Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127927
FEATURE Speedway 101 By Paul Carruthers Photos by Gary Briggs and Scott Rousseau 28 'll be the first to admit that printing ou t my last will and testament from my home computer was a bit excessive, but I do enough silly things around here to make it a worthwhile endeavor. It also gav e my family mu chneeded peace of mind, knowing that they could split the bills evenly and still have enoug h left over for a week's worth of groceries. With my mind put at ease as the athome-lawyer computer program spewed out the necessary paperwork from the print er, I on ly had thr ee or four things left to ponder as my da y of speed way schoo l rapidly approached : the need for a steel shoe; a reall y cool nickname (i.e., Sudden Sam , The Edge, Boogaloo, Too Ta ll, Cra zy, etc.): and Gene-Gene the Dancing Machi ne's phone number. For those who have never spe nt a Friday or Satu rday nigh t swi lling beer at Southern Cali forn ia ' s Cos ta Mesa Spe ed w a y, Gene's the most famous d rinke r of them a ll as h e e nter tai ns th e crow d b y tightrope walki ng on the crash wall that lines t he track. In fact, in ad d ition to being able to drink more beer than me, Gene also had it over on me in that he'd been a lot closer to a speedway track than I had - by a good 10 or 15 ya r ds . Still, when th e opport u ni ty presented its elf for me to joi n s peedway ra ci n g leg end Barry Briggs and mod ern-day World Cham pions Greg Ha ncock and Billy Hamill for a day of riding, I jum ped at it. This had all the makin gs of a fantasy ca m p for any sp eedway fanatic. And, al tho ugh I' ve nev er really fan tasized about speedway, I wanted to d isp ro ve the myth that a speedway bike is some mystical machi ne that can' t be ridden by mere mortals. And wh en it comes to riding moto rcycles, I definit ely fall headlong into that ca tegory kn own as Mr . Mere Mortal. If you mentio n to enough people that you ha ve p la ns to go para chu ting, chan ces are you 'll run into a few peopl e who know everything there is to know abou t parachutin g. Not so wi th speedway. I leak ed w ord of wh at I. h ad planned, and only got back a few bits of advi ce. On e tidbit came from three-time SOOcc World Champion Wayne Raineyas close to an expert as I could find, conside ring that he'd taken part in a speedway exhibition once with Bruce Penhall. Wayne told me to be car eful, go in slow and wick it up to slide it out of the corner. One thing that kept coming up no matter wh o I spo ke to were those two wo rds: "Be careful." Like I kn ow any other way... Greg Han cock stopped by the office, seeming ly to see just how scared I was. I think I did a good job of making him believe I'd be just fine, though he di d a lot of g rin ni ng. And he seemed somewh at relieved tha t we ha d arran ged to get a Weslake from Bill Cody - or, back to that nickname thing, "Wild Bill" Cody and tha t I woul d n' t be thro wi ng a leg over his world bea ter. Then Barry Briggs came by for a visit. Can you spot the World Champ ion? If you guessed that the photo above Is of 1996 World Speedway Champ ion Bill y Hamill , then yo u' re right. The auth or is pictured below, do ing a bad impression of Hamill. compan y, mind you - I wanted to be certain that my com pa ny wo uld be worse speedw ay riders than me. Ini tiall y, my fath er di dn't come to mind. After all, his fa ther (m y grand fa ther) wa s a sidecar speedway champion in Aus tralia. I knew that speedway was in his blood - blood tha t had to have been watered down a bit by the time it got to yours tru ly- Anyway, , once Briggs go t word that Kel even had the lightest interes t in giving speedway a go , it was ov er. Dad was bait ed in to Speedw a y 101 after no t-so-astutely remindin g Bri g g s that s p ee d w ay couldn' t be all tha t difficult- after all, he knew of a few New Zealanders who had become World Champions. Ou ch. Briggs now had tw o reasons to attend: He was go ing to make certa in that his fav orite ed ito r didn't hurt him self; and he was now also on board to make sure that if Kel failed, he was there to witness it. Ok ay, so I'd man aged to bring in someone older than I, bu t I wasn' t sold on th e fac t that he'd be s lower. By a stro ke of good luck, my nex t incoming phon e call put that wor ry asid e. It was Speedvision television host Larry Maiers, w ho was ac tua lly al ready" sig ned o n, since Rousseau had arranged for Maiers' "Bike Week" television show to come out a n d film Ha ncock and H amill for a n upcomi n g segmen t o n th e p rogram . On ce I talked him into actually riding, I knew that I was gua ra nteed not to be the slowest speed wa y rid er in Sp eedway 101. Even if Maiers was the most talented motorcycle racer in the world (he isn 't), I knew I could do enoug h pre-ride psychological da mage to ensure that he'd make me look good. Proof of tha t cam e several yea rs ago in the form of a little racquetball game , bu t that's ano ther story entirely... . So w it h misery ens u red of having plen ty of company, I we nt off to school still withou t a nickna me and a steel shoe. I knew the steel shoe was going to be the (From left to ri ght) TV st ar Larry Maiers, the author, Kel Carruthers and current Worl d Champ io n Greg Hancock listen to inst ruction from Billy Hamill. Hancock didn 't need the help; the rest of us needed plenty . Despite wo rds that said othe rwise, I kn ew h e was co nvince d that I was d o omed . I th in k h e also uttered th e words... "Be carefu l." In fact, Briggs - a lon gtime family friend - was concerned enoug h that he volunteered to show up and hel p. Hancock and Hamill wou ld teach me to ride a speedway bike; Briggs would be there to make sure I survived. My other advice came from associa te editor Scott Rou sseau, who claims to be a sfX >ed~ay man from way back. Since he had at least raced a speedway bike for a few years, I showed him respect enoug h to listen. He ga ve such valuable insig ht as: "When you go into a corner, just pretend that you' re stepping ou t int o a bucket." That was a big help. "It's like sliding yo u r bic y cle whe n yo u w ere a k id ." Whoa - watch ou t, Hans Nie lsen . Completely overmatched, I decided I wanted so me co m pa ny . Not just any