Long Track racing

[laird387]

There is a crossover sport derived from speedway and grass track roots that is particularly popular in Holland and Germany, Long Track racing. In 1986 an attempt to introduce it to the north of England was made in September, when a set of competent riders led by Ivan Mauger brought their long track bikes to a stadium at Hammerton, that previously had been used for equestrian events, in particular Sulky (trotting races) where the driver perches behind the horse on a simple two wheeled trailer and the horses are trained to race with a peculiar trotting action.

When the equestrian owners of the specialised track saw what the motorcycles were doing in the way of sand shifting it appears no future invitations were issued - but we have images for the record which will be included in our review of motorcycle sporting activity from the 1980s to date in our magazine.

I am includng one of the images for your entertainment! Enjoy....

[garrym]

Alexz Wigg's uncle, the late Simon Wigg was Long track  World Champion and was one of a handfull of British long track riders in the 80s. 

[laird387]

1 hour ago, garrym said:

Alexz Wigg's uncle, the late Simon Wigg was Long track  World Champion and was one of a handfull of British long track riders in the 80s. 

Simon Wigg will be featured in our digital magazine.

[turbofurball]

There's a Long Track championship winning bike at the Sammy Miller museum ... seeing that was the first I'd heard of the sport!

[nigel dabster]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Wigg

 

[laird387a]

There is a fully illustrated feature on long track racing in the next issue of our digital magazine.

To whet potential apppetites here is a long track image, never published before, of Brian Bagshaw from Flint, racing his Weslake at Nun Monkton (York Stadium) in 1986.

Photo from the offroadarchive

Enjoy

 

Edited March 26, 2017 by laird387a
adding image

[dadof2]

I think long track may have two slightly different variations. The slower version is on a course a bit longer than a speedway track and bikes can reach nearly 80 mph. I think on the continent they had some very long "long tracks" on grass where speeds approached 120 mph, more akin to american mile ovals than speedway.