iris123

Some pics of the Neuenknick meeting 07.04.1985 https://www.speedway-yesterday.de/html/body_neuenknick-85.html#Neuenknick1985

Yes, but looks like a fence is still there for the speedway track at least

Fingers crossed of course, for some real ice speedway in western Europe. But you have to be doubtful that the Austrian government will allow anything, added to the weather problems. Although it is in the minus in the night, for the next week or so it is up to 8 + during the day The hope i Omicron means it will all calm down. There is even a discussion now that the Vaccine mandate planned for February won't happen, with the new PM and situation At the moment airplanes from the UK and the Netherlands aren't even allowed to land it seems Einstufung von vier zusätzlichen Ländern als Virusvariantengebiete (Anlage 1 der Einreiseverordnung): Dänemark, Niederlande, Norwegen und Vereinigtes Königreich. Für Flüge aus diesen Ländern besteht kein Landeverbot! And of course at the moment anyway, Football is being played without crowds, and the measures are fairly tough, which would probably mean in the near future it would be hard to plan Outdoor ohne zugewiesene Sitzplätze: Zutritt nur mit 2-G FFP2-Maskenpflicht Höchstgrenze: max. 25 Personen Outdoor mit zugewiesenen Sitzplätzen: Zutritt nur mit 2-G FFP2-Maskenpflicht Höchstgrenze: max. 500 Personen nur mit 2-G max. 1000 Personen bei 2-G+ max. 2000 Personen bei Booster + PCR

Don't suppose we will ever see these days again.....Egon Müller taking all the trophies home

Good news for North German long track fans, is the return of Jübek Billed as the fastest Long track in the world, disappered from the calendar some years ago after a short attempt by a Danish group to run meetings there. Seems the guy who was boss at local speedway track Nordhastedt has got a group together to start the track up again. He is involved in Flat Track and it looks like that will also be on the calendar. Did see some video on Facebook that they have already done some training. One of the tracks i wanted to get to, but never did. Maybe a chance in the future.....also a couple of months back went through to town of Hechthausen, which was another that i always wanted to get to, but never did https://www.bahnsport-info.de/2021/12/08/msg-juebek-ein-anfang-ist-gemacht/

Seems every year on the Danish island of Romo they host a vintage motor and motorbike rally. Ernst Bogh was there with a speedway bike

I don't know the answer to that, but apparently Wilbur Lamoreaux worked for Crocker for a short period after returning to the States from England

One of the problems is a lot, if not most meeting reports don't really mention the bikes much. Think the early Australian and UK reports generally mention what make of bike a rider was on. Not so much in the States Here is a report from 1933 Two match races will be offered motorcycle racing fans at Long Beach Motospeedway tonight in addition to the usual program of events. One pairs rival club captains, Bo Lisman of Long Beach and Cordy Milne of Loyola, while the other matches Miny Wain and Jack Milne. There are 18 events on the card, and with the close of the 1933 short track racing season drawing nearer, every effort is being made to provide the best of competition. Motors are going faster, and riders are becoming less careful in the.bid for final purses. The long winter has inoculated riders with a new sense of recklessness, and railbirds see in tonight’s show more than ordinary hazards. Byrd McKinney shattered the record for the flying start race on the Loyola motorbike program last night. He toured the distance in one minute and three seconds, clipping four-fifths second off the old mark. Jack Milne finished second and Wilbur Lamoreaux third. Bo Lisman won the final handicap with Lamoreaux second and McKinney third. In the match races, Cordy Milne defeated his brother, Jack, and “Rusty” Roberts won over Sid Chambers.

Just watching Hans Nielsen, he really did, as dave Lanning say's, make it look so easy

Can only go on what i guess HE wrote to me. Unfortunately i lost the password to my email account back then that i had contact with him through Also know that he told me, he was less than enthusiastic about the return of the Dons venture. So maybe it was more, lack of enthusiasm for modern speedway

Met Brian once. Not sure if he messaged me or i read it, that he had lost interest in the sport Didn't know about his health, and hope he is doing well. Very nice guy, and as i said, an essential website he put together

Crocker, like a few other vintage bikes have made a comeback https://crocker.la/home

