Promoters who were characters over the years

[YeOldPitGate]

I mentioned Ronnie Russell on a previous thread, I had probably stopped going to speedway by the time Ron took over Rye House I seem to remember through reading the speedway star around that time he through everything into it but again from memory it cost him an absolute packet.

Did a quick google and found this great article I didn't realise he got involved at Arena Essex later but I guess this was with Terry his brother, has anyone else got any great stories and jinks from lively promoters over the years, I seem to remember again after I had stopped going to Lynn stories of Buster lying on the track to stop as race going ahead.

 

http://speedwayplus.com/showered_in_shale_m.shtml

 

[YeOldPitGate]

I would love to hear if anyone has any stories on why Bill Barker and Simmo fell out at Lynn, I was still going at this point and at first it seemed to herald a new dawn we had on paper a powerhouse team but half of them went from unbeatable around Lynn (Bo Peterson) to terrible around Lynn, dear old John Davis could only ride the boards but not in Henka style, JD always struck me as more suited to longtrack than speedway.

The first season Simmo was the front man and then abruptly left leaving Bill to soldier on alone, Bill's winter talk in's pre internet days were brilliant, he should have been in stand up and had no problem telling fans they were being stupid and half the time the audience were in the aisles with his one liners.

He never outright said why he had fell out with Simmo but it was obvious something had happened as Bill alluded to with some right old quips along the lines of "has any one seen Malcolm ?" silence from the audience followed by "well if you do can you let him know some people would love to speak to him, namely me" lol.

Terry Linden and the lottery ticket, Colin Pratt wanting Lynn thrown out of the league as we were so bad for a couple of years mid 80's lets here some stories of ducking and diving.

 

[arnieg]

Well there's Bill Barker, the Commonwealth Final takings and the flatulent dog ...

[YeOldPitGate]

1 minute ago, arnieg said:

Well there's Bill Barker, the Commonwealth Final takings and the flatulent dog ...

Go on Arnieg I must have stopped going at that point I think my final year was when Richard Knight went to Berwick and Mike Lee made another aborted comeback, what's they about bill and the farting dog and the commonwealth takings ?

[YeOldPitGate]

Just did a quick google and it seems whatever the reason Simmo and Bill fell out over it resulted in Simmo being banned from holding any offical position in speedway for five years, whatever was the old rascal up to ?

[mikebv]

49 minutes ago, YeOldPitGate said:

Just did a quick google and it seems whatever the reason Simmo and Bill fell out over it resulted in Simmo being banned from holding any offical position in speedway for five years, whatever was the old rascal up to ?

Not paying his electric bill? 

I remember one night at Kirky Lane v Coventry when Colin Pratt and several of his riders complained about the track being "too heavy' which ended up with a track inspection and work done on it, which seemed to be lasting forever.  

Pratt and a few of his riders were on bend one, pointing out various issues to the track team as they made changes, and whilst pointing this out, John Perrin emerged from the adjacent pits with a bucket full of shale, and presented it to Pratt..

When interviewed by the centre green presenter Perrin told him that he had told Pratt that he could take it back to Coventry with him to use on his track, given his track didnt ever have any shale on it...

In an interview with the Speedway Star the week after, Pratt got asked what his response was...

He said that he told Perrin that he would never tell him how many onions to put on the burgers that John sold from his many burger vans, so Perrin shouldn't tell him how to prepare a Speedway track...

Edited Sunday at 08:29 PM by mikebv

[IainB]

54 minutes ago, YeOldPitGate said:

Go on Arnieg I must have stopped going at that point I think my final year was when Richard Knight went to Berwick and Mike Lee made another aborted comeback, what's they about bill and the farting dog and the commonwealth takings ?

 

[YeOldPitGate]

Very dubious Iain Bill was yet another promoter who was probably reasonably wealthy when he got into the game most likely skint five years later.

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

6 minutes ago, mikebv said:

Not paying his electric bill? 

I remember one night at Kirky Lane v Coventry when Colin Pratt and several of his riders complained about the track being "too heavy' which ended up with a track inspection and work done on it, which seemed to be lasting forever.  

Pratt and a few of his riders were on bend one, pointing out various issues to the track team as they made changes, and whilst pointing this out, John Perrin emerged from the adjacent pits with a bucket full of shale, and presented it to Pratt and told him he could take it back to Coventry with him to use on his track, given his track didnt ever have any shale on it...

In an interview with the Speedway Star the week after, Pratt got asked what his response was...

