Speedway / Board Track Inspired Custom

This is the Hulster 8 valve, created by maverick Swedish custom builder Stellan Egeland. It won the 2007 AMD World Championship of custom bike building, and certainly makes a refreshing change to the usual cliché laden offerings from the custom bike scene.

I somehow doubt you would ever see a machine like this rolling out of the Orange County Choppers workshop on American Chopper...

Ultimate Speedway Stadium

For those of us more familiar with the ramshackle arenas that host speedway in the UK, the stadium pictured above, seems like a distant, Utopian dream, but it is all very real.

It is the brand new Moto Arena in Torun, Poland. Featuring an all seated capacity of 15,500, and a 325m track, it has been designed from the ground up specifically for speedway,and is rumoured to be hosting a round of the SGP in 2010.
http://www.speedway.torun.pl/

Fashion Police (Part Four)

Oh dear... Believe it or not, this rider is not competing at an amateur practice session in Scunthorpe, but he is racing at the very pinnacle of the sport, in the FIM Speedway Grand Prix at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen. The rider in question is Russian racer Roman Povazhny, the year is 2003 and its all going wrong on several fronts.

Firstly the dreaded Wulfsport attire, secondly the dodgy bike covers sponsored by Lada, but the real shocker is the number plate which looks like a white sheet of paper with the number 29 scrawled in black marker pen.

Poor old Roman bailed out of the meeting with only two points to his name, finishing 22 out of 24 with two third places.

Race Face

Colin Watson 1932
http://www.defunctspeedway.co.uk/

US Speedway Action

Some cool photos from Brad Pappalardo.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pappalardophotos/

Classic Style

Fantastic shot of Peter Collins at full speed on his longtracker.

Fashion Police (Part Three)

Another shambolic attempt at team colours, this time from Oxford during the (often shambolic) Nigel Wagstaff era. The idea was for the riders to wear a football style shirt, as the fans would then inevitably rush out to purchase the home and away versions...

There were various iterations, each looking as bad as the next one, as they flapped around in the wind as the riders sped by. The classic all black "bin bag" version looked incredibly ungainly, as did the white and grey/silver "Sunday League" combinations.

Jawa Bonneville Racer - Update

Footage of the first shakedown tests of the Joker Machine Jawa Land-speed Racer, piloted by Billy Hamill.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPIqbIfM51Y

Fashion Police (Part Two)

Coordinated team colours were a great (if somewhat obvious) innovation. Trying to do it on the cheap by getting the riders to wear lycra suits on top of their leathers/kevlars was not such a great idea...

The year is 1998 and pictured above is a young Jason Crump, wearing a rather hideous purple and yellow Oxford suit, complete with leopard (or cheetah to be exact) skin detailing.

Mercifully everyone quickly realised this would make the sport an even bigger laughing stock than it already was and they shelled out for some proper team kevlar suits.

The Fashion Police

At Keep Turning Left we like to celebrate all that is inspiring and cool in the racing world. But it can be fun (and somewhat disturbing) to remind ourselves of some of the horrific design crimes that have been committed in the past. This could become quite a long list...

Perhaps the guiltiest of all has to be Wulfsport. Previously confined to colourblind clubman motocross riders, their evil dayglo nylon creations gradually spread into the speedway world in the late 90's.

The riders MX style kit looked terrible, but it is the supporters merchandise that is truly offensive. Now admittedly speedway supporters have never been renowned for their fashion sensibilities, but the classic denim jacket with sewn on patches and metal badges, still wins hands down over these multicolour, fire hazard, monstrosities.

Hero

Spectacular action from Randy Mamola on the 89 Cagiva.

Tai Fighter

Tai in the studio, looking every inch the true pro.
http://www.taiwoffinden.com/index.php

Classic Racing Patches

Cafe Racer

http://www.davida.co.uk/

Vintage Racers

http://www.defunctspeedway.co.uk/index.htm

http://minywaln.blogspot.com/

Hero

"Fast" Freddie Spencer.

Iconic

Classic Harley board-racer.

Jawa Landspeed Racer

This incredible machine is a JRM (Jawa) longtracker heavily modified by Joker Machine in California. It is going to compete at the BUB motorcycle speed trials at Bonneville in September, in the "Modified altered fuel 500 class".The Pilot will be 1996 World Speedway Champion Billy Hamll.

http://jokermachine.com/itemspeedway2004.asp?ItemID=676&CategoryID=88&Placeholder=0