E I Addio

Well done to Adam, Dan, and indeed Charles Wright who really stepped up on the night. Very unfortunate for Kyle Howarth not to make the final after coming so close and looking hungry enough in the heats to be a potential winner. Scott and Bomber are obviously over the hill now but they both showed they have a special quality that the younger ones can only aspire to. I enjoyed watching them and speedway will be poorer when they eventually hang up their Kevlars for good. Nothing can take away from Adams win though.I’ve known him since his early days practicing at Lakeside, a thoroughly nice guy as indeed Dan seems to be. Such a shame those running the sport don’t match the talent of those riding in it.

I am not sure that tuners really made much difference before the mid -seventies. I remember Olle Nygren saying he always did his own engines but that “Ivan was always messing about with tuners” but apparently not getting much mechanical advantage. When Ivan Mauger was asked which was his most satisfying World Championship win he said 1972 because that was the last year all the bikes were pretty much the same. He said in the 1972 World Final you could line all the bikes up and race over a measured Kilometre and there would be practically nothing between them at the finish , but after that the tuners were starting to make a difference. Of course, this is Speedway so we must take most of what is said with a pinch of salt, although we now know because Mauger admitted it that some or this experimentation involved illegal fuels, although he also said that the difference was mostly psychological, giving more confidence .

I have recently been reading about Arthur Forest. Sounds like he was a natural talent that did well very young. Apparently he retired at 26 although I don't know why . I wonder if Norbold can add anything about him ?

I can only endorse the other tributes fans have put on here. I disagreed with him on a few things but such was the nature of the man you could have a disagreement in a polite sort of way and then move on with no hard feelings. I cant imagine speedway without him. Very, Very sad news.

Actually Sid I do think it is a mega tough era today in terms of the top level but for a different reason . Up to about the mid seventies tuners didn’t play a major part. It was as much about the rider as the bike, and that’s why we have to say Briggs , Fundin, Moore etc were truly great riders,. Today it’s as much about the getting the sponsors to fund a fortune on tuners , set ups , spare engines etc. I’m not knocking today’s riders by any means but it’s very much a different game today. Some have 30 different engines. On the other hand, take Terry Betts for example. He said in Classic Speedway that he used to buy one new engine at the start of the season, used it the whole season, never laid a spanner on it for the whole season except changing the valve springs and he was, on his day , capable of beating the worlds best. I admire Jason Doyle because he became World Champion relatively on a shoe string compared with most modern riders, but I doubt whether anyone will win it again without massive sponsorship money behind them. The rider used to be more important than the bike, today, I think it’s the other way round.

He carried on for at least a year and came a about 10 th in the 66 World Final but possibly he had lost his hunger after winning the title. He seems to have carried on racing long track for a few years. I have a vague notion that he took on a car dealership and building that up took a lot of his time but could be wrong about that.

Still absolutely spot on choices though Steve, albeit different eras. Always a puzzle to me why Knutson went while at the top of game, while still a relatively young man. Maybe Norbold can throw some light on this? Bjorn was I think, only a few months younger than Ivan Mauger and I feel he could well have snatched a couple more world championships from either Mauger, Olsen, Michanek, or the Pole that cheated , before age started to catch up and retirement loomed.

Agreed. Paul has suffered some terrible injuries and I think only about 3 times in his career has not finished the season on the injuries list. There comes a time when age and injuries tell your body it’s time to gracefully leave the stage.

I see no hope Sid.even if the sport were really well run society has changed. People are not interested in such a basic sport in today’s high tech electronic world. Also , with the price of Land and pressure to build houses it becomes uneconomic to keep a big stadium going just with speedway and dog racing, then shut during the winter months. Even dog racing is only a fraction of the size it used to be. I think Romford is the only dog track left in the London area whereas there used to be 40 in the 1960’s.

Yes, My memory of Knutson is that he was so accurate it was as if he was riding round on rails, almost in the same tyre tracks lap after lap. Apart from the rise of stardom of Malcolm Simmons, one of my all time favourites, we saw the rise even further of Norman Hunter , my first No1 favourite rider. I was gutted when he went to Wolves, and even more gutted when injury stopped him progressing further. I was so sure he was on the verge of a World Final appearance. Lets not forget “ Gentleman “ George Barclay . Pretty much out if his depth in the top league but as he used say when I used to chat to him at Lakeside, “I was the one who always came fourth” . Never a star but no rider was ever more deserving of the title “ Gentleman”. A truly lovely man. I don’t know if he is still with us but the last I heard he was suffering with dementia, which is tragic for such a nice man. His wife Linda was lovely as well. I never saw Aub Lawson ride, but I spent my early years living in Otley Road which of course led straight down to the main gate of the stadium. Aub was a household name among the older generation in the whole neighbourhood,for years after he retired. He is one of those riders at the top of my “Wish I had seen list” as is Tiger Stevenson, who I think I am correct in saying only ever rode for West Ham in his entire career. Fantastic memories that I wouldn’t have missed for all the tea in China.

