How my relationship with speedway started.

I first went to Belle Vue to watch speedway in 1975 although didn’t become a regular on the terraces until after the BLRC in 1979, from that point I was hooked!

I was an apprentice welder at that time and one of my workmates, who had watched speedway since the Peter Craven era, suggested that I might give speedway a go. I had already been riding a road bike for some time so thought I might have some transferable skills with regard to riding a speedway bike, I mean, how hard can it be?

I soon found out how hard it could be. I bought my first speedway bike from Bob Humphries who lived in Coalville; I also bought some brand new yellow, black and white, off the peg Sportac leathers at the same time. I didn’t have a car, so Glen Radcliffe who was also learning to ride, gave me a lift with his Dad in their Vauxhall Magnum and trailer. I think Glen went on to ride at Ellesmere Port.

I attended my first training school at Belle Vue Hyde Road early in 1982. I was learning to ride against people like Mark Rhodes, Miles Evans, Declan Eccles, the Clegg brothers and Steve Smith. My mate Dave Bagshaw had given me a lift this time in his 1300 GT Capri Auto with black vinyl roof and trailer; we must have looked the dogs!

I found the learning curve very steep and also found that very few, if any, of my road bike riding skills were transferable to speedway. I learnt quickly that mistakes on the track usually cost money so did my best to stay on; but this was not always possible. In fact, I came off more often than not and because I used to wear a Union flag race jacket, soon picked up the nickname of ‘Fly the flag’. I think my most impressive flight was over the pit gates at Hyde Road!

Anyway, Stuart Bamforth must have been happy with my riding ability, or he might have just needed to make up the numbers, but he asked me to ride in the 1982 Belle Vue Junior Championship as reserve. My long-suffering friend and fellow biker, Dave Bagshaw, prepped the Capri and off we went to the meeting.

The track wasn’t ideal as they had recently run a stock car meeting on it. The referee gathered the riders up and told us not to do anything stupid because of the track conditions. Well, that was useful!

I will never forget the feeling of riding out of the pits onto the track for my first ever race. My Dad had recently spray painted my guards turquoise and had my name sign written in black and white on the rear guard. I was also wearing my genuine Ivan Mauger helmet and monkey mask; how much better could it get! I got to the tapes and looked to my right and saw the crowd, everything seemed to go calm after that.

I can’t remember that much about the meeting these days. In my third ride, I hit a rut left by the stock cars and catapulted myself head first into the track. I ended up with concussion and a gash in my leg. While still counting stars and spitting dirt, Chris Morton came running out from behind the pit gates to see if I was ok, just like I was one of the Aces riders. I had made it.

Unfortunately, that was it. I was having headaches for ages after my crash and was still relying on friends to take me to the tracks; my apprentice wage barely covered the cost of riding and I had no other support, financial or otherwise, so I decided that it would be better to call it a day. Ivan Mauger bought my bike off me for £400, I wish I had it now!

I had another brief spell riding speedway in 1989. I used to team up with a chap called Mike Hampson and his Dad Derek; we had some great times on the tracks and at Pilling Sands. I also used to pick Chris Pusey up from Bootle and then drive to Bradford for Brian Havelock’s training schools; if only I’d known then how special the time spent being shown the ropes by a legend such as Chris Pusey would be, I’d have made so much more of it.

After being awarded rider of the day (still got the trophy as it’s my only one) Brian Havelock invited me up to Newcastle to have a go after the meetings but as I had just started to work for myself and just bought a house with my then girlfriend, I decided to play it safe and call it a day for the second time. One of my bikes ended up mounted on a wall in a garage in the Manchester area and I don’t know what happened to the other; I’d love to know where they are now!

Since then, I have concentrated on a long career as a Design Engineer. I’ve worked on Aircraft, Nuclear Reactors, Ships, Submarines, Trams and many other things but I will always wonder what it would have been like to be a professional speedway rider back in the 80s and early 90s.

This is why I’m passionate about speedway; It’s in my blood. I get so much pleasure out of collecting important parts from speedway’s past and restoring famous bikes, it’s the next best thing to actually riding the bikes.

As a side line and when time permits, I also customise Streetfighter road bikes, I have included a photo of one of the customised bikes in the gallery.