Classic Dirt Track Images.

[JAP 454]

Bloody hell !!! , I haven't been here all that much lately and look what I've missed !! Great stuff Smed.
BTW, the rider of stroker skids bike is Bill Hamelling, possibly at Tralee. What is the donk ??, anyone have any idea, I know when they ran the smaller infield track at Tralee he had a 2T Yammy of some kind fitted.
Foss

[Hoony]

........BTW, the rider of stroker skids bike is Bill Hamelling, possibly at Tralee. What is the donk ??, anyone have any idea, I know when they ran the smaller infield track at Tralee he had a 2T Yammy of some kind fitted.
Foss

anyone know when the ruling was changed in speedway to exclude 2T engines?

i reckon you would have to have 3 balls to ride a 2T in speedway.

[JAP 454]

Hoony, I dunno when they banned Solo strokers from the Skids, but Bill was around in the mid '70s at Tralee,
BTW,I think the other rider in that shot may be  John Walker from the old Canberra Bulls speedway team.
You're right about the amount of tackle required to ride the 2T, bloody thing had a throttle response like a light switch, frightening to be near !!, I made bloody sure I got the holeshot the few times I rode against Bill.
Foss

PS I just had a look at that shot again and it looks like Bill has chucked a chain, probably causing the prang

[firko]

. What is the donk ??, anyone have any idea,

The bloke on the two stroke speedway bike is definitely Bill Hammerling and the engine's a 360 Bultaco Bandito. He used to call himself Billy" Two Stroke" Hammerling to drum up a bit of showbiz pizazz. I can remember seeing him race at Kembla Grange in the late 60's but either he or the bike (or both) were pretty ordinary. I can also remember Barry Van Praag racing a Triumph twin speedway bike at around the same time. I also have a fuzzy memory of someone racing a 360 Greeves speedway bike at the Showie for a while...was it Bruce Croxon perhaps? I don't know when the speedway two stroke was banned but I can also remember a bloke practicing on a 501 Maico speedway bike at Nepean in the early 70's. He was all over the shop and the bike wasn't seen again (by me anyway).
The ban obviously didn't cross the Pacific as this 2 stroke TM powered junior speedway machine was competing in California in 2002.
                                                                                   
                                                                                   

[firko]

How are these shots of pre-WW2 speedway at Ascot Park in California........
                                                                   
                                                                   
                                                                 How relaxed does #39 look?

[JAP 454]

Ya mentioned a Greeves powered skids bike , Firko.  Bill's motor, in that prang shot, has a Villiers look about it, I don't think it's a Yammy, what do you think it is??
Foss

[Curly3]

Getting the gearing right on one would've been a bastard hey Foss.

[firko]

The bloke on the two stroke speedway bike is definitely Bill Hammerling and the engine's a 360 Bultaco Bandito

It's a Bultaco 360 Foss.

[JAP 454]

Thanks, Firko, I missed that in your last post
Foss
Oh Yeah, I'm gunna have a skid around on me Hagon at Canberra next Satdy, EA's not real happy about it !!!
Foss

[firko]

Let's not forget the original two stroke speedway bike, the water cooled Scott twin from the twenties.
                                                                                         
http://blackcountrybiker.blogspot.com.au/2010/11/scott-1928-dirt-track-model.html

[Freakshow]

Two strokes are still used here in the long track.  One of your NSW guys was over here last year running the late model Cr250 water cooled in a long track speedway frame.

Also the UK use them in the grass track as well.

[smed]

More

[firko]

                                                                   
                                                                   
                                                                    Barn find B31. Beautiful as is.

[firko]

                                                                                        
                                                                                                                          
                                                                     
                                                                     
                                                                     
                                                                     

Over 30 speedway motorcycles were produced before Al Crocker shifted his interest to creating a V-twin road machine that would outperform anything seen on the road. The first V-twin entry for Crocker had a 61 in³ (1,000 cc) "Hemi Head" producing 55-60 hp, far exceeding the horsepower produced by both the Indian and Harley of the day (38-40 hp). Many Crockers were manufactured to order and the largest of them were known to have had a 91+ cubic inch engine (about 1,491 cc), and was the largest-capacity "production" motorcycle until the Yamaha XV1600A took the title in 1998, followed by the Triumph Rocket III, with 2,294 cc (140 in³). When production ceased in 1942, approximately 100 of the V-twins had been produced in all. The remaining inventory of parts were sold in 1947 to Elmo Looper. Many of these parts went into restorations of the surviving examples of which 68 or more still exist today, according to a registry started by Charles "Chuck" Vernon and Johnny Eagles, two members of a group of original Crocker owners in Southern California. Although total production of all models is not known it is thought by some to be around 200 units (about 40-50 speedway, 40-50 "Scootabout" scooters, and 100+ V-Twins). Al Crocker also produced an overhead valve conversion kit in the late 1920s for the Indian 101 "Scout".
 
The proprietor and founder of the company, Albert Crocker, ceased motorcycle production in 1942 when the war effort put a shortage on critical materials. Indian and Harley received contracts with the US Army for military motorcycle production and Crocker got a contract with Douglas Aircraft making aircraft parts. That became a more lucrative business than Al Crocker ever enjoyed with motorcycle manufacturing and in 1942 Crocker Motorcycle became Crocker Manufacturing. Crocker later sold out to a company named Borg Warner. Al Crocker died in 1961. Designer of many of the components, Paul Bigsby, went on to fame as a designer of guitars and particularly of the Bigsby vibrato tailpiece.
 
Because of their rarity and quality, Crockers are among the most expensive motorcycles an enthusiast can acquire.[1] At the MidAmerica Auctions motorcycle auction in January 2007 in Las Vegas, a 1941 Crocker big tank motorcycle sold for $230,000. At the Gooding & Co. auction in 2006 in Chandler, a 1931 Crocker 61 sold for $236,500. At the Bonhams & Butterfield 2006 auction in New York, a 1937 Crocker "Hemi-head" V-Twin brought $276,500. At the 2006 auction of Bator International in California a 1939 Crocker 61 cubic-inch side valve model sold for $200,000.
       

[steve234]

That Al Crocker dude sure knew how to make a nice lookin' motorcycle.