Light summer evenings at West Ham . You could see over the grandstands to the ships funnels in Victoria Docks , a quarter mile away. Looked fantastic with everything lit up. Great race track ( Barry Briggs favourite). The history came from the great riders of the past that had ridden there, Bluey Wilkinson, Tiger Stevenson, Split Waterman and above all the great Jack Young , and the great riders of the present especially the wonderful Hurri- Ken McKinlay, and Sverre Harrfedlt, then later Olle Nygren , who a I hated as a Don but became a favourite when he joined the Hammers. Then the sadness of the Lokkoren disaster, and the loss of such talent as Martin Piddock and Peter Bradshaw. I never really got over that. And finally in the closing days the amazing talent of Christer Lofqvist. Such a tragedy he died of a brain tumour at such a young age. I used to literally have dreams that I was still there on and off for years after it closed. Hackney was never quite the same although I did like it there.

Not sure about that but I heard Rob Godfrey has been to a seance to try to get in touch with the living.

And by the time you saw him ride he already had a glittering moto- cross career behind him and didn’t take up speedway till he was about 29

By that befuddled logic football must be successful because many people involved with it are highly intelligent.

Being committed and being good for the sport are not necessarily the same thing. Certainly there are riders past and present that don’t like the management set up at. KL. Beggars can’t be choosers so we have to be grateful for whoever risks his money in promotion, but beyond that it is difficult to find much positive to say about Buster.

Like others I am both saddened and shocked. Together with Stuart Douglas they brought Lakeside back from the brink of closure for 12 years. Not everybody’s cup of tea and his outspokenness upset some but he undoubtedly had the sport at heart and I will always remember my years at Lakeside with great affection. Behind the scenes he was very much a riders man, and as team manager he had great rapport with them. Away from meetings, at club social functions he was very funny with a very dry wit. A great loss. Condolences to his family.

More recently he used to run the spares van at Lakeside and if I remember correctly , Rye House as well. I had the distinct impression that despite his talent he never made a lot of money from speedway and seemed to me to finish up not much better off than he started.

If my information and my arithmetic is correct he must have been about 97 or 98 years old. I hope he was in good health to the dead. I never saw Len Silver ride but from photographs I think Len started the white boot craze, and Pat was, of course at Exeter with him. I think Alan Cowland may also have been a white booter and Norman Hunter certainly was for a while. Sad to hear of his passing . Riders like him were the backbone of the sport.

Yes , it is Liverpool St. Parking could be bit of a hassle at Rye House the train was not a bad bet if you were coming from Central or North London, especially if you had a few beers at the track ! I liked Rye House. The racing was usually rubbish but it was a nice little stadium to be at on a summer evening. Such a shame it’s gone.

I knew Bryan quite well. Lakesides General Manager , Alan Sargeant used to drive him around most of the time, but occasionally he would need a lift to somewhere like Rye House, and living in Erith he would need to get a train into London then back out to Lakeside where someone would pick him up so it would mean travelling the best part of two hours to be picked up about a mile as the crow flies from his home, then still had another hour or so to get to Rye House. That’s what you call a speedway fan !

I was watching one of these Motorway Police programmes a couple of months ago. They stopped a 19/20 year old woman, two weeks after her driving test, doing 100 mph, while talking on her mobile phone. As with most areas of life you can’t educate the terminally stupid !

My Dad became a driving instructor to top up his pension after he retired at age 65. He was 66 when he passed his advanced driving test and carried on as a driving instructor until he was about 72 or 73. He had the patience that comes with age and built a terrific reputation for getting so called “hopeless cases “ through the Driving Test”. There were a number who had failed 4or 5 tests with other driving schools so the school he worked for gave them to him and as far as I recall he got them all through first time with him. It’s not that he was a better teacher than anyone else but he fifty years experience behind him and he got his pupils to relax behind the wheel and really passed on all the little hints and tips that come with a lifetimes driving. So I think when we talk about older drivers, if their eyesight is good and they have a reasonable degree of common sense, what they lack with reactions perhaps not being what they used to be they usually make for in experience. As you say, the highest insurance risk group is for men and women under 25, when really their eyesight and reactions should be at their peak.

It’s not some busybodies being silly . If you look at the reasons it appears that while accident ratios in most age groups have remained stable , their has been a sharp increase fatal accidents to over 70 age group drivers in recent years. If your health and nigh vision are ok you have nothing to worry about but it would be foolish not to bear in mind that our faculties deteriorate as we get older.

Its difficult to tell how far a rider can go. Rob was a useful reserve at Lakeside butfor some reason suffered a loss of form / confidence so gave speedway a miss for a while, and concentrated on continental grass tracks. Jon Cook then got him back to Lakeside as a British 3-pointer which seemed to be a steal because his average was down due to previous loss of form. However the comeback never really worked, he never really got back in the groove and retired for good. I think he could have dropped down to the lower league and done ok but last time I spoke to him he was doing happy enough doing continental grass tracks and apparently making it pay so had no real desire to return to speedway. The thing is Rob was never a full time speedway rider and always had another job laying gas pipes or something and its always hard to combine two jobs and still do well. I suppose on grass tracks he can do his day job then focus on his racing at weekends. If he was full time speedway I guess he could have been a useful top league second string or lower league heatleader but I wouldn't have thought international class, but who knows.

I don’t have the figures in front of me but I think Rob Mear went from reserve to No1 at Rye House in the course of a season. No doubt someone will correct me if I’m wrong.