A look at 1970s DVD

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70's DVD COVER.jpg[/img]
SPEEDWAY in the 70s on DVD

A celebration of speedway’s last golden era

LISTEN TO STARS OF THE PAST
Candid audio or filmed interviews with 25 of the biggest names from this special time, including:

World Champions Barry Briggs, Ivan Mauger, Ole Olsen, Anders Michanek, Peter Collins, Michael Lee and Bruce Penhall.

Plus former World No.2s Malcolm Simmons, Dave Jessup, Gordon Kennett and Zenon Plech.

Former World No.3s John Louis, Phil Crump and Scott Autrey.

And also Ray Wilson, Terry Betts, Chris Morton, John Davis, John Boulger, Barry Thomas, Les Rumsey and Colin Pratt.

Not forgetting the late Tommy Jansson, Billy Sanders and Kelly Moran.

ACTION FOOTAGE
Video and cine clips from 37 tracks in Britain and the rest of Europe, including:
Belle Vue (Hyde Road), Birmingham, Boston, Bradford, Bristol, Canterbury, Coventry, Crewe, Eastbourne, Exeter, Gothenburg, Hackney, Halifax, Hull, Iwade, Katowice, King’s Lynn, Leicester, Long Eaton, Mildenhall, Milton Keynes, Newcastle, Norden, Peterborough, Rayleigh, Romford, Rye House, Rybnik, Scunthorpe, Stoke, Sunderland, Wembley, West Ham, White City, Wimbledon, Workington and Wroclaw.
Featuring rare and previously unseen amateur footage.

PHOTOGRAPHS
Hundreds of evocative images to further illustrate the headline-making stories of the decade.

A unique double-disc set lasting four hours-plus.

HOW TO ORDER
Only available direct from Retro Speedway for £16 (post-free in the UK).
Phone the Credit/Debit Card Hotline on 01708 734 502.
Go online at www.retro-speedway.com (where you can also view a 15-min trailer).
Or post a cheque (payable to Retro Speedway) to: Retro Speedway (Speedway in the 70s DVD), 103 Douglas Road, Hornchurch, RM11 1AW.

Attachments:

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Regarding the 1970s DVD:

From a Wimbledon perspective, there are several interesting angles . . . there’s Briggo talking about why he was tempted back by Maido in 1974, plus footage of him in action at Hull in that same year . . . an evocative, grainy colour action clip of Ronnie Moore beating Ivan Mauger at Plough Lane in Heat 1 of the Dons v Belle Vue match in 1972 – Mirac’s final league season . . . and the last interview given by Tommy Jansson just days before his death in 1976... Also, rare clips of Tommy fooling around for the camera in the back garden of his engine tuner Phil Pratt. Bit of a heart-tugger for the girls, that one.

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QUOTES FROM SPEEDWAY IN THE 70s

Ivan Mauger on the 1970 World Final at Wroclaw (1970):
“It was the hardest ever single speedway meeting ever staged.”

Dave Jessup (then 19) on being partnered with Ove Fundin at Wembley (1970):
“Ove didn’t like riding with me much because I kept beating him to the corner and running over his legs, and he wanted to keep taking the best gate all the time. It got to the stage where the Wembley management actually paid me extra just to go off the worst gates and keep Ove happy.”

Colin Pratt on miraculously surviving the Lokeren road disaster (1970):
“I think the van split open and they found me a few hundred yards down the road.”

Ole Olsen after winning the first of his three world titles (1971):
“I think I won my world title a year too early – it was only my second World Final. To be a World Champion, I thought you had to win everything and that’s why I lost one or two finals later.”

Ray Wilson on becoming the first Englishman to score a maximum in the World Team Cup Final (1971):
“I was hot that night. My mum and dad were so chuffed, so proud, and I basically did it for them because they were so supportive throughout my career. To reward them in that way meant a lot to me.”

Tony Clarke on stealing bikes and other equipment belonging to Russia’s Wembley World Finalists (1972):
“Yeah, I nicked ‘em. The Russians brought all their stuff here to sell it. I didn’t have the money to buy it, so I thought: ‘I’ll go and nick it myself, simple as that’.

Ivan Mauger on joining Exeter from Belle Vue (1973):
“I trebled my money going to Exeter. They laid on a plane for me and provided a new car for my mechanic.”

