" SPEEDWAY HISTORY REVISITED...THE EARLY YEARS 1896-1928
This is my latest book on the history of speedway and to any enthusiast of this sport, this book is a must read, which takes one back to the turn of the 19th century, in fact to be precise, 1896 when Sylvester Roper rode his Steam Powered bicycle around the bicycle track in the Charles River Park in competition with a bunch of young lads on their pedal bikes.
I also tracked down America's first ever organised motor bike race where Ralph Hamlin bested his three fellow riders, one of whom rode a motor powered tricycle in a race on the Agricultural Park, Los Angeles on May 7, 1901.
New Souths Wales also gave us motor cycle dirt track racing in 1905 when a motor cycle race took place under lights on a track in Newcastles Rugby Ground in 1905 on November 13,
However the earliest motor cycle track race that I came across was in Tramore, County Waterford, Ireland on Ausgust 20, 1900, not withstanding a motor tricyle race that took place in Navan, County Meath, Ireland on August 15, 1900 which was officially recognised as the first ever organised tricycle race in Ireland. I also came upon what I have to consider the worlds first motor cycle race on an oval cinder track in Ashtown, Dublin on October 18, 1902.
As to West Maitland's claim to be the birth place of dirt track racing in 1923 I found some 72 motor cycle tracks events that took place prior to that date in a number of New South Wales towns, which towns could easily be said to be near neighbours of West Maitland.
But enough is enough, read and enjoy my book and judge for yourself just where one should deem to be the birth place of Dirt Track motor cycle racing.
"A HISTORY OF SPEEDWAY: THE DUBLIN EXPERIENCE" records almost all of the Speedway meetings that took place in Dublin, Ireland, during the 20th century, including the names of all the riders that took part in same and the points scored. I say almost all, because the Irish Newspaper Industry suffered a strike from July 11th to the end of August in 1952 and as the Irish newspapers were my only source of information for that period, I there say I missed a couple of meetings.
Speedway proper first came to Dublin in 1928 and the new Harold’s Cross Greyhound Stadium at that time was the venue chosen for those first meetings and there began the Dublin History so to speak, however I must have it known that a number of Motor Cycle races did take place in Dublin on a dirt track in 1902.
Three meetings in all took place in the Harold’s Cross Stadium and then Speedway disappeared from our shores until its revival in 1948 when Speedway was re-introduced in Santry Stadium.
Following that, Shelbourne Park Greyhound Stadium opened up to Speedway in 1950 and this venue was soon rated as Dublin’s most popular race track and it was there that the seventeen year old Australian, Ronnie Moore, won the hearts of every speedway goer in Ireland. Chapelizod Stadium followed later in 1950 and all three venues were in action in one form or the other until Speedway was finally ousted by Midget car racing and the last Motor Cycle Speedway race that took place in the 1950s was in Shelbourne Park on July 4th 1954.
1961 saw another revival of Speedway in Shelbourne Park, which just about survived three meetings and off it went again until 1970 when it re-appeared in Shelbourne Park and lasted two seasons.
However the Irish riders did not give up and whenever possible they practiced on a trotting track in Portmarnock where most of them did their training over the years. Fans I believe were welcome to come and watch these training sessions, free of charge, and on August 30th 1986, in a last ditch attempt to revive the sport in Ireland a meeting took place, but for a number of reasons, the meetings did not continue and that was the last professional speedway meeting in Ireland.
On the last weekend in February,2009 a Motor Cycle show in the RDS grounds in Dublin featured a Speedway race, but unfortunately it was too late for inclusion in my book, as same was with the printers at that time.
Many, many Speedway fans the world over, believe that Speedway was invented in the Australian Town of West Maitland, New South Wales, in 1923, when a group of spectators watched a motor cycle race take place on a grass covered trotting track in the local sports ground, but I must inform my readers that a similar race took place in Dublin in 1902 and the only real difference between those two meetings were the covering of the tracks as the Dublin venue had a cinder surface.
