Who's who of Speedway past

[firko]

Nobody's mentioned the veritible Elephant in the Room.......John Langfield ran 'em on nitro or ran them as bigguns or biggun's on Nitro. The dodgiest man to ever throw a leg over a speedway bike.

[Curly3]

First time I've heard Langy described as an Elephant.
Honestly I've never heard talk of Langy being on the juice but given the era he rode in and his reputation for everything else I wouldn't be surprised.
Langy has blocked more punch's with his head than anyone I've ever known.
Having said all that, he has always been and is still heavily involved in the sport, over the last few years that I've come back into the sport I've noticed that there are more critics than there are doer's.
I take my hat off to him and others like our own legend Foss, two very different personalities but have remained involved.
If you want to avoid controversy then say nothing.

[JAP 454]

The Nitro and Pop scene !!, I used to get mine off a well known speedway sidecar rider, well, his mechanic actually, and a lot of people I knew also experimented with both. All I can say is that a Biggun on Nitro or Pop would rip ya bloody arms off !! and errr, disintegrate motors if ya tipped the can too much !!!
Foss

[80-85 husky]

I watched Boocock at Bendigo years ago on the RD (RZ?) 350 twin hose off all the opposition easily.

A good mate of mine is Dave English & he rode for Cled Davies for a year or two. He still has his weslake but he doesnt fancy testing the wall with it lately.. he is getting smarter in his old age...

Another mate of mine  is curly Robbins who ran a kwaka nine speedway outfit in the early 80's and some may remember a fateful day at Wangaratta when he and pete boys on the chair spun out and hit the water tank and sent both of em 50 feet in the air... pretty speccy bingle that one...

There is still persistent rumbling to get the bendigo track operational again, a deal to buy 2Km of conveyor belting nearly went ahead a few years ago which is all that is needed (apparently)to get it to pass (and 500,000,000 tec screws)

[Curly3]

One of my favourite Short Circuit stories is about 2 all time SC legends.
One staying at the others house during an OZ title meeting.
One desperately trying to stay awake longer than his guest so he could get out in the shed to mix his " Juice " for the next days racing, only the guest wanted to kick on, true story and nuff said.
Might explain a few of the results.

[pancho]

 Whatever Jim was running in his machine at the showground on his first ride after comming home from the 'old dart' didn't matter to me, that man had gutz. Each lap he came down the so-called straight I was thinking HE CANT GET ROUND the next turn! But he just kept doing it!

 Back at Nepean late 70s I was lined up for the second heat of the senior A behind the first heat starters and could hardly breathe! I said that back in the pits after my heat and someone said "what do expect , you were lined up behind Langy"!
cheers.

[kwakatriple]

first shot at putting photo on

Bendigo, mid 70's

Terry Rooney & Ian Treloar

[Rosco86]

The"Beast" Ian Treloar was a mate of mine and after he climbed off the back with Terry rode a couple of my solos doing very well for himself at the big Bendigo track. A quiet madman who showed little fear. Got into quite a bit of strife one day when he had a solo cranked right up on his Dad 's practice trotting track ( was a very good trainer with many Inter-Dominion pacers) and didn't see his dad out there with the horses. Scared the shit out of them and then dad did the same to the Beast. Can remember him losing his licence for going past the cop car in the main drag of Bendigo on the back wheel of a TT 500 yammy. He swung quite a few times for Peter Tolley when Ray Angier branched out as a driver, then John Lewis climbed back on board after some mx years on a bulty. Probably a bloke who could/ should have achieved much more, but the 70s were smoky, heady days if you get my drift

[Wayne Bennie]

Great image Travis. My first time at the skids when I was about 16 I watched your dad wheel that bike out of the pit gate at Brooklyn and instantly fell in love with it and  H2's. I now own four h2 road bikes and don't think I will ever get them out of my system !! I was lucky enough to swing on one at Avalon one night .So light and fast. If you have more images I would love to see them.

[kwakatriple]

Rosco, Ian still lives at the same place, he has recently done a bit of riding classic sidecars with SSRAV. this is a photo with him as passenger with me riding at Broadford about 5 years ago. David Cottrell had built the bike around the same time he started building and buying up the vincent outfits.

Wayne, i too for obvious reasons are a big fan of the kawasaki triple, I now have the sidecar, but have not had too much oppotunity to ride it due to work commitments

[Rosco86]

Hi Travis, when I started racing solos at Brooklyn in Melboune, Terry was the king of the sidecars and would always look forward to seeing him battle Taylor on the tz700. The change over from the big HRDs to the strokes meant that the older boys like jack walker, John Heaviside and Lloyd Crundell couldn't stick with him and on the bigger tracks like Bendigo and Romsey his pace was blistering. In solos Johnny Dewhurst was handing the mantle to Danny Kennedy. Peter Tolley and John Lewis lived just around the corner and Peter helped me out doing some sweet motor work on my jawa. He sold his little triumph and hrd to build a water bottle as did Doug Cotterell. Peter showed me how to swing on the hrd but when I tried racing with another newby on a water bottle at Bendigo and going arse up 3 times it was back to my solos. Caught up with Peter last year and he showed me the nice little triumph he built for the classics and Tim on here had posted some good photos of it and Doug Cotteralls 2 valve jawa sidecar. Was very tempted to have a dip at the water bottle that was on eBay a while back but neither of the sons would take up the offer to swing. Their loss, that just don't have the faith in us old wobblers. Great memories of the sidecar boys, still a great class today much undervalued by MA and particularly the FIM. Maybe our paths will cross when I visit vic.
Rosco

[80-85 husky]

where are u located Rosco?

[Rosco86]

Reside in Brisvegas now after the last decade in Mackay.

[Curly3]

[Curly3]

This photo was taken at Liverpool around 78-9, the lady in the front is Meg Nay who had a huge involvement in Speedway in & around SYD.
I can name a few of the others including Dave Mills with the Villawood vest on who is still heavily involved in the sport today, Jim Airey with his hand on Meg's shoulder.