Malcolm

Phil and Lisa Collins have their double decker bus at the Michael Jackson trial for news crews cameras. They have already been intervied by news people from around the world. I think Phil said about 30 intreviews so far. One will be on Sky News on Monday. http://homepage.mac.com/bigredtours/PhotoAlbum1.html http://www.xtremesport.org/phil%20bike%20bus%202.jpg http://www.xtremesport.org/phil%20bike%20bus.jpg

Click here for pictures of Briggo riding flattrack on a converted grasser with a 250 Yamaha twin. Ist page go to pic 48 and on the 2nd page go down to the late 20s and 2nd from last. http://www.flattrack.com/dc/dcboard.php?az...mode=full&page=

Depending on dates you may be able to catch a grasstracker battling it out with American flattrackers. Me. http://www.xtremesport.org

Below is a Hagon one of six that ran in A.M.A. Dist 37 Northern California Flattrack competition in the late '60s to early '70s. The bike was restored by the owners son as a class project and hit the track again this year. http://www.xtremesport.org/hagon.jpg A Hagon Triumph won the '68 and '69 West Coast Amatuer National Championships.

Here is a 2004 Phil picture with his bus and my bike outside his house. http://www.xtremesport.org/phil%20bike%20bus.jpg http://www.xtremesport.org/phil%20bike%20bus%202.jpg

There are pictures in a couple of Briggo's books and and Brad Oxley told me that he does have the bike at home in Southern California. It was a Jawa grasstrack chassis with Yamaha 2 stroke twin. I have some great footage of Briggo riding it at Daytona in about 1971 against a young 19 year old kenny Roberts. Great racing with Briggo stood up speedway style around the boards and Roberts sat down flattrack style hugging the inside. Briggo won when the bike kept going. I have been riding some flattrack events here in California on grassers and the style of riding is different. Del Mar in practice after which I was banned for sliding too much! Never really got a good answer why. http://www.xtremesport.org/del1.jpg Fast banked track of Willow Springs http://www.xtremesport.org/willow-suzuki3.jpg Ventura http://www.xtremesport.org/ventura-tribsa.jpg California practice track. Dry and dusty! http://www.xtremesport.org/m3w.jpg

And what the times of the 750 Harleys compared to the 500s ?

Points limit and what will it be this year is holding up team building. Scrap it and allow teams to BUILD ONE AND KEEP ONE. No points limit will allow people and companies with money to come in a sponsor with certainty of what they are sponsoring or in the case of Sandu, owning. Riders need to be paid enough to have one job SPEEDWAY. They should be riding or promoting it and their sponsors. Keep speedway down by not allowing the freedom to grow and you will have silly rules (Tactical Joker), stories of teams demise (Coventry, almost) and the abiliity to see your favourite superstar rider working at a second job selling cars ala Stoney. Crazy.

A way of funding speedway would be to have a designated section of bike/bodywork uniform across the board on all bikes for sponsors of a British Speedway league. This type of thing is familiar on NASCAR racers front fenders. The money would be spread evenly between teams and for possibly employing a PR team to help push the sport.

I was there and remember being bored by the American Flattrackers and watching the speed boats to the right of the track at the pits end. Also the ground was spongy and the crowd started to bounce up and down. I have some footage taken by the Late Mr Sudall father of former Lancs grasser Jimmy. Memory is fading here a bit, but is this the race where Mauger got his hand stuck between the back wheel and mudguard when his bike immediately burst into life?

The BBC may be a let down in general, for me though they came through.The Oxford Speedway site commentary was excellent and I listened to it on internet radio here in California. http://www.bbc.co.uk/oxford/features/360/speedway.shtml Did Motor Cycle News give the event any coverage? Greg is front page here in Cycle News. Cycle News does a really good job covering U.S. Speedway and the GP's. http://cyclenews.com Cheers, Malcolm http://xtremesport.org

The 2 Valve is housed in a Fisher chassis, one of only 5 ish made. Mr Fisher was a mechanic for American racecar driver A.J.Foyt. The owner pictured with me and riding the bike only 2 weeks ago is 81 year old R.A. "Putty" Mills who started riding with the Milne brothers and finally stopped racing at aged 60. The pictures are from an event in Santa Maria, California. http://xtremesport.org/putty.jpg http://xtremesport.org/putty2.jpg http://xtremesport.org/putty3.jpg

Typical of many California speedway tracks is this one from last Saturday. A rodeo arena groomed for racing. Spot the ex-pat. vid

Bummer, come on Eric!