He said that he told Perrin that he would never tell him how many onions to put on the burgers that John sold from his many burger vans, so Perrin shouldn't tell him how to prepare a Speedway track...

I have posted this before but Was a big fan of John Perrin, straight talking northerner, he didn’t care who he offended, had some laughs in his company whenever I raced at or for belle vue, I know he was owing money to riders from time to time but he never owed me any, Graham dury was a marmite character too, riding for Graham I found him awkward but when not riding for him we often had long chats about the sport and he often backed me when I was speaking my mind about the sport, he offered me team managers job at Birmingham which I turned down and he told me he didn’t understand why I turned it down but respected me for not just taking it if I didn’t want it 

[RoundTheBoards]

4 hours ago, YeOldPitGate said:

Bill was yet another promoter who was probably reasonably wealthy when he got into the game

He was reasonably wealthy the day after the Commonwealth Final.      Ooops, I mean whoever stole the takings was reasonably wealthy the day after the Commonwealth Final

[arnieg]

7 hours ago, RoundTheBoards said:

He was reasonably wealthy the day after the Commonwealth Final.      Ooops, I mean whoever stole the takings was reasonably wealthy the day after the Commonwealth Final

I reckon the dog did it

[dontforgetthefueltapsbruv]

What goes on tour stays on tour 

[The White Knight]

Len Silver. A real character. At Sunderland, we never had a Clerk of the Course, Len was unable to recruit one. Nel Revlis was listed in the programme as the Clerk of the Course the following week. Len had an answer for everything. A great Promoter, a great showman, and as I said, a great character.

Edited 23 hours ago by The White Knight

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

4 hours ago, The White Knight said:

Len Silver. A real character. At Sunderland, we never had a Clerk of the Course, Len was unable to recruit one. Nel Revlis was listed in the programme as the Clerk of the Course the following week. Len had an answer for everything. A great Promoter, a great showman, and as I said, a great character.

I got a call from Len asking if I would come and ride for rye house, I was interested as I’d always liked rye house track, first thing I remember him saying was he was just touching base with me, I had never heard that saying before and it made me laugh,we had a fairly long chat over the phone and he ended the call by saying he had a few options and he would be in touch, I heard nothing so after a month or so I called him and he denied ever calling me 😂 needless to say I didn’t join rye house 

[Fromafar]

Peter Waite autobiography would be a good read if he ever wrote one.

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

53 minutes ago, Fromafar said:

Peter Waite autobiography would be a good read if he ever wrote one.

Ah yes Peter Waite, tighter than a ducks arse, literally argued over £1 but he was a good laugh though 

[singy13]

Ian Thomas was a top promoter and a magician (He really was). There's the great Derwent Park story regarding when an official came to measure the track width prior to granting Comets a licence. Ian was worried about this and when they held the tape between them Ian had unknowingly wrapped a fair length around a covered wrist. The guy at the other send shouted "that's Ok Ian" and the magician had pulled off another of his many tricks.🤣...Top top promoter.

[geoff100]

1 hour ago, singy13 said:

Ian Thomas was a top promoter and a magician (He really was). There's the great Derwent Park story regarding when an official came to measure the track width prior to granting Comets a licence. Ian was worried about this and when they held the tape between them Ian had unknowingly wrapped a fair length around a covered wrist. The guy at the other send shouted "that's Ok Ian" and the magician had pulled off another of his many tricks.🤣...Top top promoter.

I think that storey belongs to hull,john berry wanted it measured so ian cut off the first 2 feet so when berry held othet end it was 25 feet lol

[martinmauger]

Thomas confirmed in his excellent book Wheels & Deals that he used his 'speedway special' tape measure when the track inspection at Hull, Boulevard, was conducted by SCB official ex-rider Bill Kitchen in 1971.  Ian held the, apparently, short end & Kitchen the other saying "well Ian, you've just made it", track width wise. Thomas reckoned the back straight measured 24 feet, the minimum being 25ft in those days, but anyone who visited the Boulevard will confirm it appeared even a tad more narrow than that.  I met Ian just after his book was published, showed him my many photos from the Boulevard he said "we really didn't have a lot of room there, did we ?".  After having my book signed to me I thanked him for "providing me with 7 years of entertainment (my entry point was 1974) &  stimulating my interest in the sport ",  which obviously continues to this day. I showed the same photos & repeated my thanks to Ivan Mauger, I also gave Ivan dozens of pics I took of him....

[Fromafar]

Think Old Jim Beaton was a bit of a character,always had a few stories and could write a book on specialist “track prep”.Kept Tigers going for many years.