Hey Andy S

[Frasson118]

How's this for crazy.... Speedway bikes with SIDECARS. Notice they are also racing clockwise?

The guy hanging off of the side is refered to as "the monkey". Baffles me where they came up with that comparison!

[john tenney]

I'm one of the "more obnoxious in person" crowd, just so ya know

[OLD STYLE RACER 2]

Jerry, the coolest thing about that pic. [ IMO ], is that, that guy is under complete control of that bike!

[Andy S]

Where I raced, there were classes from the 80cc bikes up to the 750cc bikes, but when the Speedway division hit the track, everyone else stopped what they were doing to watch the Speedway guys run. The tools got put down, the concession stand line disappeared.... nobody wanted to miss this class on the track.

Out in California, the hot tip is to bring your own little sheet of plexiglass with a handle mounted in the back to shield your face from the large amount of dirt that was sure to be thrown in your direction. Without the shield, you could only watch them coming and going, but right in front of you, you were gonna be pelted by a spray of dirt and mud.

Truly one of the cooooolest forms of Motorsports I've ever seen (and I've seen a few different types!)

That's the one, Frass!

Thankfully they changed the rules a few years ago to make all the bikes have dirt deflectors covering the bottom of the rear wheel as it was putting spectators off coming to the races, but as a kid my spot at the track was always on the 4th turn where you got a face-full of dirt with every lap. Because the scoring gets a bit complicated the crowd get race programs where they can keep running scores for themselves, so the dedicated fans had boards they used to keep the programs in and write on them that doubled as handy shields on muddy nights. I brought my old program boards over from the UK when I moved here as they bring back such good memories.

The sidecars run on the speedway tracks in Europe and Australia, but in the UK they're usually running at grasstrack meetings, which are bigger tracks than speedway and run in grass fields. The only differences between the two classes are that grass bikes get a bit of rear suspension (speedway bikes are hardtails), a second gear and a basic brake. It's fun watching the riders cope with big clods of earth getting spat out of the rear wheel of the bike in front of them at 70mph!

One of the best things about speedway is how down to earth the riders are, which I think is why I've enjoyed the local stock car racing so much too. I remember taking one of my friends from Texas to see a night's racing in England and pointing out to him that the guy unloading his bikes from the minivan we'd just seen him drive into the pits was actually the current World Champion! Those guys are fearless though, and their understanding of throttle control is unbelievable. Well it would be, as that's the only thing they have to control the behavior of the bike! No late braking in this sport.

Frass, do you remember the smell of the bikes from those days? That's one of the things that grans most people who see speedway - again, just like the Sprint cars.

[Andy S]

I'm one of the "more obnoxious in person" crowd, just so ya know

You a guitarist and a musician - we'll get on just fine!

Actually, we only live just around the corner from Avalon Park so if you're playing Tijuana Flats when OSW is closed we'll come in and say hello, especially if there's another meet-up there one night!

[Andy S]

I was confused enough when I (think I) saw you racing at Auburndale and you were up on two wheels every time around the 3rd and 4th turns!

red v6 Probe running with the V8 Bombers this year? yeah, that was me.

It was definitely you then! It was the same night as the winged Sprint cars and one of the most fun nights we had this summer. Just watching the sprints coming off that 2nd turn up on their right rear tire and blasting down the straights was an incredible sight. And then seeing your Probe locking that rear wheel stuck up in the air on that corner just made us want you to win even more!

I wish we'd got back to Auburndale more often this year, and we must get back there next year.

[john tenney]

You a guitarist and a musician - we'll get on just fine!

Actually, we only live just around the corner from Avalon Park so if you're playing Tijuana Flats when OSW is closed we'll come in and say hello, especially if there's another meet-up there one night!

Unfortunately they have stopped having music there ...

Sad. We loved that place

[Todd McCreary]

It was the same night as the winged Sprint cars

that was the night i blasted that guy coming to the checker?

i think the other time i was there was when the Figure-8 cars ran. Rex Guy seems to think i suckered him into letting me run with the Figure-8's, why i'm not sure.

i was dead serious about doing it, and i was dead serious about not winding up dead.

i will admit that when i had inquired about running the Figure 8 i had just gotten done watching them practice as wasn't really aware that only about half of them had taken practice. i had been thinking the field would be quite a bit thinner than it actually was.

[Andy S]

It was the same night as the winged Sprint cars

that was the night i blasted that guy coming to the checker?