America’s First World Champion Jack Milne has a place in motorcycle-racing history that will never be erased. Milne was the first American motorcycle racer to win a World Championship. In 1937, Milne won the Speedway World Championship at London’s Wembley Stadium in front of 85,000 fans, securing a position of permanence that few racers could hope to achieve. Milne also won the American Speedway title in 1936 and his younger brother, Cordy, was also a world-class speedway rider. Jack Milne was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1907. After childhood in Detroit, his family moved to Pasadena, California, when Jack was 15, and that’s where he attended high school. On leaving school, both Milnes brothers went to work for Western Union as messenger delivery boys. Cordy saved his money and bought a motorcycle. Jack bought a small gas station. It would be later that he would join his younger brother as a motorcyclist. “I worked my way onto an Indian Scout, a 37-inch V-Twin,” Jack said in a 1995 interview with Street Bike magazine. “I just liked to go fast. I cut off the long bars that forced you to sit upright, and I was able to lean into the wind and go for it. There were few speed limits and fewer cops then.” The more adventurous Cordy converted his street bike into a speedway racer. The modifications didn’t work very well, but Cordy didn’t care—he was into racing. And he was soon to bring his big brother into the sport with him. In 1933, a pair of Comerford-JAPs arrived from England for Jack and Cordy. Jack was impressed by his little brother’s earnings and decided they could make a living from racing. He sold his service station and bought the speedway bikes for $300 each. With their new speedway racing bikes—featuring 500cc single-cylinder motors with a 16:1 compression ratio, methanol-fueled and weighing just 200 pounds while producing some 40 horsepower—both Milne brothers began winning a lot of races on little short tracks and high-school cinder tracks, running tracks up and down the West Coast. And they were making $15 to $30 per night each. “There were six or seven stadium tracks in Southern California and an equal number up north,” Jack said. “Gilmore Stadium, at 3rd and Fairfax in Los Angeles held 18,000. Sacramento’s stadium held 15,000, and they were regularly filled. California didn’t have other pro sports and motorcycle racing was big time.” Gilmore Oil became the brothers’ sponsor and the company picked up the tab for a trailer, gas, oil, tires and other expenses. In 1934 Jack was involved in a hard crash with Putt Mossman, which resulted in crushed vertebrae for Jack—an injury that nearly ended his racing career. Jack recovered from his injuries and returned to racing to finish runner-up to his brother in the 1935 American Speedway National Championship. That winter, the Milnes went to San Francisco and hopped on a ship to Australia, having accepted an offer to race Down Under. “In those days, there weren’t any jets, so it took a good two months just to travel to Australia and England,” Milne said. “You could buy an around-the-world ticket for $350. We paid our own way to Australia, so if we didn’t win, we didn’t get home.” There, the brothers found the Aussie tracks were of a much higher standard than what they were used to in America. Jack had a solid foreign racing debut by finishing third in the 1936 Australian Speedway Championship, despite having to learn to do standing starts (American races at the time were down with rolling starts). In 1936, Jack finally bested his little brother and won the U.S. title. Again, they went to Australia for the off-season and it started what would become a historic year for Jack. He won the Australian title that year over fellow American Wilbur Lamoreaux. From there, he moved to England to contest the popular and lucrative-paying British League. Six weeks by ship from Australia to England through the Suez Canal gave Jack and Cordy plenty of time to work on their bikes below deck. British League Speedway was a team sport, and even though less than a decade old, it was hugely popular. The tracks were larger than in America and crowds of 60,000 were not uncommon. Jack and Cordy tried to get on the same team, but the ACU denied the request. Jack raced for New Cross, while Cordy was allocated to Hackney. Jack was amazed at how popular he became in British Speedway, as he was much loved by the Brits for his determination. Not long after coming to race in England, he lost his left thumb in an accident when sportingly trying to avoid a downed rider. His picture was on John Player Tobacco trading cards that scores of British boys cherished. Jack said the money was good, but the demands were that of true professional athletes. “The London area alone had eight major tracks ranging from a 10th to a third of a mile,” Milne recalled. “During the late 1930s, speedway was Britain’s major spectator sport. We normally ran six-man teams and raced as much as five or six nights a week. It was a grueling schedule.” On September 2, 1937, America had one of its proudest moments in motorcycle-racing history: In front of 85,000 cheering fans at Wembley Stadium, Milne won the Speedway World Championship. If that wasn’t enough, Wilbur Lamoreaux finished second and Cordy third, giving America the top three spots in what was arguably the most important motorcycle-racing championship of the era. Jack and Cordy lived and raced two more years in England. They were heroes, being photographed everywhere they went, but they were seemingly unaffected by their status. Jack narrowly missed defending his world title in 1938, but soon after, World War II put an end to the Milne’s life in England. “The tracks went dark overnight,” Jack said. “The whole country closed down when the war started. Cordy and I bummed around from port to port trying to book passage back to the States. We finally boarded a ship that was lit up like a Christmas tree and covered with American flags in hopes that the Germans wouldn’t sink a neutral ship.” Back in Pasadena, the brothers took $4000 of their earnings and opened a bicycle shop that evolved into a motorcycle shop. Later they opened car dealerships and a thriving grandstand business. The seats people sat in at the Rose Bowl Parade and the Long Beach Grand Prix were the Milne’s. They started in that business after buying the old grandstands from a track that closed down. Jack and Cordy continued racing speedway in California into the early 1950s, but Jack said the advent of television caused the crowds to dwindle and the sport eventually died off for nearly 20 years. It was Jack, along with Harry Oxley, who helped revive speedway racing in the late 1960s bringing over speedway World Champions Ivan Mauger and Barry Briggs, both of New Zealand, for a series of exhibitions that re-lit the spark in America. Jack lived long enough to see Bruce Penhall and Sam Ermolenko follow in his footsteps as American riders to win World Speedway Championships. The grand old champ died in December of 1995. He still owned the bike he won the World Championship on until his passing. He left a legacy in American Speedway that reverberates yet today. https://www.cyclenews.com/2021/10/article/archives-column-jack-milne/

Glad this is back up One of the two essential sites to look at for me, along with Brian Collins International speedway

A little discussion on the bike here http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/89006-mexico/&tab=comments#comment-3388113

Some info here

Joel, Tommy's father Then Bo, Tommy's brother. Then i think Jimmy is Bo's son and then Jimmy nw has a son riding...

Moore maybe ? Ronnie, Peter and Chun, all made the final. Although Chun was in the pre-world final, star riders championship. Not sure if there are enough, as all i can think of other than those is Ronnies father Les

Could only remember Peter and Les in the final. My bad

Guess that was an answer to the question of 'others worthy of mention ' Jansson could also be worthy of mention, and would guess they could field a team. 3 of that surname having made a world final, so better than Collins ?

Used to be quite isolated back in Fundins day (sure he said that in his biog). But now i can't see it happening with other tracks running pretty close by

Think it is a matter of taste and not having a favourite etc. I understand your point of view, but actually thought some of the racing yesterday was pretty decent. I am not one who thinks everything is great, and will say so if it isn't

Dennis Newton rode for Oxford, and was South African. But unfortunately, only after he left Oxford

Some decent racing and a crowd Tooting and Mitcham would be ashamed of