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"Opening the bedroom curtains early on the Sunday morning when the Celebration of Speedway was due to be held at Paradise Wildlife Park, the snow was coming down. Later in the morning, it was followed by sleet and heavy rain, but all roads still led to Paradise Wildlife Park for the 2010 'Celebration of Speedway'. Despite the wet and cold conditions, which incidentally suited the Humboldt Penquins in the park, hundreds of Speedway fans turned out to get their pre-season "fix" of Speedway and they were not disappointed. The Speedway Museum was bursting at the seams for most of the day and the large Events Marquee which housed the Collectors' Fayre and the bar was also busy all day long. There were stalls selling programmes, videos, badges and Barry Briggs and Uncle Len Silver were kept busy signing their new books. On stage in the very smart Events Marquee, which was warm and dry with chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, Presenter, Craig Saul interviewed both of these Speedway legends. Len spoke about his hopes for his Rye House team and that his book has been selling well and has so far raised several thousand pounds for the Speedway Riders' Benevolent Fund. Barry explained all about "The Ride", his fantastic motorcycle ride for Sports Relief to race money for his appointed charity, our wheelchair-bound boys who, with their wives and carers, deserve all the help they can get. It is a very ambitious project, starting at Wembley when England play Egypt in a game called, Football, and including a gruelling ride on Yamahas, mostly off road and visiting Speedway tracks all the way from John O' Groats to Cardiff in time for the British Grand Prix. This will create some great publicity for Speedway and hopefully Barry can stay awake in the saddle long enough to raise money for such a worthy cause. Check out Speedway Star to see when Briggo will be at YOUR track this season. Top referee, Tony Steele, fought his way through the snow to stage his now-famous film show and was kept busy all day long showing historic Speedway movies from the '50s and '60s and should be in the running for an Oscar for 'Best Director' or something this year. As this was also the High Beech Anniversary, where Speedway, or 'Dirt Track Racing' as it was then called, began in February 1928, out in the car park, various marquees displayed Speedway bikes including WSRA President Terry Stone's pre-war Douglas & Rudge machines, to Japs, Jawas, (and even an Ove Fundin-replica Jawa with a Jap engine) , plus GMs and a very rare "Cole Jap", an engine built by the father of former English International, Howard Cole. Alf Hagon was there with his record-breaking Jap sprint bike and there were vintage cars and motorcycles and sidecars. Unsilenced Japs, Douglas and Jawas could be heard being fired up during the day and that familiar whiff of Castrol 'R' hung in the air. By early afternoon, the rain had stopped, a watery sun appeared and large crowds gathered for the Cycle Speedway races in the car park with riders from 6years old and upwards racing round a temporary track lined with straw bales. Winners of the VCSRA (Veteran Cycle Speedway Riders' Association) Trophy, was the Kesgrave club from Ipswich, but everyone enjoyed watching a different type of racing. It is surprising just how many Speedway riders began in Cycle Speedway as over 300 riders went from pedals to power over the years. Amongst the Speedway riders mingling in the crowd, were Fred & Ian Williams, Mike Broadbank, Alan Moggridge, Dingle Brown, Malcolm Simmons, Clive Hitch and Bengt Jansson who had flown over from Sweden for the occasion. Former referee and now FIM official, Graham Brodie, kindly donated a large framed drawing of the all-conquering Oxford team to the Museum. The picture is signed by all the Oxford riders including superstars such as Hans Neilsen and Simon Wigg and it will now be on display in the Museum. BSI/IMG Speedway had kindly donated two tickets for the Cardiff Grand Prix as a raffle prize and these were won by Chris Samuel of Harlow, so for Chris it was a nice present for braving the weather. So thanks to everyone who turned out on Sunday, it was a great day despite the early morning snow and thanks to former rider and Paradise Park owner, Peter Sampson for throwing open the gates of the Wildlife Park free of charge for Speedway folk and I am glad that he didn't throw open the gates of the Tigers and Lions cages too! Bert Harkins" |