steve roberts

To quote from Ermolenko's book "...We were watching the race and Shawn Moran and Lance King were beating Erik Gundersen, then before you knew it, Erik pulled off a big swoop round the outside of them and took the lead and won the race. It was felt that King didn't try that hard to prevent him from doing this as they used to be team-mates at Cradley Heath" An interesting observation all the same however it's a question I would have put to King given the opportunity even if only to dispel Ermolenko's comment in his book.

Funny but my mind sort of relates to time in that respect. When Hans last rode for the "Cheetahs" it was 29 years ago (1992) and only seems like yesterday...however in 29 years time I will be 90!

...apparently Dave was also 'drill happy' and drilled so many holes into the jubilee clip to make it lighter (?) which subsequently broke during that all important World Final race in 1978!

Simmo tells the story when they were out riding trials for fun rather than buy a £2 carbuettor slide Dave chose to bodge a dodgy one together with Araldite hoping it would hold it in place. Apparently the throttle jammed open as it broke and he fell off the bike and broke his leg forcing him to miss the start of the season...all for the sake of buying a ne £2 carbureetor slide!

I remember Malcolm Simmons saying that Dave was 'tight' where money was concerned and would do anything to save a few bob!

Was it being shown live on ITV?

They were riding a perfect line for a couple of laps and then Lance King decided to ride a tighter line allowing Erik a clear run where the dirt was. Again, it was something that Sam Ermolenko touched upon in his book.

Yes I was there...took a while for the meeting to come alive. I've always been a bit suspicious of the ride by Erik when he passed both Lance King and Shawn Moran a point that Sam Ermolenko covered in his book incidently.

That's the one.

I had an autobiography (?) of Ole Olsen I recall sometime back during the eighties (?) but obviously didn't cover his whole career either side of the fence.

All very amusing comments but has anybody actually read the book?

Unfortunately it was one meeting that I never made. One of my greatest regrets!

While checking Ian's record I didn't realise that he passed away in 2015?

Yes supporters often get somewhat engrossed with the 'star' riders but it's often the bread and butter riders who made the sport what it was/is. RIP

Yes we got Gledhill at Oxford soon after (as Cradley's sister track) and he proved to be a big disappointment after once being somewhat of a Cowley track expert...he may well have got the track record when riding for Mildenhall?

My first 'hero' Garry Middleton always used to make a great deal digging his heels into the track as he prepared himself for each race. His favourite trick was once the green light came on was to roll into the tapes and often the rider next to him would charge thru' the tapes and being excluded for his troubles!

With my very limited experience riding a speedway bike (Olle Nygren Training School) I always remember the deep grooves presumeably made by the spinning back wheel "biting" the track on the start line. It certainly created wheel wobble as I rode over that part of the track each time I passed over it...not at any great speed I have to add!

I've watched most of these (haven't bothered with the Havelock one) and am looking forward to the Marvyn Cox interview hoping that he may give some insights to his career spent at Cowley in particular.

I'm not really sure but can only assume that the sudden grip generated when passing over the concrete section when riders were circumnavigating the track caused handling issues?

What I miss are genuine speedway related themes that some posters regularly took the trouble to post.

I certainly don't recall such a rule personally?

Has anybody bought the recently published book on Dave Jessup and, if so, is it a good read?

...or indeed the benefit of hindsight. He saw problems during the last "Golden Era" whereas others just chose to ignore it.

...he forsee the difficulties and problems that speedway in the UK was facing and many of his observations unfortunately became the reality.

Just re-reading John Berry's book and although written some years ago many of his observations and/or thoughts are still relevant.