Took me a couple of times to get the page up. Just hit refresh. Steve "Coyote" are you there? I rode with "Putty" Mills yesterday at a race in Santa Maria, California. He is 81 and started riding with the Milnes, Miny Waln and Charles "PeeWee" Cullum etc. I also rode a 1949 Indian in a group of them, beat Ben Bostrom's dad Dave, got a third place. The owner of the bikes has former Shelbourne Park rider Nick Nicholaides Erskine Staride J.A.P. and yes Mr Mills rode against Nicholaides too. Oh yeah, GOOD LUCK ERIC.

Lots of nice old machines here.The Workshop

Yes it is a Jawa, a 2 valver. The biggest problem Arthur has had so far is with the oil pump and finding suitable pistons. Down the road from me in California a now Harley dealer won two road race championships on a 2 valve Jawa racebike.

Videos

Yes I agree it is a non-starter due to the brick wall some have up between Speedway and Longtrack. Still look at the crowd support at these events. As big and often bigger than speedway. It never will be, but it truely is the F1 of the sport. Teterow 30-40,000 fans every year, Marmande 10,000 and a full floodlit stadium, the Paris event last year had upwards of 40,000 even New Zealand got what 7,000?

Only riders prepared to go where they are drafted should apply to be in the draft. My old neighbour Les Collins home team for years was hardly in his backyard. He has been one of many over the years prepared to travel.

Phil Collins on my bike in California. Phil Collins on my RTS Jawa outside his house in California chatting with the neighbours. Close-up Phil, Neil and half a head is me at a Junior Grasstrack in 1975

The main problem in making the sport follow F1 lines is that there is little distinction between the GP and a league match except for the venue and the fact they call it the World Championship. If logic prevailed and as in F1 the bikes were to be faster and more expensive then BSI should have gone with a solo series that already exsists in a multi-race series. Longtrack. The problem lies in the fact that riders for the most part most come up through the ranks to gain enough experience to ride at the GP level. Will clubs want to put effort into riders whos goal is to leave, and will has been GP riders find a place in team racing after showing loyalty elsewhere. The other issue is the equipment. There is nothing in this arena that makes the GP special. Some riders use standard all be them well prepared Jawas, the race times are no better than league racing and so it is difficult to look at the GP and say here are the best riders in the world riding the finest equipment. I'm a 2nd Division rider at Costa Mesa in California and my bike is GP quality with a pro tuned engine and custom chassis, only some basic Jawa parts are standard. In England you have Conference League riders who own nicer bikes than some Elite League riders. Then all we have left is the team aspect within F1, Mclaren, Ferrari etc. Speedway has Jawa and GM plus a bunch of chassis makers. Would Jawa or GM build exclusive teams and not allow anyone else to run their engines. I think not. Forget the chassis makers they are not that rich and will not abandon their core business, everyone else for a couple of guys on a GP team. Of course all the this changes if huge sums of money finds its way into GP. Now this would make it more intesting, and I believe would prompt teams to appear and new engines too. Still the racing will have to be better than league racing and all the other individual races going on (Unless Benfield promote the GP and the riders to be larger than life). I see a difference between F1 and Formula 3000 and Formula Ford, but not between a Gp and say Belle Vue v Coventry with Jason Crump, Joe Screen, Lee Richardson and Billy Hamill lining up at the tapes.

...and for the adults how about a beefcake calender using the riders for the girls and a good old fashioned topless women calender for me. I mean the lads. Pictures using staged speedway scenes in the pits, showers and at the tapes etc. Get the sport hung up in every garage bathroom in the U.K.

The promoters, BSPA, whoever is in charge over there need to look at different ways to promote. One sorely missing piece is the kids. When I was a youngster growing up across the street from the Collins Clan we raced pushbikes pretending we were speedway stars. Infact somewhere I have a handmade program from one of our races with all the Collins bar Peter on it and former British GT Champion Andy Riley and ex- speedway current grasser John Hough. The promoters need to get together with a bicycle company and make a speedway looking push bike. At the very least they could make a fibreglass kit for dressing up a bike. Same for riders, imagine kids peddling to school on a Billy Hamill replica bicycle. This gives the sport advertising and coverage, it keeps it in peoples minds year round. If kids rode to school in Manchester on a bike with the Belle Vue logo on it, it would remind people of the sport, start conversations about it. Some of these other sports are successful because they are everywhere. We humans respond well to seeing a message repetitively. Out of site, out of mind. If there was a spoiler in the track shop that would fit a bike rear wheel with the team logo and autographs, do you think any kid would want it for his bike. Here is another spoilers, say half size or smaller that could be hung on the bedroom wall, autographed, team colours, rider replicas. Collect the set.

Phil flat out at Herxheim