That was definitely the night as it was one of the most exciting finishes to a race we've seen all year. If I remember correctly there were a couple of you in Probes fighting with much bigger cars, but you kept diving under them into that 3rd corner, going round the bend with your left rear frozen in mid-air and passing them out of the 4th turn. And for us sat watching at the entry into the 1st turn we had the excitement of the race AND the excitement in the bleachers of the Police arriving to break up a 'family disagreement' going on behind us!

[Osmosis Jones]

Impressive.......like my.....

Wow!

This thread has taken this tired old board to a new(well....old) level and really generated some interest.

I wonder if it has the ability to reach that all elusive "sticky" status?

I mean 523 views and 38...39 now posts have to be worth something....but on the other hand, I'd hate to see it wind up like so many others that just sit.............and sit.............aaaaannnd sit up there in sticky land.....no new posts in months.......topics having become past tense and dated......ideas once heralded but faded far from memory's short recall.................

If only we knew who the moderators were and could give them a litlle elbow and nod in that direction..............if we only knew............


In other news, I agree with Jerry. When I was racing flat track bikes, the coolest thing around(to me) were the Speedway Bikes. Most people only think of the Motocross aspect of motorcycle racing. But ever since I was a little boy, it's always been about going in a big circles. Bikes, go carts (with a "C"), 4 wheelers and full size cars.

It's all about the round 'd' round.


Osmosis

[Andy S]

It really amazes me that speedway bike racing isn't massive here as the US has produced some of the best and most exciting riders the sport has ever seen, but they just seem to be exclusively Californian and the sport has barely spread out across the country. But as Jerry and OJ said, when I went to Indianapolis to watch some races ALL the other competitors stopped what they were doing to watch. They had a schedule of ATVs, flat-trackers and converted moto-x bikes racing, but the speedway boys were by far the most anticipated class of the night. And naturally, in the rookie division, two of the riders flipped off the back at the start - one of them suffering the ultimate embarrasment of flipping his bike while trying a practice start down the back straight as he went round to the tapes.

I have some pics I took that night that I'll try and post when I get a chance. It was quite something to see a speedway bike decked out in Harley colors!

EDIT: This link makes for some sad reading - it shows all the old tracks that have staged speedway in the USA over the years, but the active links to the side show just 11 left operating this year.

[flvideo]

Hey Matchew, Whats happinin me brother? I didn't know you rode bikes. I did too in the late 50's and early 60's. Do you remember the hot Shoes. We used to wear a steel shoe on the left boot to use as a support in the turns. I guess that must be where the term "HOT SHOE" came from. HUH! Come see us down south. The car count and fan count has been pretty good so we must be doin something right. Bob...

[Osmosis Jones]

Geez, Bob.....

I may not be one of the young guns anymore but I ain't as old as you, ya old goat!

I didn't race bikes for very long....a year and a half maybe. A guy that worked for Dad got me started (against my Mom's wishes) and used to take me to Dade City and Tampa to race flat track. I saw a guy snap his tib/fib like a toothpick when he hit a rut with his ankle while going thru a turn. Snapped right above his big old boot and the bone tore thru his leathers. Very nasty. The bigest bikes I ever raced were 125's and once into the hay bales cured me of that. The next year I built a mini stock.

I haven't been to ANY races in quite a while.....too many other projects and hunting season getting in the way......will try and make it down soon though.

Mattmosis

[Andy S]

A guy that worked for Dad got me started (against my Mom's wishes) and used to take me to Dade City and Tampa to race flat track. I saw a guy snap his tib/fib like a toothpick when he hit a rut with his ankle while going thru a turn. Snapped right above his big old boot and the bone tore thru his leathers. Very nasty. The bigest bikes I ever raced were 125's and once into the hay bales cured me of that. The next year I built a mini stock.

Without question the worst sporting injuries I've ever seen have been from speedway accidents, up to and including seeing a couple of people lose their lives in crashes. But just their general accidents can be horrendous with those open chains coming lose and no brakes to slow them down into impacts. The goriest sports injury I've ever heard of in my life came from speedway too, but it's probably too much for a public forum, especially as the guy it happened to never recovered from the trauma.

They're pretty robust guys though. I still remember being a young kid at my local track and seeing this (to me at the time) mountain of a man, a Maori called Bruce Cribb, get knocked off his bike and dislocate his shoulder. After the medical crew checked him out his response was to run at full speed into one of the light pylons to pop it back in. He raced in the restart of that heat and completed the meeting...

[Todd McCreary]

AND the excitement in the bleachers of the Police arriving to break up a 'family disagreement' going on behind us!

the spectator and entertainment opportunities at Auburndale are practically innumerable.



If only we knew who the moderators were and could give them a litlle elbow and nod in that direction..............if we only knew.

*blinks*

you've seen a moderator recently? i thought they were figments of our imagination.