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TonyMac

Gary Peterson Memories

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We'll be including a profile on the late Gary Peterson in the next issue of Backtrack and wondered if any readers or forumites have any memories of him that they would care to share with us?

 

Gary showed great promise in his brief British career with Nelson (1968-69-70) , Bradford (1970) and Newcastle (doubling up in 1968 & '69) before he was tragically killed riding for Wolves (1970-71-73-75) at Monmore Green in October 1975.

 

A hugely popular star at Odsal, where he won two individual meetings in the second part of 1970, GP topped the second dvision averages that year before moving up into BL1 full-time with Wolves the following season.

 

We've been in touch with Ivan Mauger and one or two others in New Zealand to seek their views on Gary, but it would be interesting to hear what others remember of him...

Edited by tmc

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We'll be including a profile on the late Gary Peterson in the next issue of Backtrack and wondered if any readers or forumites have any memories of him that they would care to share with us?

 

Gary showed great promise in his brief British career with Nelson, Bradford and Newcastle before he was tragically killed riding for Wolves at Monmore Green in October 1975.

 

We've been in touch with Ivan Mauger and one or two others in New Zealand for their views on Gary, but it would be interesting to hear what others remember of him...

See Gary a few times see him at Swindon in 1973? a test match Sweden v New Zealand i get mixed up there were two of them test matches.One in 1972 and 1973 i think Gary rode in 73 Gary rode well Briggo and Ivan missed the meeting through injury ? if i remember rightly.

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As a bright-eyed 11yo i was first taken to Monmore in June 1974 to see Wolves beat Poole by a point and was hooked. During the winter i heard about Gary coming back to Wolves and started to follow his scoring down in New Zealand which seemed mighty impressive - and when i first saw him ride he became an instant favourite of mine; other than the awful tragic events in Oct 1975 - which as a 12 yo stunned me, how could a hero be gone so quickly; my favourite memories are his cut backs on the first and second bends after missing the start to cut through the opposition.

I will definitely be getting this copy of backtrack having been away from it for some time; having trawled the internet over the years for more background to Gary and outside of the news of the fateful night, and his scoring records, i only found info that spoke of a troubled young man, who was very accident prone and had family tragedies to deal with, i hope i can find out more about my first speedway hero. and thank you for making space for him.

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I remember Gary when he first came over ...if my memory strikes me right along with Terry Shearer and I think it was Alan Paynter ??? With Mike Parker being the promoter at Newport along with a few other clubs they all had some rides at Somerton Park with Terry becoming a Newport rider (in fact marrying a Newport girl I went to school with !!). Gary then went north to Newcastle and eventually Wolverhampton.

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Done that!

 

Jake Pulman in NZ, used to travel and ride with Gary before he came to UK

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Jake Pulman in NZ, used to travel and ride with Gary before he came to UK

 

Ok many, many thanks, so any chance of a link to him, such as an email address or phone number (by all means PM us)?

 

Or is this thread going to degenerate into a succession of Tw*tter-speak type postings, where no-one can actually be bothered to type more than one short sentence?

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Contact Ivan Mauger, Barry Briggs....

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