andout

Actually you are probably right, if I remember rightly Kyle broke his hand or something in it in his very first ride and rode the other four in pain, could have been different if that had not have happened.....doubt very much he would have made it to the GP series but he would have done much better if that had not happened. The one rider that would have done well on the International scene would have been Len Dillon, doubt you have heard of him, however he swapped flat track for Speedway at the age of 35 (I think) then went on to win 8 National Speedway titles, he was a natural. Len's qualification to the World Championships was always through the American rounds....BUT in those days of the Ford and Dillon it wasn't the regular 16 rider championship that we all know....both riders were usually paired against the very best of the Californians meeting the SAME riders a few times..... Even in the US Open in Owego, New York, Gary Ford had to beat the best Owego riders and Californians in the qualifying....and usually did beat them but its another story in the Final for Gary, which I won't go into here.

gustix....not quite sure why you have Rob Fisher as "Generally regarded as anglo-Canadian".....True he has English parents but was BORN in Canada, has a Canadian Passport and is a Canadian in every sense. Same for Gary Ford, born in Canada to English parents but a Canadian in every sense. Could be the same, though I don't know, for Sean (Change name to Shawn) Venables.

Ditto for me too norbold.....I did meet Jack Milne at Costa Mesa many years ago and of course Tommy Price was the boss at West Ham.

Rob Fisher (Bob's Canadian born son) had a couple of outings with Coventry.....not sure of the years 80's or 90's.

Sorry gustix, didn't mean it to sound like I wrote it......

since I am in Canada, think I'm well aware of our site! Thanks

Might be wrong but I think Canadian Rob Fisher had a very short career in the UK with Coventry.

Unfortunately there never was a real attempt to get formal Speedway team racing going, prime reason....Distance! This is a very BIG country! Without lots of sponsorship money it would have been a disaster anyway. Yes of course, we put put made up teams to create interest but never attempted league racing as we know it.

Can someone out there tell whether the programme for this event exists or not please? This was rained off....

Mike Faria retired as of this week....

Believe it or not it was not that significant, we, my parents and I (I was a young lad then) didn't even know until the following week when we and many many more went to the gates to find out that it had closed....one sad day of many...the next for me was the loss of West Ham...

Close observation gustix.....however Flat Track is also on the decline....from days gone by there used to be over a hundred riders show up ready to race, these days lucky if you get maybe fifty. Major sports in North America beat everything else into the ground and of course get all the money, Baseball, Basketball, Hockey,Football (not Soccer) reign supreme. Motorcycle Sports.....nothing!

Not enough riders Bob....probably an average of nine or ten and most of them are getting older.....no new young lads are interested in Speedway. Bikes don't go anywhere else except on a Speedway track. I would be very pleasantly surprised if Speedway survives in this country. There has been no Speedway at Paris for a couple of years now, only flat track.....so our only track is now Welland,as always!

Hey Bob, this is making me feel really old.....I remember seeing 13 of them....the only one's I did not see or do not remember are Payne, Brand, Close, Long, Svensson and Wright but I do vaguely remember Long.

I am looking for old GP Tickets and Passes to complete my collection. If anyone has any they wish to trade for the many spares I have, please let me know.

Oh dear...here we go again.....my programme is filled out in good handwriting and there are differences.... 5 (7) 13221 9 7 (11) 01322 8 11(16) 02212 7 13 (15) 12120 6 I think I would take yours arnieg as correct but its interesting, even Russian fans make mistakes....LOL

I assume you see your Speedway at Owego, NY?

Obviously it does not agree with my filled in programme but a mistake could have happened.....anyway, yes I do have the 1979 programme and its filled in. However, I do not speak or read Russian so this one is going to be more difficult.....if you can tell me what you need I can look it up, ideally if you have a riding order it would make it much easier.

OK so here you go, straight from the programme.....so much for the so-called official scores. The first column are the riding numbers and changes are in RED Hope this helps. Haven't been on the BSF for a long time, I see not too much has changed. 12 1 Finn Jensen Denmark 13 14 13 Kevin Jolly England 3 12 16 Neil Middledith England 2 12 15 Steve Finch England 1 12 06 Erik Gundersen Denmark 11 10 05 Hans Nielsen Denmark 10 04 Josef Juza Czech Republic 8 08 Pavel Karnas Czech Republic 8 10 Henryk Olszak Poland 6 02 Ryszard Romaniak Poland 6 07 Fausto Birbini Italy 5 11 Lillebror Johansson Sweden 5 14 Nikolaj Manev Bulgaria 4 09 Mieczyslaw Kmieciak Poland 4 01 Armando Gigliali Italy 2 03 Roman Jankowski Poland 2 Finn Jensen was beaten in his last ride by Kevin Jolly.

Sorry Jim you must have mis-understood....NOTHING to do with Gollob....I'm talking about Crump.

He has just equalled Fundin's record of 10 straight years in the first three.....did not think anyone would ever do that after Ove.

OFFICIALLY since my compatriot BOBBATH got it wrong it was at Cradley and on the date as stated by Guernsey. And yes BOBBATH I was at the Harringay for that one and for the first Internationale as well. I was a young-un though!

1 Redmond 15, 2 Middleditch 13, 3 Hockaday 13, 4 Robinson 11, 5 Templeton D 10, 6 Lewis & Kitchen 9, 8 Brown & Hole 8, 10 Morton & Roper 5, 12 Reeves 4, 13 Day 3, 14 Featherby 1, 15 Strachan & Cox 0 Reserves: Eadon & Gilbertson 3 each

Just thought I would add a little twist to this and put down what I don't miss about the 1970's but happens today. Playing around with the clutch and gardening at the gate. Ignoring starting marshalls instructions. After a red light unsatisfactory start....going back to the pits. We have put a stop to all this in Canada, primarily because we have about 45-50 races (not all Speedway) to get through in 3 hours and having these theatrics would make it impossible to complete. Oh yes...and all this for 5 quid!!!

Canada 2010.......Aaron Hesmer