Anders Michanek on his controversial Wembley run-off against Peter Collins that decided the World Series (1973):
“I think I scared him. I screwed it on, left it open and he fell off. Maybe I moved his leg a bit. I was very worried that I would be excluded and wasn’t surprised when I was.”

Anders Michanek (Reading) on his epic run-off defeat by Peter Collins the KO Cup decider at Belle Vue (1973):
“I thought I could run him down, but that’s a bit naughty. I understood early on that I was going to lose the race. Even if we had done 10 laps, the result would have been the same. Peter was a terrific rider, ever so good.”

Ivan Mauger on being axed by the Great Britain World Team Cup selectors two weeks before the final at Wembley (1973):
“They had PC and all these other young guys coming up, so the BSPA said they didn’t need me, Barry and Ronnie anymore. Then, a couple of years later, they said: ‘Good news, Ivan, New Zealand can have their own team now’. So I told them to get stuffed.”

Barry Briggs on his comeback for Wimbledon, aged 35 (1974):
“I’m not a great lover of the saying ‘go out at the top’. If you’ve got a talent and you can make a few bob doing it, and you enjoy it, then why not do it?”

Michael Lee on his debut for King’s Lynn, aged 16 (1975):
“I wasn’t expected to ride but they called myself and David Gagen in at six and seven. It was a dodgy day, snowing and 11 o’clock in the morning and it was frozen solid when we got there. No-one wanted to ride. I went past Ray Wilson, who was England captain at the time. I wasn’t backing off, mate. Whippersnapper was on it! Ray wasn’t too happy at the time – a young geezer had tucked him up.”

Phil Crump on pioneering the four-valve engine (1975):
“I took it to Sydney for the Australasian Final as an unknown and untested engine. It was unbelievable. When you let the clutch go on the start line, the thing just took off. I suppose in modern terms it was like comparing an upright to a laydown.”

Chris Morton on winning an explosive Ashes series in Australia (1975-76):
“As we came off the track, John Langfield dragged me off the bike and then there was a big scrap, a mass brawl, going on. I was only 19 and wondered what the hell was going on.”

Terry Betts on his carefree attitude to speedway:
“I could have been so much better if only I’d been a lot more professional. I hated working on my bike, I just loved the racing.”

Peter Collins on his great rivalry with Michael Lee:
“Michael was good for me, because he pushed me. Without him I could have become complacent and gone off the boil sooner than I did.”

Ole Olsen on his protracted move from Wolverhampton to Coventry (1976):
“They said I was going to Hull but I was never going there. I’d agreed a deal with Charles Ochiltree and although we didn’t have a contract, a handshake was good enough with him. I told him: ‘If I don’t go to you at Coventry, I won’t ride anywhere’. The Hull promoters came to see me in America and tried to get me drunk on rum and coke. The 15,000 quid Hull got from the Charles for me was the easiest money Ian Thomas ever made. It was a joke, totally unfair. I told Charles not to pay him a bean. ”

Tommy Jansson just days before he was killed at Stockholm (1976)
“It’s been my best ever start to a season. If I get my bikes going, I think I will do well.”

Peter Collins on Tommy Jansson (1976):
“A lot people who were around him and saw him race regularly said he was going places in the speedway world. Of course, what happened to him was just so sad. I went to Olle Nygren’s 80th birthday party at Norkopping in Sweden in 2009. There were 250 people there for a big dinner and Tommy’s name was mentioned all the time. The bloke was just so good.”

Gordon Kennett on Oxford’s switch to White City (1976):
“I felt sorry for the Oxford fans. They thought Bob Dugard had fixed it for us to go to White City.”

Australia captain John Boulger on his team’s first World Team Cup triumph (1976):
“Our manager Peter Moore would get in your face until he got your full concentration. He could pick it, he knew. I spat the dummy when my bike was bent a bit but all the boys rallied round and, luckily, I won the last race.”

Billy Sanders on winning the Daily Express Spring Classic, his biggest individual success in the UK (1977):
“I hit him (Martin Ashby) because the bike shot forward and sent him out towards the fence. When there’s £500 for first place, you have to do these sort of things. It’s just hard speedway.”

Michael Lee on his international series debut as an 18-year-old v Rest of the World (1977):
“I elbowed Anders Michanek down the back straight at White City and afterwards he came in and called me ‘a bloody nutter’. Then in the next Test match, at Ipswich, I accidentally knocked off Ole Olsen and, as they carried him off on a stretcher, he said: ‘Michael, what the f*** were you doing?’ I was just keen.”

