Post by administrator on Aug 28, 2011 13:32:06 GMT 1
MIDGET v SPEEDWAY BIKE
BY JOHN HYAM
THERE has always been a more-than-friendly rivalry between speedway and small oval car racing. It led me to research a time when efforts were made to prove which were the faster - midget cars or speedway bikes.
At Easter 1950, New Zealand driver Reece Dinscombe beat the 1936 world speedway champion Lionel Van Praag in a match race at the Sydney Sports Ground in Australia. Before that, again in Australia, in 1946-47, there was a match race between midget car star Ray Revell and local speedway rider Andy Menzies at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground. Information on this, and other similar races, have reached me thanks to the renowned Australian historian Jim Shepherd.
Jim Shepherd writes: “Re solo speedway bikes v midget cars. I can trace the one at Australia’s Brisbane Exhibition Speedway in the 1946-47 season. Promoter Frank Arthur was desperate for anything to pad out his shows and came up with the idea of matching Ray Revell in his Ford A midget against Andy Menzies on his JAP-engine speedway bike.
“The match was over two laps from a semi-flying start with both staring on opposite sides of the track. Revell demanded that he and Menzies be separately timed to allow for an uneven start and this was agreed to. Menzies won quite comfortably.”
Shepherd added: “As a matter of trivial interest, in the first post-war Brisbane Exhibition season, Revell lost another odd-ball match race. He had to cover two laps from a flying start against a champion cyclist who had to ride one lap from a flying start on the grass infield. The cyclist won by a small margin.
“There was at least one midget v motorcyclist race on the old Melbourne Motordrome concreted bowl with the motorcyclist (Jim Disney) restricted to the lowest (and slowest) part of the track. The car driver in, I think, a Fronty Ford was allowed the high line.”
Shepherd concluded: “The intrepid pair actually started alongside each other from a flying start. The car driver won, I don’t think this race was ever repeated.”
In the 1954-65 New Zealand season, American midget car legend Bob ‘Two Gun’ Tattersall beat local speedway champion Bryce Subritzky at Western Springs in Auckland. A newspaper report said: “The four-lap challenge race between B>Subritzky, astride his motorcycle, and tattersall driving his Offenhasuer, was spoiled somewhat by the fact that Subritzky used a clutch start whereas Tattersall was allowed a flying start. Both men started on opposite sides of the track.
“For three laps, the two were even but on the final bend Tattersall did the better and won narrolwy.”
Another race at Western Spring in 1939 saw NZ speedway champion Alf Mattson beat midget car driver Gary Mathewson.
Similar races have taken place in England. One was at Stamford Bridge (London) in 1948 when American midget car driver Art George beat Billy Murden, who had last been on a bike as a Belle Vue junior in the early 1930s.
I also have a 1938 Belle Vue programme which lists another of these races, sadly without names or results.
In Holland, in 1946, British midget car star Walter Mackereth beat the Dutch speedway champion Piet Van Aartsen at Rotterdam. Races also took place at the Buffalo Stadium in Paris, France, between Mackereth and the French speedway rider Fernand Meynier on July 5, 1947, then on July 12 at the same stadium between Mackereth and the French speedway champion Charles Bellisent. The results were not recorded on the programmes I have.
Races have also taken place in the USA and South Africa. Of the South African encounters, in 1939 and around 1945-46, Bob Van Tilburg, a South African midget car driver recalls that the midgets frequently came off best. He said: “These results always used to annoy South African rider and promoter Buddy Fuller.”
In the USA, at the Philadelphia Yellow Jacket Speedway, ‘Doc’MacKenzie in a midget defeated ‘Lazy Lou’ Wilson, who rode the speedway bike. Wilson was also a midget car driver. My records show the race as having taken place in 1937, but when I made a check with the late American motorsport historian Don Radbruch he said it was more likely to have been 1936. And who was I to argue with Don?
BY JOHN HYAM
THERE has always been a more-than-friendly rivalry between speedway and small oval car racing. It led me to research a time when efforts were made to prove which were the faster - midget cars or speedway bikes.
At Easter 1950, New Zealand driver Reece Dinscombe beat the 1936 world speedway champion Lionel Van Praag in a match race at the Sydney Sports Ground in Australia. Before that, again in Australia, in 1946-47, there was a match race between midget car star Ray Revell and local speedway rider Andy Menzies at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground. Information on this, and other similar races, have reached me thanks to the renowned Australian historian Jim Shepherd.
Jim Shepherd writes: “Re solo speedway bikes v midget cars. I can trace the one at Australia’s Brisbane Exhibition Speedway in the 1946-47 season. Promoter Frank Arthur was desperate for anything to pad out his shows and came up with the idea of matching Ray Revell in his Ford A midget against Andy Menzies on his JAP-engine speedway bike.
“The match was over two laps from a semi-flying start with both staring on opposite sides of the track. Revell demanded that he and Menzies be separately timed to allow for an uneven start and this was agreed to. Menzies won quite comfortably.”
Shepherd added: “As a matter of trivial interest, in the first post-war Brisbane Exhibition season, Revell lost another odd-ball match race. He had to cover two laps from a flying start against a champion cyclist who had to ride one lap from a flying start on the grass infield. The cyclist won by a small margin.
“There was at least one midget v motorcyclist race on the old Melbourne Motordrome concreted bowl with the motorcyclist (Jim Disney) restricted to the lowest (and slowest) part of the track. The car driver in, I think, a Fronty Ford was allowed the high line.”
Shepherd concluded: “The intrepid pair actually started alongside each other from a flying start. The car driver won, I don’t think this race was ever repeated.”
In the 1954-65 New Zealand season, American midget car legend Bob ‘Two Gun’ Tattersall beat local speedway champion Bryce Subritzky at Western Springs in Auckland. A newspaper report said: “The four-lap challenge race between B>Subritzky, astride his motorcycle, and tattersall driving his Offenhasuer, was spoiled somewhat by the fact that Subritzky used a clutch start whereas Tattersall was allowed a flying start. Both men started on opposite sides of the track.
“For three laps, the two were even but on the final bend Tattersall did the better and won narrolwy.”
Another race at Western Spring in 1939 saw NZ speedway champion Alf Mattson beat midget car driver Gary Mathewson.
Similar races have taken place in England. One was at Stamford Bridge (London) in 1948 when American midget car driver Art George beat Billy Murden, who had last been on a bike as a Belle Vue junior in the early 1930s.
I also have a 1938 Belle Vue programme which lists another of these races, sadly without names or results.
In Holland, in 1946, British midget car star Walter Mackereth beat the Dutch speedway champion Piet Van Aartsen at Rotterdam. Races also took place at the Buffalo Stadium in Paris, France, between Mackereth and the French speedway rider Fernand Meynier on July 5, 1947, then on July 12 at the same stadium between Mackereth and the French speedway champion Charles Bellisent. The results were not recorded on the programmes I have.
Races have also taken place in the USA and South Africa. Of the South African encounters, in 1939 and around 1945-46, Bob Van Tilburg, a South African midget car driver recalls that the midgets frequently came off best. He said: “These results always used to annoy South African rider and promoter Buddy Fuller.”
In the USA, at the Philadelphia Yellow Jacket Speedway, ‘Doc’MacKenzie in a midget defeated ‘Lazy Lou’ Wilson, who rode the speedway bike. Wilson was also a midget car driver. My records show the race as having taken place in 1937, but when I made a check with the late American motorsport historian Don Radbruch he said it was more likely to have been 1936. And who was I to argue with Don?