Riders Who Never Made It?

[ONTWOMINUTES 69]

6 hours ago, Ben91 said:

Craig Cook and the Worralls are recent examples of this. While not world beaters they’re easily in the top 20 British riders around right now. There were other motorcross riders who tried their hand with varying levels of success too I’m sure, there was a spell of it around ten years ago. 

Also richard lawson , lewis kerr , lewis rose were pretty good mx riders.

[mikebv 5,090]

29 minutes ago, ONTWOMINUTES said:

Also richard lawson , lewis kerr , lewis rose were pretty good mx riders.

I think it was Jon Cook who in the SS several years ago was advocating advertising to the MX community, basically to tell them how much you could earn by being a Speedway rider..

Pretty sure he said something along the lines of telling them that a 'decent rider' can expect to earn around £4k a week riding in the UK..

A big difference for those MX riders who often pay to compete and build the prize purse with their entry fee..

Not sure if anything came of it, ie. either they did it and it didn't work, or they didn't target the MX community with a campaign..

Edited September 4, 2020 by mikebv

[ONTWOMINUTES 69]

4 minutes ago, mikebv said:

I think it was Jon Cook who in the SS several years ago was advocating advertising to the MX community, basically to tell them how much you could earn by being a Speedway rider..

Pretty sure he said something along the lines of telling them that a 'decent rider' can expect to earn around £4k a week riding in the UK..

A big difference for those MX riders who often pay to compere and build the prize purse with their entry fee..

Not sure if anything came of it, ie. either they did it and it didn't work, or they didn't target the MX community with a campaign..

Years ago I spoke with the worralls dad and he said it cost him over 50k a year to support the twins at the factory rider standard they're were at and the return was almost nothing - bearing in mind Steve was with ktm and richie was a ccm rider. Speedway is a decently paid hobby in comparison . Obviously the upkeep of speedway equipment is alot more than maintaining an mx bike. 

[Shrub 804]

7 hours ago, Ben91 said:

Was way before my time but I believe so from reading Berry’s book about 15 years ago. Will have to dig it out and read it again actually, remember thinking at the time a lot of what he said made sense. 

Yes the Tiger was an accomplished scrambler as it was called back then before his transition to speedway. Remember him telling me that experience helped him immensely at one or two tracks, particularly Somerton Park! Many of the all conquering Witches side of the 70's came from a scrambling/motorcross background. 

One exception, a little later was Jeremy Doncaster who came from a grasstrack background and was European Champion sometime in the early 80's 

[steve roberts 6,022]

6 minutes ago, Shrub said:

Yes the Tiger was an accomplished scrambler as it was called back then before his transition to speedway. Remember him telling me that experience helped him immensely at one or two tracks, particularly Somerton Park! Many of the all conquering Witches side of the 70's came from a scrambling/motorcross background. 

One exception, a little later was Jeremy Doncaster who came from a grasstrack background and was European Champion sometime in the early 80's 

...and his mastery of the notorious Wembley surface during the 1975 World Final when he finished third.

[Pieman72 229]

There were 2 riders that I remember at Monmore Green Colin Meredith (now a track curator) and Julian Wigg brother of Simon who rode a Grasstrack Bike.

[steve roberts 6,022]

30 minutes ago, Pieman72 said:

There were 2 riders that I remember at Monmore Green Colin Meredith (now a track curator) and Julian Wigg brother of Simon who rode a Grasstrack Bike.

I remember Julian riding his grasstarack bike at Cowley during second halves in 1972 with the likes of Ken Matthews and the Drewett Brothers. He actually rode for the Rebels on at least one occasion I recall. Colin I helped during the close season of 2002/3 doing minor tasks  around the track at Oxford.

[Gambo 821]

Wayne Broadhurst. Grass Track British Champion, and competent indoor Ice racer. (Telford)

[Pieman72 229]

Gerald Short is another who never took to speedway. I think it has a lot to do with riding style some don't convert to tighter Speedway tracks. Mind you Tom Leadbeater managed it becoming very good at times.

[HenryW 833]

15 hours ago, Humphrey Appleby said:

In one of John Berry's books, he thought motocross riders made a better transition to speedway than grasstrackers. 

Tomek Gollob came from a MotoX background...That convinces me 

[steve roberts 6,022]

Don Godden and Chris and Dave Baybutt were also very competent exponents without really taking to speedway.

[arnieg 1,696]

7 hours ago, Pieman72 said:

Gerald Short is another who never took to speedway. I think it has a lot to do with riding style some don't convert to tighter Speedway tracks. Mind you Tom Leadbeater managed it becoming very good at times.

If you only ever saw him ride at Long Eaton you would have thought he was a star. Brilliant entertainer at Station rd, just a bit of a liability away from home.

[customhouseregular 1,201]

If Stan Stevens could beat Barry Briggs at the top of his game, which I saw him do, he must have had unfulfilled potential.

[JohnHyam 2,014]

On 9/4/2020 at 12:10 PM, gustix said:

I wonder if any/most of the riders named as failing to reach expectations actually did so in their OWN opinion rather than what supporters and other 'experts' expected from them?

I feel sure there must be some BSF member able to answer my query?

[JohnHyam 2,014]

On 6/13/2009 at 12:59 PM, Shadders said:

It depends what you mean by "never made it" ..... I wouldn't say David Howe was in that category

I agree with your comment. Riders may well have reached where they wanted to in the sport. The Post heading is very poorly thought out.