Bavarian

And its quite dull so far, Shields' back flip being the highlight, since there has not been a single overtake int eh first four heats.

But the official Stadium website clearly states that this attendance record of 120,000 was for a UEFA Cup football match between Gornik Zabrze and Austria Vienna on 18 September 1963. I seem to remember having read that the attendances at the 1973, 1976 and 1979 world finals were all below or near the 100,000 mark. The figures of 120 or 130 thousand as given in the British press at the time were much exaggerated, but the real numbers of close to a hundred thousand people attending a speedway meeting are still very impressive.

Poland v Australia Doesn't any of our Polish friends here on the BSF know about this meeting?

There will be no speedway in Poland this Sunday. Everything is cancelled!

Yes and no, but it goes a bit deeper. The whole concept of the guys who introduced speedway there, as a relative cheap form of motorcycle sports to Malaysia, was to get the many "wild" motocyclists, who often do their racing on public streets, on to a proper racetrack and offer them a "legal" route to fame and fortune. This concept was funded by the government, the ministry for youth and sports, for a one year trial period. Only one speedway track was built, but if successful, the intention was to built them in all regions of the country, and even make speedway a professional sport in Malaysia. The intention was that wealthy owners would have their race teams, buy the machines and employ riders and mechanics, and take their share of the prize money. Of the recruited local would-be speedway riders (whom Ivan Mauger tested and selected for further education as speedway riders), most were rather poor lads from underpriviledged families, who were hanging out on the streets. Boys who had been doing stunts and other dangerous riding on their little motorbikes, and often causing accidents and trouble on the public roads. Non of them would have been able to afford setting themselves up with a speedwaybike, equipment and mechanics, as well as the logistics behind that all. The Speedway Promotion decided to use their own brand of motorbikes and converted some Malaysian built scooter bikes (115cc?) that looked a bit strange on a speedway track and were nowhere near as fast and powerful as a 500cc Jawa, but it was a start. From a spectator's view, though, this wasn't very spectacular racing, and the spectator attendances soon dwindled. At the end of the first season their best riders were trained on the 500cc Jawas, and the Cup of Malaysia International Speedway meeting, won by Ricky Wells, was the first (and only) "real" speedway meeting held there. Despite contrary reports, it was not a good advert for the sport. The setting was quite o.k, but the racing quite boring to watch, with most of the Malaysian riders struggling to stay on board of their unfamiliar Jawas, and the four international riders ranging from Ricky Wells and Andy Aldridge, to a Japanese guy who once rode speedway in California and a veteran Englishman, who had ridden in Div.2 in the late 1970's. It was always doomed to fail miserably, and with many important politicians invited to watch this event, that was it. The verdict was, that it was a waste of money, but was not becoming a popular sport to watch. Attendances were indeed very poor. The ministery withdrew its support and that was it for Malaysian Speedway. It could not finance itself and without the government funds, it could not continue. However, one has to bear in mind that the initial plan was for Malaysian Speedway to reach an international level within three to five years, and at the end of this period to have a world championship Grand Prix in Southeast Asia. Now, I feel that despite the failure to establish the sport on a domestic level, there may still be enough interest left in Malaysia to go for the big thing, and that's nothing else but a Malaysian Speedway Grand Prix! One thing is for certain, there are many many rich people in Malaysia, and motorsports is very popular there, as can be seen with the Formula 1 GP and Motorcylce roadracing. It would be peanuts for a company like Petronas to sponsor a Malaysian Speedway Grand Prix. Therfore I would not rule out the possibility of a SGP happening, and I guess the people there would be interested. They want the highest level of this sport, but not some wobblers who struggle round the track out in a field.

