Gary Roberts
Northern California Speedway Editor
www.speedwaybikes.com manager

Gary Roberts ( born and raised in England, now living in California ) is a 48 year old rookie. He owned two speedway bikes and says that riding practice speedway events is a more of a fun way of staying fit than jogging. "Maely's Ranch is a practice track set in a canyon in Corona, 60 miles east of LA. The temperature at midday at this time of year (August) is around 105, so we tend to go in the late afternoon. The winter is most popular, and where else in the world can a novice rider such as myself go to practice with riders like Billy Hamill and Greg Hancock?"

Gary has provided reports to the internet of the speedway he sees in California for three years. Thank you Gary ! (See another photo of Gary with Greg Hancock on Greg's page)
E-mail: groberts@iee.org

In 1996 Gary traveled to every Speedway track in California, two in Canada, and several in England. In 1997 he visited all the tracks in California, and Champion Speedway in New York!

Check out his BOOKS about USA Speedway!!

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Gary's visit to Canada

"I was up visiting Kim Gregory in Canada and watching some great speedway at Paris Speedway (Ontario) (June 28) . Well worth the visit, even though the Welland race on Saturday was rained out, when the clay track turned to chewing gum. I was fortunate to meet a Mr. Steve Wright and 3 of his buddies from Wolverhampton ( England ) who also made a 3000 mile trip to watch the racing. I was flattered by their nice words about my and Kim's reports from this side of the pond."

Gary's visit to England

Before I set off, I tried to plan my visit and someone recommended giving the New Ipswich vs. Old Ipswich meeting a miss. It was implied that this match was only going to be a friendly. In order to see as many tracks as possible, I went anyway and was pleased I did. Ben Howe, clearly the star of the meeting, rode brilliantly. The thing that really stuck in my mind was how Savalas Clouting and some other fellow avoided injury in what looked like fairly horrendous crash through the safety fence. So much for the friendly! This method of corner wall construction certainly succeeded in capturing riders and machines. A similar thing was attempted at the Lake Perris track, just outside San Bernardino, California, with straw bales defining the outer limits of the inner track from the outer track. The only thing that spoiled it was a near two foot drop between the two!

On the advice of Gary Brown, I attended my first ever grass track meeting, just north of Ipswich. Apart from the pleasure of meeting Gary, I had an entertaining day, watching some good racing. I wonder how I've reached the age of 49 without going before. I would strongly recommend it to speedway supporters who've not yet tried it.

During my month in the UK, I was fortunate to see probably more speedway than some of you see in a season. I'm afraid I now understand what you have all been complaining about. Maybe I have been spoiled at Costa Mesa, but most UK speedway seemed like a race from the tapes to the exit of the first corner, followed by a three and a half lap procession. I was also amased at the number of non-finishers of races, due presumably to mechanical problems. Details of the visit that stuck in my mind were as follows:
1. Martin Dugard's inability to get past Michael Coles during the Eastbourne vs. Exeter meeting. Wayne from Eastbourne gave a good report of the meeting describing how Dugard ended up behind Coles, but there must be something wrong with the sport when a man with Dugard's Eastbourne experience cant get by a 6.5 point visitor. Contrary to Wayne's report, I thought there was very little overtaking during this match.
2. The liveliest atmosphere of the visit was at Ryde in the Isle of Wight. Maybe they were holiday visitors determined to make a noise, maybe they were locals seeing something moving at more than 25 mph for the first time in their lives. Despite the dry, dusty, bumpy track there were a few good races, WITH OVERTAKING.
3. Quality of competitive racing was much the same at Arena Essex. Could there be a pattern here?
4. I dont recall seeing anyone at any match riding an upright, successfully competing with the laydowns. The only person who came close, and then only in a couple of races, was Mike Faria, at Peterborough. Mike told me afterwards that he was hoping to get a laydown soon. I agree with what I read from you on this distribution that the laydown has damaged the quality of spectating. Their reliability seemed very poor too. Has anyone else noticed an increase in the number of non-finishers since laydowns have been in use? Mechanical breakdowns are comparatively rare in US racing and the vast majority of riders here use uprights.
5. Generally the quality and price of the food at concession stands was not too appetising. The beer was fantastic though.
6. Am I the only one who had a real problem with filling in the Peterborough program? Otherwise programs were fine, full of good information.
7. I agree with every unkind word said about the new Hackney track. What process was used to make the decision to hold the GP there? Why not Bradford?

That might seem very little to recall from 4 weeks of speedway viewing, but as I said the beer was very good. So after this list of complaints, what needs doing to fix our favourite sport? I wonder if shorter tracks with more dirt would lessen the value of the additional power that todays machines have and enhance the value of rider talent? I recall a track at Weymouth some years ago that was small. What are the regulations that prevent a small track being used for British League matches? Another possibility along the same lines is to shorten the straight. The smaller tracks have the added attraction of bringing the crowd closer to the track.

Somebody said there is no regulated limit to how small a track can be. Doesn't it seem unfair that our sport has evolved into something that fits round a football pitch or inside a dog track? Clearly it makes sense in a sports complex to share the spectators stands, car park, concessions, toilets etc with a number of sporting events. (Even my local Costa Mesa track gets used as a rodeo 2 weeks a year). Maybe we should be looking for someone who's putting together a new hockey pitch (isn't that smaller than a football pitch?) or similar, and interesting them in putting a speedway track round it. I'm serious.

I realise these are not measures to be introduced overnight. But I dont see a quick fix to the processional situation we have today. I would welcome feedback on these ideas.

Gary's Dad

" My dad is 88 and an incredibly interesting guy. He used to ride speedway in Cardiff, South Wales in the late 1920s. This year when he came over I took him up to my local pub where we Triumph owners meet on a Wednesday and he started talking to the guys in there and they thought he was fantastic. He showed them (the following) picture then he told them how he has met Laurence of Arabia, etc. They always ask me about him. "

Photo of Gary's dad on a 1917 Pope (taken in 1924) - The Americans took it over to Britain for use in the first world war and when my dad bought it in 1924 it had a sidecar on the wrong side for Britain, complete with a machine gun bracket mounted to it! An interesting bit of motorcycle history.

Speedway Tracks Visited

Ascot, Gardena, CA
Bakersfield, CA
Del Mar, CA
Costa Mesa, CA
Glen Helen, CA
Vistorville, CA
Old Lake Perris, CA
New Lake Perris, CA
Ken Maely's practice track, Corona, CA
Long Beach, CA
San Bernardino, CA
Auburn, CA
Paso Robles, CA
Santa Maria, CA
Ventura, CA
Syracuse, NY
Greene, NY
Paris, ONT
Niagara, ONT
Brisbane, AUS
Auckland, NZ
All the one in the UK that everyone else has been to
Southampton
Leicester
Boston
Harringay
Rye House
Wimbledon
Wembley

Favourite spectating track: Southampton, or maybe I was more easily
entertained in those days.
Worst spectating track: Definitely London
Worst track to park at: Definitely London
Best track to park at: Santa Maria. I hope this will get worse next year
when the crowd get bigger 
Best toilets: New Lake Perris
Worst toilets: Swindon, although I am sure much worse exist.
Most atmosphere: Ascot
Most atmosphere and still running: Costa Mesa
Most difficult program to fill out program: Peterboro