Bavarian

Fair enough. It is also a start for the return of international speedway test matches after all. Who knows, perhaps a revival of the Ashes series against the Aussies is on the cards in the UK next summer?

Team USA to race World Champions Great Britain at Kern in February 2025. The USA National Speedway Motorcycle Racing team will break new ground on February 1, 2025, at its home track, Kevin Harvick's Kern Raceway in Bakersfield, California. The USA team will take on current World Champions Great Britain in a groundbreaking International Speedway Test Match. The event is the first of its kind in the State, with an official National team crossing the pond to take on the Americans. US Team Manager Steve Evans explains, "For the last two years we've brought the USA World Championship squad to race at home for the first time since 1988. On both previous occasions we have raced against a 'Rest of the World' team, but this was a step to something even better. Racing against another country, not least the current World Champions, takes this event to a whole different level. Team Great Britain has set the highest standards not only on the track but off the track with a very professional and well-organized structure. These are levels we are quite a distance away from as a country currently, but we do want to eventually emulate and surpass them.” Great Britain Managing Director, Rob Painter, said "Steve Evans and I have been discussing the possibility of GB racing an official Test Match in the US for a while, so we are both delighted to be able to confirm the event today. It will be a special occasion, going there as World Champions in the USA’s first ever home Test Match and I’m sure it will be a fantastic event". The event is set to take place on Saturday February 1st, at 1 PM local time, and will be available in the UK via live stream at 9 PM UK time. Kevin Harvick's Kern Raceway in Bakersfield is a state-of-the-art facility, featuring race circuits for NASCAR, sprint cars, motocross, and speedway. Multi time, NASCAR champion and Daytona 500 winner Kevin Harvick is among the ownership group of the facility. The track will be expanding to even more types of racing and events in 2025. More event details, including team line-ups and ticket information, will be released in due course.

Hey, but in February it is better in California. At long last we get to see an official USA vs Great Britain speedway test match again! That's awesome News!

Pictures like this one remind me of the great era of Speedway Test matches, that today's speedway public are denied of ever witnessing. Such a shame that we don't get anything like it anymore. Shame on You, the speedway promoters.

More on Ron Johnson, who may have been the inspiration for the movie Maniacs on Wheels aka Once A Jolly Swagman https://amcn.com.au/editorial/speedway-ace-ron-johnson/?fbclid=IwY2xjawF5CyxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHZy4Y3rf2SjhYwnAdCxjHKgX6vL5eKlJzfqwOe9bRtYsVUfkN0j5sFV1Zg_aem_05NGRPUdv8De4A4pJyXqgg

Here is an Australian article about one of the founder fathers of speedway, A.J. Hunting I never knew that he was of German origins! Herr Schütze ! https://oldtimespeedway.homesteadcloud.com/stories/aj-hunting?fbclid=IwY2xjawF5AiBleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHdWY-1nbYkKFPTZHTPoMDaoknVOedoxWAXWNoVLXSB9A8NxmFsYZxxtF0A_aem_RvdHNISVrRnF8kXe2G3soQ

2024 Polish Ekstraliga averages Amazingly, no less than FIVE out of the top eight Ekstraliga riders will not be in the SGP next year (Laguta, Madsen, Kolodziej, Sayfutdinov and Jepsen Jensen)

no chance, the PZM blocks them form participation in any official international competition, except league racing what the pzm do is in my eyes a crime, but Emil and Artem had to sign an agreement that they would not take the PZM to court over this, when they were allowed back into the league. sadly there are a lot of Russia haters in Poland that's for sure

What nobody has mentioned yet, its only 10 GPs next year, this year we had 11. Is that the progress WBD has promised us when they took over to spread the speedway gospel across the globe?

Oh, come on, man! What's wrong with You? The Speedway Star is a great read every week. I love it and wouldn't wanna miss it !