It has been a huge step for the German clubs to accept the team versus team formula last year. Clubs were used to stage only one Bundesliga meeting under the old 4-team-system for over 30 years, and most of the speedway clubs in Germany usually don't stage much more than one, two or three meetings per year. They were not prepared to run a season with much more home meetings. Last year with five teams it was easy to agree to a round robin tournament with each club have two home and two away meetings. This year with six teams it wouldn't work anymore, as some would have three home and two away meetings, and other the other way round. So it was agreed to keep last year's system with 2H/2A and make a draw as to who meets home, away or not at all. The only pity was that the luck of teh draw resulted in close local rivals Gustrow and Stralsund not being drawn together. They still have a chance to meet in the play-off finals, though. And this then on a home-and-away basis over two legs.

How come Oslo is no longer in division one, but has TWO teams in division 2 ???? I thought it was five teams (incl Oslo) in Div1 and seven in Div 2. Which way is it right?

The north - yes, but the west - no ! There are some speedway tracks in the south-west (Herxheim, Berghaupten) and again in the north-west (Neuenknick, Dohren, Moorwinkelsdamm and Norden), and Diedenbergen (near Frankfurt) is located in the middle, but none of these tracks is exactly in the western part of Germany. The last speedway track in the west region closed in the early 1960's, that was Oberhausen. And there isn't any long-track or grass track activity left in the region either, the last one I know of was a grass-track at Holzwickede near Dortmund, until teh late 1980's. Again as with speedway there are long/grass venues further to the norhtwest (closest are Bielefeld, Osnabruck, Harsewinkel?) the southwest (closest are Zweibrucken, Herxheim and Altrip) and and in the central region (Hessen) of Germany, but none in the west (Rhine/Ruhr region).

And Pardubice AGAIN has the 'final' final round, just as this year!

The German Gp was held at a totally wrong location for speedway, Gelsenkirchen is not in an area of Germany were speedway is a well known sport. They could just as well have staged it in Rome or Madrid. The west of Germany is a no-go area for speedway. Munich (South), Berlin (East) or Hamburg (North) would all have had a much better chance to attract a big crowd for a German SGP. Or use one of the permanet tracks like Landshut, which has already hosted a Gp in the 1990's. The German clubs/promoters are not prepared to take the risk, though, and pay BSI/IMG/FIM so much money just to get a GP.

Just by chance I came across the video of the fatal accident of Swede Savage, one of the late 1960's US revival speedway riders from California. Here's the link to the youtube video and here is a tribute website with some pics of his days as a speedway rider Swede Savage Tribute

Big meetings coming up in New Zealand this month are the NZ Solo Grand Prix at Gisborne (Feb.20) and the New Zealand solo championship final at Oreti Park (Feb.27)

Solos made a sensational comback at Western Springs last night (13th). This was the first time in many, many, many years that the solo bikes returned to New Zealands No.1 speedway venue! Signs of things to come? SGP? Western Springs?

Did she ever ride in Germany?

That's it, it would not make sense to send all the riders and stuff down there for just one GP meeting. Therefore it should be at least three GP's (two in Aussie and one in NZ), Ideally there could be another one as a stop over in Singapur/Malaysia or in the Arab Emirates, but that is a bit pie in the sky at the moment, since the Malaysia Speedway venture sadly failed after just one season there. Still they could be interested to stage one big meeting (SGP) in a big stadium there, who knows! It was teh malaysians original intention to have a GP there in a few years time. They certainly have the money do do it!

I thought they had already announced a re-staging date (Febr. 27?) for the washed out Test at Hamilton's Kihikihi Speedway? As far as I know, the foreign riders will also ride int he NZ Grand Prix and the New Zealand Championship Final this month.

The Ekka, Melbourne Showground and Western Springs, that would make a good little series of three GPs (Australian GP, Australasian GP and New Zealand GP). Does the Melbourne Showgound track still exist?

It will come, no doubt about it. I would suggest they should do more than just one GP Down Under. When Poland can have three GPS in a season, so can Australasia. Maybe one up in the North (Brisbane), one in the South (Melbourne) and one in New Zealand (Auckland) in February/March.

