What happened to this world!!?

After a bit of discussion on Stoners background I stumbled upon this webpage:



http://justsolos.homestead.com/index.html



Some great old history there.





Brings back memories.



up until say the mid seventies .....



They used to race it every weekend.



There were tracks everywhere, they even used football ovals here in Aust.



If the wind was in the right direction you could hear the speedway from 10 miles away.



It was on TV every weekend and you could follow teams







In a way I can see that other disciplines came in and took riders eg. mx and Aust. dirt track ( short circuit )



I'd love to say whatever happened to that lifestyle ....... but in all honesty I can't even imagine it anywhere near a city these days. It was dirty, noisy, rough.Hard to believe it all started from a bunch of yahoos ( mostly ex WW1 soldiers letting there hair down ) at a local show. But now its gone.



Anyone else remember it?

Poole? as in Terry Poole? or is it a place name?



I rode against Terry Poole in Short circuit in days of yore I'm getting old



Yeah I reckon its probably bigger in the UK and Europe than it is here these days kind of a shame really since it was such a big thing.





Edit: I googled Poole Pirates ...... nothing to do with Terry Poole.

chopperman said:

It's a place.

http://www.iowislanders.co/



http://www.poolespeedway.net/11-website/index.htm

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Yeah got that.



I can see why the Aussie riders go over there cos its in a pretty sorry state here.



eg.:



http://www.gillmanspeedway.com/release.asp?NewsId=14241



Gosford is my nearest city and it was relatively big in speedway a few years back.



Shame really, its the one code I had been giving thought to getting back into a few years back ..... as an old codger in vintage Maybe some day .....

Ah Ole Oleson now there's a name!! he brought a lot to the sport here.



Jim Airey ..... I'm sure I've had a race or two against him when I was a youngy. ( he did a bit of short circuit I believe as did Terry Poole )

Pooley was predominantly short circuit once .... funny thing is I took the kids to an event at Gosford and there is Pooley's missus and kids doing the gate work etc. and she remembered me from what would have been maybe 20 years before! I had turned up with another bloke and we had seven? kids in tow and she had a great chat with me and she dragged us through the crowd through a side door. We talked about the state of it all these days and how they were trying to get it all going again. The whole family was very speedway obsessed and very rider-centric, hence why she remembered me ( when I doubt she really could have ). They got a huge crowd at Gosford that night and I was all ready to have a go at getting back into it but the whole thing was hindered by some crappy red tape. I just think the infrastructure could not handle it and they jacked up ( cops. council etc. ) ........ such a shame, a massive crowd had turned up to watch and it looked so promising.



All those photos on that page made me realize that there have been 5 generations of riders now in my family maybe six but I'm not aware that my great grandparent ever got on a bike ..... which I think shows why Aussies and bikes have been so competitive ....... we live with them so much here in Aust. they are the perfect vehicle that replaced the horse and we have so much space ( even now )

FTE217 said:

Yes Olsen has been a fantastic ambassarder for the sport damn fast bugga ! - I think he had been the curator for the GP series after retirement.



Terry Poole eh - relatede to Mick ? I watched Mick ride a number of times, last was at Gosford in 2000 I think.

John Langfield remember him at all ? but I recall more from the 70's - Phil Herne Phil Crump Sanders as mentioned and must say very sorry its all gone, we (my father brother and cousins who used to join us back in those days) have tried to go to any event on or near Sydney the last years but its just a pale what it once was

Your history must be great BM good luck to you must have some cherished memories.

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Mick Poole is Terry's son. He used to be one of the little blonde headed tackers who would turn up to watch his dad race ........ seems to many years had passed and Mick is big in speedway !!! I;m getting old



I remember Crumpy the others I'm not sure, Pooley crossed over into short circuit a lot ( matter of fact he started with that I think ) Crumpy crossed over occasionally I think ....... pretty sure I've been in a race or two with him as well, many years ago. There was a lot of crossover those days ...... so long as it was on a bike I guess. I a way it was easier to ride any code cos folk didn't mind what you turned up with or how much it cost, so long as you got through scrutineering and turned up at the line here was a phase of many a guy setting up there motocross bikes for club road races at Amaroo.



On the history thing I was wondering about that too, but I think I have so many memories partly because my family have been into bikes for 5 generations ( counting my grandson who doesn't quite ride on his own yet but has twisted a throttle with balance help We got him doing that at age 2 ...... there's no hope for him either he's already very accustomed to bikes.