martinmauger

As above ^^. Ivan also turned around the fortunes of every team he rode for and accelerated the careers of at least one team mate at each club he rode for: Ole Olsen (Newcastle), Peter Collins (Belle vue), Scott Autrey (Exeter) + Joe Owen & Dennis Sigalos (Hull). Re his gold bike: Ivan himself told me he only expected messers Wenn & Bokelman to polish or maybe chrome plate parts of said machine and was more than blown away to find they had gold-plated the entire bike. Incedentally, if the frame on said bike looks a tad out of line, well it should because it is. Ivan went on to inform me that he considered such an 'altered frame' would be an advantage for the 1970 World Final in Wroclaw. So, in his own words, he, Peter Oakes and others performed the unusual set-up change by altering the frame geometry with the aid of a sweeping brush handle (!). Seemed to work as he won the 1970 World Championship with a full 15 pt maximum and he needed to as in each and every heat the other 3 riders were literally breathing down his exhaust pipe.....

Thought Team GB did great. After watching the first events and how the Swede,s Poles and Assies went 'Woffy v The Rest' and therefore a home pasting seemed on the cards. But all the Brit riders did great; seeing off the Swedes and Aussies and getting within touching dstance of the 'always gonna be quick on this track Poles'. 2nd in the World Cup Final - I'll take that all day long. Freakin' brilliant ....

All the above plus: Viking Heads And, somewhat surprisingly, not knowing within hours (minutes) a result and the exctement / surprise discovering how your team or rider faired: e.g. I never found out until the Monday morning that Mauger won World Championship again '79. That said, I do like to know as much possible about any subject I'm interested in and appreciate being able to research quickly via the 'net, but still miss the anticipation of not knowing everything almost instantly. If that makes any sense....

Even before I played the speedway game on my Amgia I had International Speedway on my C64, on cassette cost 2.99. Viewed from over head you controlled your rider against opposition such as 'Ivor Major, 'Olle Olson', 'Ronnie Briggs, 'Barry Moore', etc. Bringing things up to date, one of my grilrfriend's mates has 'Super Speedway 2' (or Speedway 2) on her fone which she downloaded if not 'freemans' then very cheaply. Not surprisingly much better graphics and sound than the 2 above games, the look is very similar to the Speedway Grand Prix games on the PC. So someone, somewhere has already wrtten such a cheap, easily avalaible speedway game for the popular mobile fone platform....

All righty then, no probs. Still a good gesture from Rob & Scunny....

Ah, prob got it but that was how I read it. That is what happens when supposed to be working and looking into the monitor, as opposed to at it, to ensure no-one is standing behind me ....

While looking for something else entirely (as is the way) I found the instructions for League Champions 2 on the old, much loved Commodore Amiga. Very much text-based and so was low in the graphics dept, each race consisted of riders viewed side-on travelling in a straight line for 60 seconds or so with seemingly random position changes. But the building and improving of the stadium and team, then making tac subs (remember them?) and team changes to eventually win the league brought hours of team-managing fun. And I seem to recall it ony cost a fiver or so. Apparently one of the first 'league winners' was a certain Stephen Purchase.....

I speak as I find which doesn't always please folk, but hey-hoe, 2 quick points: 1. I attended the amateur race-fest ran in postitvely tropical conditions the day before and though I couldn't make the Rye match anyway, I never saw the forcast and wouldn't have dreamt of the rain that arrived on Sunday. 2. Full refund + 1 free meet - now THAT's what i call promoting, very well done to Rob & Scunny....

At Hull, in 1996 & 1999, we knew him as Ripper Morton or simply The Ripper. Only scanned the Todd Wiltshire interview but Backtrack is a great read and I will set time aside to digest it from cover to cover as always....

I almost always stay to watch anf mini matches or 2nd halves, you've already paid entry to watch speedway to why not. At Hull Craven Park, we had a 10pm curfew and unless there were any incedents the main match often ended at 9.25-9.35 and we got used to 2 and 3-rider races. The odd Hull team rider might test equipment, and possibly another laegue rider, but pretty much it was the same few juniors / 2nd halfers getting in as much track time as they could keep fuelling and prepping their bikes. Think it was only 2003 when a proper season long 2nd half competition took place of 4 'teams' representing Hull(!) or the odd challenge v the likes of Boston, Scunny, Redcar etc, featuring the likes of Rob Hollingworth, Adam Allot, Richard Hall, Josh Auty....

Awful news, always extremely sad when speedway loses one. RIP....

Charles Ochiltree ended up paying Ian Thomas 15,000 pounds for Olsen's services, bit a farce but then so was forcing a rider to go where he clearly didn't want to be. Hull ended up signing Barry Briggs for the 1976 season, were an average once more in 1977 and signed Ivan Mauger for the Vikings from Exeter for 12,000 pounds (pound sign won't work on my keyboard) for the 1978 season. It's a fascinating story all detailed in Ian Thomas's excellent book "Wheels And Deals". While happy with Briggos' signing in 1976, and especially Mauger in 1978 (can you tell!), I often wondered how Olsen and the Vikings would have fared had Ole ridden for Hull. Hmm....