Bruce Penhall on his debut season in the British League (1978):
“Britain is the only place to come to if you want to get into the World Final. You’ve got to be very dedicated and devoted to the game.”

Kelly Moran, who joined Hull in 1978, on his time in speedway:
“I had a great time, man. I love riding bikes, I got to fly around the world and I got paid for it, so what a great job to have. “

Les Rumsey on his friendly rivalry with Steve Koppe at Canterbury (1978):
“It was common knowledge that most second half finals were split, so whether you finished first or last you were paid for one-and-a-half points. But no way did I ever want to be beaten by Steve and he didn’t want to lose to me. You just wanted to win it.”

Dave Jessup on replacing Terry Betts at King’s Lynn as the sport’s world record £20,000 transfer (1979):
“I couldn’t replace Terry, all I could do was try and score as many points as possible for the team. Even if the world champion had gone to King’s Lynn that year, he still couldn’t have replaced Bettsy in the eyes of the supporters.”

Terry Betts on being sold by King’s Lynn to Reading (1979):
“Reading really treated me well but after being at King’s Lynn for 14 years, I felt like a guest rider. It wasn’t the way I wanted my career to end. It was brought to an end before I was really ready for it to happen.”

Malcolm Simmons on the 70s
“We couldn’t have ridden at a better time and I ‘m really glad I was part of it in that era.”

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From the South London Press, Friday, July 27, 2012:
 
RECAPTURING A SPORT IN IT’S LAST GOLDEN ERA
 
THE 1970s are regarded as speedway’s last golden era. Since then, speedway has lost its recognition as a top sport and itself accepts that it has slipped to minority status, writes John Hyam.
The decade had plenty of big names, many of whom were recognised by the national press and treated in much the same way as footballers are today.
The enthusiasm that riders had for the golden era of the 1970s is aptly summed up by England international, world finalist and leading Wimbledon rider of that decade Malcom Simmons.
He said: “We couldn’t have ridden at a better time and I’m really glad I was part of it in that era.”
The last track in London was Wimbledon, which opened in 1928 and staged its final meeting in 2005. In the 1970s, the Plough Lane club was a major force in speedway with some of the sport’s greatest riders linked to it.
The era is recaptured on a unique double-disc set lasting four hours-plus. It features some of the highlights as Wimbledon were involved in the period.
Multi-world champion, New Zealand’s Barry Briggs, then 35-years-old, talks about why he was tempted into a 1974 come-back by Dons’ team boss Cyril Maidment.
Briggs says of his comeback: “I’m not a great lover of the saying ‘go out at the top’. If you’ve got a talent and you can make a few bob doing it, and you enjoy it, then why not do it?”
There’s also grainy footage of Briggs in action that same year at Hull, yet another now long-gone speedway club.
Ronnie Moore, an icon of Wimbledon from the early 1950s and another of the sport’s all-time greats is also featured. He’s seen beating another speedway legend Belle Vue’s Ivan Mauger in heat one of a 1972 match. It was Moore’s final league season. Mauger was a Dons’ junior in 1957.
The highlight from a Wimbledon perspective is the last interview by Swedish star Tommy Jansson in 1976, given just days before his death in a Swedish speedway crash.
There are also rare clips of Jansson fooling around for the camera in the back garden of his engine tuner Phil Pratt.
There are video and cine clips from 37 tracks in Britain and the rest of Europe. Besides Wimbledon, other London tracks captured are Hackney, Romford, Rye House, Wembley, West Ham and White City.
:::: The South London Press has three DVDs as prizes. Just answer this question: When was Ronnie Moore’s last season at Wimbledon?
E-mail your answer to: [e-mail] with the subject line ‘Speedway’s golden era.’
Also, please give your full name and postal address. The closing date is Monday, July 30.
::: How to order: Only available direct from Retro Speedway for £16 (post-free in the UK). Phone the Credit/Debit Card Hotline on 01708 734 502. Go online at www.retro-speedway.com (where you can also view a 15-minute trailer).
::: Or post a cheque (payable to Retro Speedway) to: Retro Speedway (Speedway in the 70s DVD), 103 Douglas Road, Hornchurch, RM11 1AW.

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