Bavarian

No, apparently nothing came of this in 1929. There seems to have been a least three consortiums of would be dirt-track promoters tryign to run the Sport in the German capital. But it wasn't until March of 1930 until a dirt-track speedway was acutally opened in Berlin. That was at the Olympia Radrennbahn in Berlin-Plötzensee. It was a tiny 350m track inside a steeply banked concre surfaced cycle track and did in no way match the amazing success of the pacey one-third-of- a- mile Hamburg Dirt-Track. Failing to attract big enough crowds to make it pay (the grand opening meeting in March was "snowed-off" and had to be delayed for a week), Berlin's track was shut down again after only three months, never to be re-opened. At the same time, long-track motorcycle racing (Sandbahnrennen) with much higher speeds, at a couple of Berlin's 1000m venues for horse racing (Berlin-Mariendorf and Berlin-Karlshorst) became popular and somehow outshone the slower speeds of the riders racing on the cinder track.

Great Picture of Munich's two most famous horse racing tracks. In fact, both tracks seen in this picture were tried for motorcycle racing before WW2. The track in front is the 1000m Trabrennbahn in München-Daglfing, and this track is in fact the cradle of "Sandbahnrennen" = long track racing in our country. The very first such meeting with motorcycles racing on a lose dirt/sand surface oval racetrack was held at Daglfing in conjunction with a bicycle race in the summer of 1921. The motorcycle races were most exciting and easily outshone the cycle races. The bicycle races were in the following years altoghether dropped from the program in favour of the motorbikes. The biggest international motorcyle track racing events at Daglfing were the annual Golden Helmet of Germany (Goldhelm von Deutschland) meetings, inaugurated in 1933, when the Führer AH himself was the donator of the trophy. The first Golden Helmet was won in pouring rain by the sidecar driver Josef Möritz, in a handicap race final that featured the day's fastest solos and sidecars of all the various classes. The track in the background of the picture is the much larger (2000m) Galopprennbahn in München-Riem. This track was used only once for a motorcycle grass track meeting in the autumn of 1931. The racing there on a very soft track surface was not nearly as good as at Daglfing, and as the turf was quite damaged by the bikes ,and cars racing in that one-off meeting München-Riem, it was not to be repeated.

Yes, at least two international speedway meetings were held at Santarem in Portugal. The first was a European Club Team Cup round in 1999, and the second a world under 21 qualifying round, featuring a couple of British riders, Danny Bird and Grant MacDonald, as well as a couple of Aussies, Kevin Doolan and Travis McGowan, and Canada's Chris Slabon. There were no Portugese riders though. Here is a link to the German Speedway Forum were You can find a scan of the program cover for this meeting https://www.speedway-forum.de/gallery/index.php?image/3495-world-junior-speedway-championship-qr-14-05-2000-santarém-portugal-official-prog/ The current FIM president Jorge Viegas had something to do with the introduction of speedway to his home country. You can find the story (in Polish language) with a couple of pictures of the venue at the speedwaynews.pl website https://www.speedwaynews.pl/aktualnosci/item/68342-z-a-marle-tory-15-miedzynarodowy-speedway-na-arenie-do-corridy

Yes indeed, because flat track bikes and equipment is far easier to get out there compared to the very special speedway bikes. Flat track racing is even already popular in some of the other African countries, such as Zimbabwe https://www.herald.co.zw/flat-track-racing-back-at-dbrook/ By the way, South Africa still has plenty of speedway tracks, but just like in NZ or Australia most are nowadays used for the sprintcars/speedcars/Stockcars racing only. But there is also still a small but dedicated band of Speedway Sidecar racers out there in the Jo'burg area.

This is an interesting topic. It is a shame that the F.I.M. has done next to nothing to help the sport to grow again in all those minor speedway nations throughout the years the F.I.M. cashed in millions of Dollars from BSI/IMG for the SGP rights. Now they get even more money from DISCOVERY/EUROSPORT, but I don't think any of that money will go fund help maintain and develope the sport internationally. There are so many countries where speedway racing is on the brink of extinction. In the past ten years the sport has died out in Canada, South Africa, Bulgaria, and will soon be gone in Austria, Croatia, Slovenia, Romania, Holland, Belgium, and even Italy. I wonder what this SGP4 concept of the Discovery Corporation is all about? Does anybody know?

The Polish national team has four test matches scheduled for the 2022 season. Their opposition is as yet unknown. Could Great Britian be invited over to Poland for a return match following last year's test defeat of the Poles at Glasgow? Is anything known about GB test matches in 2022 ?

AUSTRALIA v ENGLAND speedway tests were a highlight in our sport for such a long time. This is one of the last test series of the England Team touring Australia in 1994, and it is the first test at the world famous Sydney Showground Speedway Royale. Sadly gone and a thing of the past now!

Never knew that there ever was something like an official Australia v England Test Series in Long-Track Racing. But here it is from way back in 1983. Fascinating!

Sigvart Pedersen appeared only twice in the Norwegian Final, finishing eight in 1977 and fourth in 1978 He was third in the Norwegian Pairs Final of 1978 (with Thoralf Holen, representing NMK Grenland) He scored one point in his only appearance for Norway in the World Team Cup of 1978

Will the qualifying meeting at Ö-vik go ahead to day, or has it already been cancelled?

Who wants to see such a meeting in April? Perhaps around Christmas/New Year this gimmick could draw a crowd, but in April ?

A 1000m track like the one at Jübek is a great venue for Flat Track racing. Much better than the tiny 300m track at Nordhastedt, which is just to small and narrow for the Flat Track bikes.

Link to Inzell website https://www.dmv-eisspeedway.de/ Link to Heerenveen website https://ijsspeedway.nl/en/

Thank You @stewmac I see that the first race meeting in Sweden is scheduled for Thursday, January 6, 2022, at Örnsköldsvik.

Is there any ice speedway racing taking place in Sweden or Finland ?

Aage Hansen is still alive, too

NBC Video of round two at Volusia Speedway Park, Barberville, Florida, of March 13, 2021 The 2022 season of American Flat Track motorcycle racing starts on March 10, again at Barberville, Florida. Schedule of AMA Flat Track meetings can be found here https://www.americanflattrack.com/events

Good News coming from Colin Jewes, who has put his speedwaychampions website online again. It is all the same as it was a couple of years ago, when it was taken down. The website will not be updated anymore, though, but nevertheless it is still a terrific source of Information. Here is the Link https://speedwaychampions.yolasite.com/

On Thursday of this week a former Soviet Union International speedway rider of the 1960s and early 70s, Yuri Chekranov has died at the age of seventy-eight years old. (b.31/10/1943 - d.16/12/2021) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Chekranov

Complete results, report, and pictures of the North American Final can be found here https://www.speedwaybikes.com/res2021_w/Perris-20211211.htm

Does anybody know the results of last night's North American Final ?

Leszno - they have a big Stadium - Czestochowa as well