RobbieB

My first live race was at Wimbledon 18 March 1976 heat 1 result; Dave Jessup, Barry Crowson, Bernie Leigh and Edgar Stangeland. Strangely, first Wimbledon rider I saw win a race in a home meeting was Roger Johns who won heat 8 in the Wimbledon v Reading (CH) match 18 March 1976; Roger was also the first Wimbledon rider I saw win an away race when he won heat 2 at White City the following Wednesday, 24 March 1976.

Adi, not riding for Wimbledon but against them at Plough Lane.

Another Austrian at Plough Lane in the 70s was Adi Funk

Chunky, funny how time can play tricks with your mind.

Didn't Roger Johns start and finish his racing at Eastbourne?

After looking through my 1983 Wimbledon home programmes, I think I may have discovered why Erik's track record was not later acknowledged. The official time keeper for the 1983 WTC Inter Continental Final at Wimbledon was J.D. Homer and not the usual person in this post L. Crossley. Therefore, it is highly probable that news of Erik's new track record time as not conveyed to those who kept the track records up to date, and by it not being brought to their attention it become unreported.

The simple and obvious answer to this issue is that no-one realised that the Wimbledon track record had been broken. Firstly, by Hans Nielsen in heat 1 (56.8 secs) and then by Erik Gundersen (56.7 secs) in heat 6. The Speedway Star report is about England finishing third in the meeting.

Several marked Wimbledon programmes, I have and the Speedway Star match report of the meeting from 2 July 1983. The Speedway Star match report does not state that the Wimbledon track record was broken, but list race times, which includes Hans Nielsen 56.8 secs in heat 1 that is also confirmed by several marked programmes, I have.

Steve, does provide a plausible agreement about FIM events. However, the Wimbledon track record has been broken several times at the Internationale. The last time was John Louis in heat 10 at the 1974 Embassy Internationale (59.7 secs) which later Wimbledon programmes did acknowledge. Therefore, must be some reason why Erik Gundersen's track record was not considered to be valid. As, this occurred a long time ago this reason may never be discovered.

A slight change to the Wimbledon track may be another reason for the increased number of fast times. However, as Erik Gundersen time of 56.7 secs was recorded after Dennis Sigalos 57.4 secs, it does not explain why it was never listed in any later Wimbledon programmes.

Bike technology, that gave them increased power. Sub 59 seconds race wins happened occasionally before 1983, and sub 58 seconds were completely unknown. The 1991 Wimbledon track record was 56.4 so bikes in '83 must be extremely powerful. Was the fast times also noticed at other tracks?

I have just submitted my 1983 Wimbledon file to the speedway researcher website, which according to Matt will be updated next week. At the World Team Cup Intercontinental Final on Sunday 26 June 1983 Erik Gundersen recorded a time of 56.7 secs which should have been a new Wimbledon track record. But this time was never acknowledged by any later Wimbledon programmes, which is strange. Instead they list Dennis Sigalos time of 57.4 secs on 30 May 1983 until it was broken. Does anyone have an idea why this could be? One thing I did notice compiling this file was the enormous increase in speed during 1983 when times at Wimbledon were regularly below 60 secs. Even Kelvin Tatum in his first season won a race below 59 seconds. There were more than one meeting when all race times were below 60 seconds, the WTC round had all races completed below 59 seconds.

Many thanks for publishing these very interesting articles. On the point of your team black days and heavy defeats. This is a quirky one for my team Wimbledon. On 11 May 1979 Wimbledon won 56-22 at Hackney (this was a new BL away win record). In the BL match the following season on 23 May 1980 Hackney beat Wimbledon, at home 56-22.

Iris, the crowd at the last Internationales were quite low. The stadium for the final Internationale in 1981 held on a Sunday in bright sunshine, after it had been originally postponed was extremely quite. I have to agree with you both the second division riders championship at Wimbledon were always extremely loud and colourful with tremendous atmosphere.