Reg Kavanagh did ride in Germany in 1930, but he was not very successful and he certainly wasn't a star attraction when he appeared in dirt-track events at Cologne, Essen and Dortmund in April and May of that year. I am not aware of Reg Kavanagh ever winning a championship or setting a track record anywhere here in Germany, but my records for that period of German speedway are incomplete. All I could find was one rather lucky win for him in the final of a handicap race at Cologne on May 4, 1930, in an event spoilt by bike problems and falls, when the race leader Joseph Herzogenrath fell on the last lap. And Kavanagh once rode in a track record attempt, unsuccesfully, at the first international meeting held at Dortmund on Sunday, May 25, 1930. His four laps time of 1:49.8 was 14! seconds slower than Walter Buttler's new record of 1:35.0 who shattered the existing record of 1:38.8 held by Herbert Drews of Danzig. For the first time Reg Kavanagh's name shows up in my German dirt-track records on April 19, 1930 (Easter Sunday) in the inaugural meeting at Essen, where he was one of seven foreign riders. The names of the others are Tom and Jack Middlehurst, S.L. Robinson, Harry Gresty (?), Pat O'Hara, and "the Australian" Shuttleworth. This meeting attracted a 5,000 crowd. German Fred Buttler set a four lap record of 1:29.0, Robinson of England was second fastest. There were several competitions, the Inauguration Trophy, Prize of Essen (both were won by Peter Schiffer of Cologne) and the Golden Glove, plus a couple of and match races (Harry Herzogenrath of Cologne beat Shuttleworth 2-0 while Fred Buttler of Hamborn and Middlehurst tied 1-all). Kavanagh was one of the four finalists in the "Golden Glove" event, which was won by Tom Middlehurst (England), ahead of Harry Herzogenrath (Cologne), with Peter Schiffer the other finalist. On the next day, Easter Monday, Kavanagh rode in Cologne, where Slider Shuttleworth was the big star and the darling of the Cologne crowd. Shuttleworth won the track record attempt over four laps in 1:25.0 and also won the scratch race final, ahead of Robinson (England). Shuttleworth was only beaten in the handicap final, he started from 70m behind the scratch mark. That race was won by the Hans Müller of Hamburg (20m handicap), with Shuttleworth second and Reg Kavanagh (20m handicap) third. Reg Kavanagh rode in a couple of unofficial "Internationals" here in Germany. On Friday, May 2, 1930, in the third meeting of the season at Cologne, he was in the England team that lost 6-25 against the German team, that consisted of Harry Herzogenrath, Joseph Herzogenrath, Schauer, Schiffer, Wenzel and Schaaf. England rode with Shuttleworth, Kavanagh, O'Hara, T.Middlehurt, J.Middlehurst and Robinson (individual riders' point scores unknown). Two day's later on Sunday, May 4, 1930, that same England team was again beaten by a German team in another meeting at the Essen track, this time they lost the contest by 19 points to 12. Interestingly in a meeting at Dortmund on May 25, 1930, Reg Kavanagh and Pat O'Hara teamed up and representeed Ireland in an unofficial international match against Germany. The two German riders chosen as their opposition were not among the leading German riders at the time, but only middle-order men. They were Johannes "Hannes" Wunder of Hamburg, who was the better of the two, and Anton "Toni" Jenau of Bochum. It was a contest over three heats (4,3,2,1 points) and for the record Germany won by 19 points to 11. These are the match details: Heat 1: Wunder, Jenau, O'Hara, Kavanagh. Heat 2: Wunder, O'Hara, Kavanagh (fell remounted), Jenau (fell). Heat 3: Wunder, Jenau, O'Hara, Kavanagh. GERMANY 19 Johannes Wunder 4, 4, 4 = 12 Anton Jenau 3, 1, 3 = 7 IRELAND 11 Reg Kavanagh 1, 2, 1 = 4 Pat O'Hara 2, 3, 2 = 7 The last time I find Reg Kavanagh's name in a race report here in Germany is for a meeting at Cologne on Thursday, May 29. He won one of the three heat races in the contest for the "Blue Ribbon of the Rhine" but came last in his semi-final race behind Werner Schauer (Lüneburg) and Max Plambeck (Hamburg). Schauer went on to win the final. That's all I have on Reg Kavanagh's dirt-track exploits of 1930 in Germany.

Just came across this topic once more and wonder if anybody could add any information about the 1975 venture to establish speedway racing in the Philippines. I know that John Langfield and some other Australian riders went there in mid-1975 and that one of the Aussies, Steve koppe broke his arm in a crash at teh Manila track. This was briefly mentioned in an Australian race report in November of 1975 in the Speedway Star magazine, but I have found no other info. Who was behind this venture, was it an Australian or an American effort to start the sport in the Philippines?

Except for the Bakerfield meeting in February and the annual USA vs The World event at Auburn in October there is not a single International Speedway Test scheduled to be held this year anywhere in the world. There is nothing in Britain, and even Poland now seem to have given up on it as well. How dissappointing !

Tough luck for Paddy Erhart, just before she was set to make her British debut. She had a nasty fall in Friday nights' Liga Nord meeting at Meissen and sustained a broken collar bone, operation on Monday, which will obviously keep her out of action for severall weeks. Too bad, as she was in such good form lately. https://www.instagram.com/paddy.racing/?fbclid=IwY2xjawE33bBleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHVm53jZ258_xTzXsGDzICdNCC9C4nmoNlh4-yXBSc5ijJvJ9g0dxrxdyqA_aem_xSaO9btoGQ21UMNmFXLq8A

Yes, he is

results here https://live.baansportfansite.nl/event/855/fim-flat-track-world-championship-round-3-kings-lynn.html

Cheers Arnie ! Yes, together we saw her racing at Olching last year. She has become even better since, and a couple of weeks ago at Landshut, Patricia 'Paddy' Erhart was the first female rider to beat Celina Liebmann in an official race on a 500cc speedway bike. Celina got her revenge in the final heat of that meeting, but anyway, Paddy is not so far behind Celina anymore.

Great ! Paddy Erhart is my favorite. She will give Celina a run for her money! Celina has much more experience though and will most probably win the title again.

Does anyone know if any of our German girls are coming over to compete in the British Championship at Leicester?