Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

---------------------------------------------------------------- ICE World Champion Anthony Barlollfl Anthony Barlow is one cool speedway racer. By SCOTT ROUSSEAU PHOTOS COURTESY OF ANTHONY BARLOW n n the world of motorcycle racing, the sport of speedway is unique. By design, the brakeless, transmission-less, hard-tailed alky burners share little more than two wheels and a four-stroke motor in common with that Honda CRF450R down at your local dealer. Outside of the pages of Cycle News, chances are that many of our readers have never even seen a speedway bike up close, met a real speedway racer or seen a real speedway race. If you could find 500 speedway riders in America, you'd be scratching. But among them, you would find Anthony Barlow, and you'd probably realize that Barlow ranks as one of a kind. First off, he's an Englishman racing speedway in America, whereas the average topshelf American quickly dashes off to England in order to ply his trade. Second, you won't find him doing his thing at weekly American speedway strongholds such as Costa Mesa or Auburn in California or Owego in New York. Third, he doesn't race speedway on dirt. Barlow is the defending International Championship Events (ICE) World Champion, and his forte lies in sliding his way around hockey rinks in oddball locales ranging from Boise, Idaho to Charlotte, North Carolina. ICE racing is no ordinary speedway race. 32 DECEMBER 1 1. 2002' cue I • n _ "The thing is that it's very intimidating, and the dashers don't move," Barlow said. "The secret is to get out of the start and hold the line, but if you've got me or Charlie Venegas coming after you, it's not that easy. You've just got to get out there and go as fast as you can for four laps and try to hang on." While Barlow may be a speedway champion, he's not exactly a household name - not even within the sport itself. This is not to suggest that won't change, however. Once a series that used to host only four rounds a year, the ICE series now has over a dozen events scheduled for the 2002-2003 racing season. Barlow says that he has seen the attendance grow in everyone of the four years he has contested it. "At the last year's race in Boise, Idaho, we had over 6500 people come to see us, and when they see it, they love it." Born in 1972 near Liverpoole, England, it was anything but love when he started riding his first bike, an Italjet, when he was 5 years old. "I didn't even want to get on the bike at first," Barlow remembers. "My sister rode it first, and she was a year younger than I was." Eventually, Barlow took his turn aboard the bike, and his skills developed quickly. After that, all he wanted to be was a motocross racer, but then he was introduced to the sport of speedway. ... s "I met this guy called Joe Owen when I was 14," Barlow said. "He was a speedway rider who was in a wheelchair because of speedway. To make a long story short, I asked him to help me out. I knew that I wanted to race bikes, but I wanted to race motocross." With Owen's assistance, Barlow started his racing career in grasstrack, a sort of TT/speedwaystyled discipline that amounts to little more than racing around in a large field. "I wasn't very good at it, and I really wasn't very good at speedway either. I didn't even know what speedway was, and 1remember the first time I went and saw a meeting. It was the World Team Cup, and it had guys like [Americans] Sam Ermolenko, Lance King and [Denmark'sl Erik Gundersen in it." With a fulltime apprenticeship as an automobile painter, it appeared as though Barlow's career path was clear, but after hanging around the speedway tracks and practicing during the "second half" open track time, he made a momentous decision to become a professional motorcycle racer. "I quit me job, and I just concentrated on speedway," Barlow said. "My friend had a field behind his house, and I practiced there three to four times per week for two to three hours a day. Through rain, hail, snow - all I did was practice. Then when I was 19, I got the chance to race on a semi-professional level at Stoke Speedway."

• Cover