freak accident. A real solid servant of Speedway , as by all accounts a really nice guy behind the scenes, always with time for the fans, as was Jack Young.

A similar sort of story was told by Split Waterman about the 1951 World Final. After 4 rides each, Jack Biggs was unbeaten, with one race to go. Split Waterman was out against Biggs , and another rider in the race - I forget who - came up to Split and said “Has Jack asked you to keep out of his way ? “ Split said he hadn’t so they both went out and beat Biggs who came last, this finishing on 12 points which gave Split and Jack Young the chance of a run off against Biggs. The rest is history. In the run off Biggs made the gate but nerves got to him and he was passed first by Jack Young then Waterman. Split Waterman didn’t say whether money would need to change hands for the others to “keep out of the way “ but it is unlikely to be a gentleman’s agreement !

A bit off topic Sid but in the period you mention we lost two major talents in off track accidents, World Champion Bluey Wilkinson ( road accident ) and Gerry Hussey ( midget car racing ) . Terribly sad. Wasnt someone else killed in the same crash as Ken le Breton . Was it Norman Clay or am I thinking of something else?.

Thanks. It’s all slowly coming back to me now. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since those days !

Arthur and I think Alan as well, were BSA works riders. Martin, I am pretty sure was Arthur’s son. Arthur was known as a pretty fast starter ( I can’t really say gater in Moto Cross ) and was often first away but had a bit of a problem with fitness. I remember him once stopping at a pub in a pretty big trial , and having , in his words, “a couple of dinners “ ! Back to the point of the thread, Vic Eastwood one of my heroes as a youngster, but it broke my heart when he left Matchless and rode an ‘orrible two-stroke, although with hindsight I can understand that as a professional rider he had a living to earn, and the big heavy four stroke Matchesses had had their day by then. In memorium, Vic Eastwood, a great rider.