Hi Alison,
A good mate of mine is Lionel Van Praag's son, Cliff. He lives in Bondi.
He still has a lot of historical info on that era, I can have a chat to him about it if you like?
Cliff still does a lot of work for me on my bikes and also a few others.
Cheers,
Mark
Good to see you auscobul-hope your attending CD8,need to catch up for longer and not just dream over that KXsr250 on display
Are the Van Praag family still riding ? So many Pandora box's out there right at our feet
I have a few British Speedway people that email me information about there fantastic lives with bits and pieces they have experienced.Its one era that I missed by a few years. ;)There is actually a name for people like me ,who get heavly involved in an era they never lived in.It was on the ABC radio,but I missed it
cheers A
Had a look at this website.Note the nobs on the bike tryres,
lost a few now days.
http://www.lionelvanpraag.com/Site/Welcome.htmlThe latest book
The Golden era of Speedway
http://www.bookdepository.com/Golden-Age-Speedway-Philip-Dalling/9780752458311The post-war era was British speedway's golden age. Ten million spectators passed through the turnstiles of a record number of tracks at the sport's peak. With league gates as high as 80,000, speedway offered a colourful means of escape from the grim austerity of the times. A determinedly clean image, with no betting and rival fans mingling on the terraces, made speedway the family night out of choice. The sport thrived despite punitive taxation and Government threats to close down the speedways as a threat to industrial productivity. A three-division National League stretched from Exeter to Edinburgh and the World Championship Final attracted a capacity audience to Wembley. Test matches against Australia provided yet another international dimension. Even at the height of its popularity, speedway was a sporting edifice built on unstable foundations, which crumbled alarmingly as the 1950s dawned and Britain's economic and social recovery brought competing attractions like television.