Bavarian

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

I must say, that this Polish website is really very good. It has lots of interesting and touching pics of Raniszewski's racing life, his private life and his funeral in the FlashGalery.

That Polish website is phantastic, they have mow uploaded all the official documents of that Test Match in Vienna, even with eye witness statements. But it's in Polish language and someone would have to come up with a decent English translation. http://www.raniszewski.com.pl/ From what I see now (race results, heat 15), it was definitely Hans Sidlo, an Austrian, who collided with Raniszewski. Bishop was in that race, but not in the crash. There are several eye witness reports, inclusive one of Hans Sidlo, which would be most interesting.

15. bieg. Sczepił się z Bishopem i wjechał w betonowe schody - tor nie miał bandy!

Was it? I thought with the knock our formula it did not matter if Your were winning a race or finish second, as there were no points awarded and all You needed was to be in the top two in each race. And therefore it did not matter at all if You were going out as the third or fourth placed loser of the k.o. race. And the best of that system was to see some of the riders just twice on the track. Or how about the top eight sitting out the first half of the show.

This only shows the inaccuracy of the contemporary report in the Speedway Star. The reporter mixed the happenings of two accidents of heats 14 and 15 into one. The truth is that in Heat 14, another Polish rider, Krzesinski, had a heavy crash and was taken to hospital. In this race (Heat 14) were Kamper and Sidlo for Austria, and Kaiser and Krzesinski for Poland. Kamper and Kaiser were out in front when Sidlo fell in front of Krzesinski. This race was later re-run without Krzesinski. In the next race, heat 15, the fatal accident of Raniszewski happened, and that race of course was never re-run, the match being abandoned. Riding in heat 15 for the Austrian team was Josef Seidl and Phil Bishop, and for the Poles it was Kapala and Raniszewski. It is obvious form seeing the video sequenece, that the two rides invovled in this tragic accident locked up and not that anyone had fallen in front of the other, as described in the Speedway Star report. Clearly that refers to the previous incident of Sidlo and Krzesinski in heat 14.

East European Grand Prix, Continental GP, Baltic GP, Pommeranian GP or simply Torun GP.