Home Contact Us Stadia Pix Articles All About You Riders to Remember
DVDs Books Pictures Archive Dream Teams Programme Generator
28/01/2024
1975/76 NZ v England
Your Feedback
 
17/12/2023
DVD: Great Races of the 80s
What's Wrong With Ambition?
Your Feedback
 
29/10/2023
Book Review: Walthamstow
When the Rangers Roared
High Beech Revival of 1954
Your Feedback
 
16/10/2023
Western Springs Winged Wheels
Grand Pricks?
Your Feedback
 
01/10/2023
Blind Speedway Rider
Track Pix: Oxford
Farcical Guest
Your Feedback
 
17/09/2023
The Ole Olsen Tapes
Dream Team: Richard Cleaver
Plus Points
Your Feedback
 
23/07/2023
1974/75 BL V New Zealand
Heat Details Required
Your Feedback
 
04/06/2023
Northside Arena
 
14/05/2023
Review: Tigers at White City
Your Feedback
 
19/03/2023
How to halt the decline
 
12/03/2023
NZ v Poland - 1st Test
NZ v Poland - 2nd Test
NZ v Poland - 3rd Test
NZ v Poland - 4th Test
 
05/03/2023
Track Pictures: North Brisbane
It's All About You: Lionel King
Your Feedback
 
15/01/2023
Dream Team : Geoff Langley
Your Feedback
 
04/01/2023
Gerald Dunn's JAP
Your Feedback
 
27/12/2022
1975 World Final. Heat 20.
Your Feedback
 
11/12/2022
Peter Collins Autobiography
Your Feedback
 
23/11/2022
DVD Review: 70s - A to Z
Your Feedback


Speedway Scrapbook: The Rivals

From Daily Mirror (1974)

Click on the picture to see it in a larger size, or you can read the text from the article further down this page.

 

THESE TOP speedway riders are cutting a different kind of track to the one they are used to, in a Decca recording studio. They include Dons riders Bert Harkins, extreme right, and Graeme Stapleton, trying to get into the picture third from left at the back.

The thirteen stars were brought together to record "Speedway" which will later go on sale at all speedway tracks around the country and a percentage of the proceeds from the sales will go to the Riders Benevolent Fund. All riders, not just the actual singers, will play a part in the promotion of the record.

Appropriately, the singers are known as The Rivals. The "B" side is "Hoskins Still Rides", a tribute to Johnny Hoskins, the man who pioneered speedway - first in Australia and then in Britain in 1928. Hoskins, now 84-years old, is still in the sport as a promoter at second division Canterbury.

See if you can pick out which rider is which with the following list:

Jimmy McMillan (Scotland and Hull), John Louis (England and Ipswich), Scott Autrey (USA and Exeter), Peter Collins (England and Belle Vue), Dag Lovaas (Norway and Hackney), Nigel Boocock (England and Coventry), Terry Betts (England and Kings Lynn), Pete Smith (England and Poole), Martin Ashby (England and Swindon), Malcolm Brown (England and Leicester), George Hunter.

You can listen to the song on Youtube.

Thanks to Steve T and Jim Neil for help with this article.

 

This article was first published on 12th February 2019

[ Use Mobile Version ]


 

  • Geoff:

    "Still got the single somewhere - the only 45 I've got left - although it's probably 30+ years since I played it! I remember buying it: (1) in the vain hope of getting speedway on Top of the Pops; and (2) because Hull had just gone up into division 1 and 'Jimmy Mac' was our new number one. "

  • Philip Busby:

    "If anyone has this record would you sell it to me please? It would make my daughter very happy as we played the record a lot when she was a youngster, that's why she says it was part of her childhood memories!"  

     

    Comment on this Article | Contact Us | Go Back to Main Menu

  •    Please leave your comments on this article or on the site as a whole