KeithC

Cyril Brine was at Rayleigh on 27th August 1955 when the Rockets and the Dons met in a challenge match. Maybe testing of The Atom took place earlier in the day.

There were a number of references to The Atom in Wimbledon programmes towards the end of the 1955 season, as well in May 1956. Also, there were several features and references to it in the Speedway News in 1955, confirming that the initial testing was done at Wimbledon, with the car driven by Ronnie Moore. I guess that Cyril Brine took over as test driver after the July crash at Plough Lane in which Ronnie suffered a broken collarbone. As there are still leaves on the trees in the clip it is likely that Cyril Brine was filmed in late summer, during the period Ronnie was recuperating. The lighting is very similar to that evident in the 1960 Rayleigh team picture on the Defunct Speedway Tracks site http://www.defunctspeedway.co.uk/ but was this photo taken at Rayleigh? The front cover of the Rayleigh speedway programmes from that era shows a photo in which a stand looks similar to that in the film clip.

In Ronnie Greene's Diary (Wimbledon programme 1st August 1955), there was an explanation of how Ronnie Moore suffered a broken collarbone. The two Ronnies 'got their heads together' earlier in the season 'over the issue of small-car racing on speedway'. Ronnie G explained that they saw the problem as getting the right type of car and called in Sydney Allard, 'famous racing car designer'. The prototype was tried out the previous week, behind locked doors, ending with a crash in which Ronnie M and the car somersaulted twice. The programme notes reported that times were as fast as those for speedway bikes. In the Wimbledon programme for 15th August 1955 Ronnie G described Ronnie M as the chief tester and advised that further tests would take place soon. There was no mention of where the tests were carried out.