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?

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.

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?

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.

I always remember the interval in the Levis For Feet meeting at Wimbledon in 1978 when Ole Olsen and some bunny girls had a one-lap race around the Wimbledon track on very small child pushbikes.

I agree Chunky, the sudden death finals alongside the GP semis mean that a rider can become World Champion without winning a race, by making the GP finals consistently throughout the season even if they have scored 6 or 8 points during the 20 heats racing. Obviously, no-one knows how many points Bartosz may have scored in Vojens. But if rider points were solely accumulated over 20 heats, then current system via the semis and final, the GP point scores are significantly different. Using this method, the GP scores going into Torun are Lindgren 86; Lambert 85; Zmarzlik 84; Bewley 84; Holder 81; Vaculik 77; Fricke 71; Doyle 70; Madsen 68; Dudek 60; Woffinden 59; Michelsen 58; Janowski 49; Nilsson 38 and Thomsen 36. As, you can see from the GP scores several riders would be in with a chance of becoming World Champion - rather than Zmarzlik and Lindgren under the current GP scoring system. More importantly the best rider over the GP series (with race wins) would become World Champion.

I would prefer if they scrapped the fast of the semis and final, and just gave the riders the point that they scored over 20 heats. This World champion would then be the best rider over the GP series. Currently riders can score big GP points after by having two goods rides in the semis and final after scoring 6 or 7 points from 20 heats. Using this scoring system the current top three GP rider are Bartosz Zmarzlik 43 pts; Dan Bewley 43 pts; and Jason Doyle 40 pts.

Hi R&R it was a shame that I changed my mind and did pick my original choice for this GP Anders Thomsen. I will not do this mistake again next year I predict that by the end of the competition I will become a millionaire Thanks R&R for running this competition, and luck to all that remain. Your cheque is in the post

Hi R&R my bet is Huckenbeck 4 - 6 £25,200 more

Hi R&R my bet is Dudek 3 - 5 £4,200 More

Fricke 3 - 5 £600 more

Hi R&R may bet is Michelsen £600 more

Many thanks Norbold. This was an intresting programme. It was nice to see the old Wimbledon and Southampton tracks, alongside a slice of the Ove Fundin vs Bjorn Knutsson Golden Helmet match race at Southampton.

Hi Iris123 I only edited the post after I had dug out the programme from my collection to show Jimmy's autograph. I brought the programme on eBay but it must have been signed by someone Japanese or knows how to write Japanese by yhe way the characters are written.