I assume, that the 350m dirt track they built in 1925 inside that velodrome in Cologne was surely inspired by reports of similar short oval racing in Australia, at tracks such as Davies Park in Brisbane. (When did that one open, was it in 1924?) I have no prove for this, but I think it is the most plausible explanation. The German text only states 'from Overseas'. But afaik in the 1910'S and 20'S the Americans did their motorcycle dirt track races on bigger ovals, similar sizes as those big horse racing tracks that were already in use for motorcycle racing in Europe at the time. And these races usually went over longer distances.

Yes the motorcycle racing on horse racing tracks, usually about 1km or 1 mile long tracks, with sand or grass surfaces, took place all over Europe from a very early time on. Reports from Austria date this back even before the first world war. But this form of motorcycle racing developed here naturally, just like it did in America and Australia. Motorcycles became very popular all around the world at the time and it was only natural that there would be race events. The developement of the various forms of motorcycle track racing in various parts of the world were influenced by the kind of race tracks that were around there at the time. In America they had the board tracks and dirt-tracks, in Germany and other Contiental European countries there were many bicylce race tracks of either wood or concrete, usually with steep banking on the corners, and motorccycle racing took place there. And there were the many, many horse racing tracks in Europe. But dog racing was not common on the Continent. In England of course there was a dog track in nearly every major city, and with the sport catching on in the UK as it did, the dog tracks are to blame for the fact that the speedway tracks of today are restricted to teh relatively short length of 400m or less. In the early years of the sport in Australia, the ideal length for a motorcylce speedway track was considered to be around one third of a mile, and the shape as circular as possible to allow the spectacular broadsliding all the way round. The idea to built a short oval (quarter or third-of-a-mile in length) dirt-track for motorcycle racing in Cologne as early as in 1925 was certainly inspired by reports coming from overseas. I would love to know a little bit more about the venture, but have not found any more details. But it can be assumed that just like at High Beech in February of 1928, the locals at Cologne may not have had the knowledge of how to run a 'real' dirt-track / speedway meeting at the time.

Just discovered that I wrote the following text in the wrong thread. Here's were it belongs. It is about the very first motorcycle dirt-track/speedway meeting in Germany. According to an unconfirmed report in the chronicals of the local bicycle racing club in Cologne, Germany, a 350m dirt oval track for motorcycle racing was built on the infield of the local cycling track in Cologne. Motorcycle races had taken place on the steeply banked concrete cycling track in Cologne from the early 1920's on. A few years on the local motorcyclists decided to follow a new trend that reportedly originated from Overseas - motorcyle dirt track racing on a short oval race track! They laid the dirt track on the infield of the concrete cycling oval and ran the first ever dirt-track meeting in Germany - the year was 1925, a long time before the sport arrived in England!

Even earlier, since there was motorcycle track racing on loose sand or grass surfaces, usually on horse racing ovals, on the European Continent from the early 1920's on. I guess the only difference was that the tracks were usually longer than 400m and the surface wasn't cinders. The bikes were the same that were used for motorcycle track racing all over the world. You may say this wasn't true speedway, since the tracks were too long or that they rode not just four laps, but usually those races lasted much longer, sometimes ten or even fifteen laps. True, but let me tell about the very first (afaik) attempt to try 'real' speedway racing (Australian style) in Germany! According to an unconfirmed report in the chronicals of the local bicycle racing club in Cologne, Germany, a 350m dirt oval track for motorcycle racing was built on the infield of the local cycling track in Cologne. Motorcycle races had taken place on the steeply banked concrete cycling track in Cologne from the early 1920's on. A few years on the local motorcyclists decided to follow a new trend that reportedly originated from Overseas - motorcyle dirt track racing on a short oval race track! They laid the dirt track on the infield of the concrete cycling oval and ran the first ever dirt-track meeting in Germany - the year was 1925, a long time before the sport arrived in England!

The Norwegian 2010 world champion to be is worth every penny of that!

Next stop of the touring team is Christchurch, with the third NZ v RoW Test on Friday, Februray 5, and an individual meeting on Sunday, Feb 7, at the Moore Park track.

Actually participating 2010: FMU 1 DMSB 2 MFR 13 Total: 16