britmet

. I put Denzil in because of his 1985 S.A. record, when, after a year in the UK top flight in '84, he went back and collected all 4 senior titles, - SA Championship, SA Open, SA Open Handicap, and End-of-Season Match Race Champ.

. The face is familiar, without looking anything up,I think he was a Scandinavian .............................................................................. EDIT: Just had a dig around , - Bo Josefsson, 1967, '68 - ? t.b.c.

. You should be there today ! - British Championship !

. While postings on another current thread debate whether Mr.A or Mr. B have changed passports or are eligible to compete for a British title, what no one can do is officially change their nationality from English to Welsh or Scottish, or vice versa . ( . . but Ms Sturgeon might change that one day !) EDIT. But wait, - New Cross in '60 & '61. . . .Wasn't the promoter at that time a certain Mr. Hoskins ? Now we realise anything is possible ! Johnnie knew that variety was good publicity.

Harrysson was a Swede.

. We've mooted a British Open Championship in posts above, but we should remember we already have a British league riders championship, i.e. a championship for riders of any nationality riding in a British league. . No point in duplicating that. Its also worthy of note that while some countries have foreign winners of their national championship, (when its an Open Championship,) there are other countries that declare the winner of the national title to be the highest placed national rider in the championship meeting. That's a better proposal than my earlier post, . .and the Cardiff Wild Card would still go to the British Champion, . . ( analogous to what happens now if the new champ has already qualified.)

Denzil Kent Mike Ferreria Bert Clark James Haydow Deon Prinsloo David Steen Stan Paulsen Paul Smuts-Steyn I leave you to put them in order.

. Okay, that makes Hveem even better than I've credited him to be ! .. . . . or I could say "One swallow. . . ." but I won't. .

(After p.1 I've skipped a few posts, so apols if already stated, but...) Other countries do have non-nationals compete in their championships, - they're Open Championships. Thus far the British Chmpshp isn't. . ..and agreed, its not an FIM matter but an ACU/BSPA matter, . . at which point I shall give up in despair.

, One swallow . . . . . .

. 1 - Eric Chitty, - 3x British Individual Champion, 1940, '41 & '42, at war-time Belle Vue. 2 - Jimmy Gibb comes a long way behind, (by virtue of his immediate pre-war performance.) None of the others merit mention.

There's no qualification on this topic, - Top 5 in the UK / British Lge, - OR - Top 5 you've seen - OR - Top Norwegians. . - ? . Leif 'Basse' Hveem's record of successes make's Harrfeldt and Eide look like also-rans. True he pulled up no trees in 1953 at West Ham in just 4 matches, but on the international scene he was unsurpassed by any other fellow countryman, with Norwegian, Nordic, European and World Championship titles on the speedway and Long Track. . His record reads; SPEEDWAY - Norwegian champ 8x ; (Harfeldt 4x, Eide 5x) - European champ 1x ; ( SH & RE - nil ) - Nordic Champ 8x [3 forerunners + 5 Off'l ] ; (SH & RE nil ) LONG TRACK - Norwegian champ 8x ; (SH 3x, RE nil ) - Nordic champ 8+, [3 inter. years winner unknown] (SH & RE nil ) - World Champ 3x [as Euro forerunner] (SH & RE nil ) Whether you saw him ride or not, these figures make the question of the No.1 Norwegian a 'no contest.'

. Whilst acknowledging Pander's form at Oxford, - and I liked his riding style around Cowley - ,in truth he never made it once into a World Final, so I think not.

Results from Somerset, . .Rd. 2 Mark Cossar and Carl Blyth were unbeaten except for an engine failure, - even winning on borrowed machinery in their following race - , and lead the championship overall: M.Cossar & Blyth 29, Cave & Steer 24, Whitelam & Saunters 21, Moore & Pugh 18, W.Penfold & Pay 16, T & W Winterburn 14. . 2 more rounds to go, at Kings Lynn and Belle Vue.. Sidecar Speedway Champions

. TOTALLY WRONG ! It is one of the top 3 reasons why speedway can't be taken seriously today. .

Ditto

. Mark Cossar was unbeaten throughout, with Whitelam conceding only in the final heat (Ht.16) and the Grand Final. . Above link apparently not functioning, so here's the scores. 1st M Cossar / C Blyth 16, 2nd P Whitelam / T Saunters 14, 3rd M Cave / B Steer 11, 4th R Moore / C Pugh 9, 5th W Penfold / R Pay 8, 6th M Stace / K Ivy 7, 7th S Blyth / S Fumarola 7, 8th M Fumerola / G Williams 6, 9th A Cossar / M Chittenden 5, 10th P Wynn / A Cowper-Smith 5, 11th W Offen / S Black 3, 12th T Cossar / R Barker 3, 13th P Johnson / J Farwell 2, 14th J Mogg / J Cutler 2, 15th N Penfold / K Jones n/s, 16th T Winterburn / B Winterburn n/s. .

. Isn't Erik Riss competing this year ?

Action video from the Australian Sidecar Speedway Championship, KurriKurri, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKxJV1R2sAQ .

. There was a rider that never took my imagination, but he so little impressed me that I forget his name. .

. Brian's okay. An update to Windows 10 has made the programme that he used to build the site no longer compatible. With so much data it would be too big a task to start it all again. The site will stay up, but can't be updated.

. As has been said, most of the time he was a v.good rider, but what's not been mentioned is his dislike of wet tracks. Colin Pratt was a double-figure or zero points rider, though double most of the time in the '60s .

. Gen yourself up HERE , - Long Track background plus national champions in Eastern and Western Europe, Scandinavia, Australasia and America. .

. The Edward Jancarz Memorial, and all its past winners, is covered here .

I was pondering about how many occasions a nation has had a clean sweep, i.e. the 1,2,3 rostrum positions, of the World Championship, Speedway, Long Track and Ice Racing, and whether home track advantage, or local crowd support was a factor? There've been no speedway and Long Track clean sweeps since the GPs. Will there be any more now we've multiple venues ? Speedway has seen clean sweeps on 4 occasions, - in 1937, (USA), 1949, (GB), 1961,(Sweden) and 1988,(Denmark), with only the Yanks able to claim it wasn't thanks to local circumstances. Malmo in '61 was the first non-Wembley Final, and it seemed to suggest that just like the domination of Wembley Lion team men post-war, there was something in it, ( - ? ) A Long Track 1,2,3 has also been achieved 4 times, but always by the same country, Germany, in 1960, (when its official status was the 1000m EM,) 1980, '82 and '96. Only the 1982 final wasn't on home soil. Since operating as a GP series no clean sweep has been made, even though just 2 countries, Germany and Gt.Britain stood on the rostrum for the next 10 years. But it's the Ice Racing world championship that blows the idea apart: USSR/Russia has taken all 3 rostrum places on 25 occasions in 52 years, (and in the other years had 2 of the 3 places on all but 7 occasions.) Full results