In that case you will no doubt find this interesting. In 1981 Peter Collins, of whom a case could be out forward that he 'did his bit' for both Great Britain & England (as was), gave the British League (Division 1) a miss and was banned from taking part in qualification for the World Championship of that year, which included the British Final. Least Tai Woffinden had the option to enter the British Final should he have wished....

I forget which season (1971-73) but at the annual Hull Fair, Viking Tony Childs once had a spin on the wall of death....

Agreed. It's all about circulating til the pitstops, which is all the commentators talk about, then get out again quickest as a way of overtaking the other chap as opposed to racing him on the circuit a la Mansell & Senna. Few characters one can identify with and follow these days....

I walked all round the stadium most the terracing, back straight & turn 2, was ok but the area around turn 1 just past thr main stand was like a building site very uneven, rough gound, temporary fencing, a lot of pushing & shoving and I saw a few of people fall. Mind there was 37,000 there, I believe, and the track was good with some decent racing in between rain showers. But the thread is about The New Belle Vue and the place looks more than decent...

Indeed, the words 'oh, and a speedway track' almost need tacking on at the very end of the project's mission statement....

Ah interesting, thought it could have meant the engine mounted more to one side. E.g. if you look closely at a pic of Mauger's gold bike, the frame appears twisted. It is, Ivan himself told he had it so 'adjusted' to provided a better ride at Wroclaw, the venue of his 1970 win; obviously it worked. Thanks to all who replied, some reading to be done then....

Not opening can of worms but surely no one would begrudge the Aces management making a few quid considering what they have delivered. Maybe the prices are just for the opener, which I can't get to, it also struck me it's going to be a bit close timewise. I went to the 1985 Wold Final at Bradford and seem to recall fans being kept waiting outside as Odsal wasn't quite finished, mind it defo wasn't finished when they finally did let folk in ....

No, I'd defo prefare a Cook win than the other thing. First skids of 2016 and the season is upon us, happy days....

In a previous life i did a lot of mechanicking (cars, bikes, maintenance, tuning, road, off-road, 2-stroke, 4-stroke, etc) but a change of career means I'm somewhat out of the loop and rarly get my hands dirty so could someone please explain exactly what is meant by an off-set engine? I've racked my brains a bit but to be honest I can't imagine what it means, sorry if it's already been answered....

How'd they get rid of the snow (!). Good progress and fascinating stuff for a self-confessed track anorak like me....

I was once chatting to an unamed, current Premeir League heat leader with Elite League experience about his bike and asked about the tappet, or valve, clearences as I thought his bike sounded a bit 'top endy' i.e slight rattle coming from the cylinder head. He said he didn't know as his dad took care of such things. I went on to ask him, for my own interest not to try and catch him out at all, about the clutch adjustment (free play in the cable, riders almost always adjust this on the start line), chain adjustment & lubricating, tyre pressure, dropping (changing) the oil, changing the air filter and he just kept saying "dunno, my dad does all of that stuff". So I asked about filling the tank as some riders re-fill it after a start and 30yds just before the re-run, was it filled to the brim or the bottom of the filler neck (turns out it's the latter), he replied "like I said mate, I dunno about any of the mechanical stuff, my dad does it all for me, I just ride the bike". He almost always scores well and is never without a team so I guess works for him, that said not every rider will know, or possibly wants to know, about all aspects of the bike but his lack of knowledge in regard to basic maintenance really surprised me....

Having mechanicked in the pits and briefly dipped my toe in riding a 500, I do know how to start a speedway engine from cold but I have seen riders (even pros) as soon as the engine starts hold the throttle wide open with the entire bike almost jumping off the stand. Has to be seen and heard to be believed, but from a distance. Rev limiters may not be THE answer but I rekcon would at least be a start in cost reduction. Standard engines owned by tracks and hnaded out out via picking a number out a crash helmet would be a good idea but the startup costs would be termendous. Do clubs A) buy 8, 7 + 1 spare, standard engines or do riders sell their existing motors for standard internal components fitted: cam, piston, clyinder head & barrel, crank, valves, etc. (Ignore the emoticon, it appeared by itself and won't delete) One thing never mentioned in the 1998 honda experiment is that while Honda may well have been offloading some surplus 650cc enduro engines, though there is no actual evidence of this, is reliability would have drastically improved and in the future they would in all likelyhood manufacture and supply a unit designed specifically for the job, minus the redundant inertnal gearbox. All conjecture now of course, but no one seems to have a solution. But we all seem to be in agreement something needs to be done to reduce costs & speed to hopefully make for better racing and also noise as ever more stringent laws are being enforced on speedway tracks....

Shale shmale, Hull's 1995 opener at Craven Park was raced on the track base (!) Not by choice, I should point out, the shale was delivered either too late to lay it or to lay and grade properly, time was getting on so the show went on. I should also point out the surface took half the 1st season to settle down and that previously ridden on base not show through. A practice / track test at Belle Vue would probably for the best but there is a mytique thing of the first bikes on track being meeting 1, heat 1. Not long to go.......