Some of the bikes used on the early dirt tracks

Our sport started in the UK in 1928. The early riders were using road machines stripped down to lighten them for extra speed. It is likely that ordinary engines burning petrol were used at first. Very quickly the mechanics and engine manufacturers turned to experimentation and innovations were brought into dirt track racing.

According to "speedway Panorama" by Ron Hoare, Ivor Hill toured South Africa in 1930 with an English team. Because Johannesburg is so far above sea level, Ivor had problems tuning the bike so he decided to run his bike on Dope (in the early days quite a lot of machines were still on petrol or Benzoline.) he went to a firm of chemists to get a formula to run his bikes which was 75% Methylated Spirit, 20% Benzine, 3% acetone and 2% ether. Running at about 9:1 compression ratio.
I am told that Sprouts Elder was running his bikes on dope in the late 1920's.

In 1929 Bill Bragg, the Captain of Stamford Bridge, approached the JAP stand at the 1929 motor cycle show at Olympia. He was anxious to obtain a better engine in order to retain his position as one of the top riders of the time. Within 3 months an experimental engine was delivered to Bill, who tried it out at Crystal Palace..................The short version is -- that the engine was an immediate success & after much testing it was tried out at Stamford Bridge where Bill unofficially lapped at an average of 46mph which was faster than the track record. Unlike the 4 valve Rudge, the Jap was a 2 valver with a high compression ratio and it ran on Methanol [wood alcohol], and ruled the roost for over 30 years.

Fuel was just one thing in the tuning of an engine. Another vital engine tuning aid was and still is "Timing" here we have below a picture of a Jap Timing Wheel

Setting up an engine was a lot easier if you owned this disc
Thanks go to Jeff Crawford, it's owner, for sending me the picture.

Tyres

American Speedway in the 1920's was centred around the Harley Davidson and Indian V twin bikes although both manufacturers made Single Cylinder 500cc bikes too. Speedway was probably started in the USA despite most claims from Australia.

Jack Young being presented with a new AJW in the summer of 1950 by his Australian sponsor Fred Jolly AJW used JAP engines

And the bike as it is today , I purchased the bike a couple of years ago and have restored it to its original condition, it had been converted to 350cc for long track we call it here (same as grass track) and the rear wheel changed etc it had been sitting in a shed for a few years .
The engine is now back to 500cc - I got most of the original parts and it has the correct wheels fitted.
I have not shown the bike anywhere yet but thought you might like some pics for your site.
I also have the ex Gerry Hussey machine I emailed you about already and a couple of surprise bikes I am working on right now but I will send more info when I am more progressed with the restorations.
Neil Burston
South Australia

Thanks Neil the bike looks great. These surprise bikes sound interesting. How about a clue?
Neil has been in touch again, he has the following declaration about the "surprise" bike.

Lindsay Mitchell with wife Thelma and their son Graham at home in Adelaide, South Australia

Neil says: I imported the Mitchell Japs in January 2008 after they had sat in a shed in Sheffield since 1959-1960 – they were sold by Frank Varey to the former owner who tried riding himself but parked the bikes shortly after till now, when he was moved into an old peoples home and they were sold by his family.

I am going to go public later this summer season and display the bikes at the running of the Jack Young Cup at Gillman speedway in Adelaide as the 51 bike is well on the way to being finished. Once the cat is out the bag the 51 bike is going to the Birdwood Museum here in South Australia.

The other bike is also a Mitchell and according to Lindsay was probably the Edinburgh track spare in 49 which was ridden by Clem at times and Jack Young when he first come to Scotland. He has been unable to positively identify it yet because it was bought in many pieces and is still in the same state away being plated.

The bike is also copper plated and press reports at the time said Young won the title on a rusty looking bike.

I have attached documents and pictures for you note the rear wheel in the pics is a 19 when in 51 it had a 22” – it was swapped when 22s were banned in 55 I think it was - but the rest of the bike has stayed pretty much as it was, I have re fitted a 22” now which I got in a pile of parts with the bikes- I had to remove a pile of rust first and get the rim reworked.

I can supply more pics for you for your site once the cat is out the bag and the bikes are more secure.

I hope you can send more pics of what is undoubtedly Jack Young's 1951 world championship winning bike and the other machines too.

Clem and Lindsay built the frame on which Jack Young won his World Titles. Known as the Mitchell frame, everybody wanted one so they sold the copyright to Victor Martins of Tottenham who were the JAP Agents. The frame became the Martin Mitchell.

A rare bike and certainly one I never heard of "The Simandl" It came out of Czechoslovakia and seems to be in a Rudge frame. In those days "Health & Safety" regs were not an issue. The bike would have been used without any guards on the chains. Many injuries would have happened as a result.
Thanks go to Jeff Dooley for sending the picture to me and if you can supply some info don't hesitate email me today John

Giffy has sent the picture shown above and the description that follows is his too Please find a photo of a Japanese speedway bike attached. It dates from 1965 and the company that made them, Kyokuto, contacted a local bike dealer here in New Plymouth, NZ, to see if he wanted to be an agent. We still have the brochures and stuff. They made a 350 and a 500 but I think they were quite a low compression motor.
Thanks Dave

Velocette. For some reason the company made 400cc speedway bikes which this one appears to be. I wonder how competitive they were

Update: Dave Gifford has been in touch about the Indian shown above he says: Now on page 4 of your Bikes site is a picture of a 20's Indian and is it the bike once used by Kiwi Spencer "Smokey" Stratton? I understand that Stratton became Promoter or team manager at Newcastle after he quit riding and was killed in a road crash coming back from a meeting at Workington? Can you verify or give me any additional info? So! can anyone shed any light email me John

I will ask around Giffy and let you know if we come up with anything John

There was an obituary in Speedway News June 11 1938. Basically confirms what you write, but dosen't specify the town where he crashed. He had been team manager of Johnnie Hoskins' Div.2 track at Newcastle. Before coming to England in 1928 he had crashed at Newcastle, NSW and been unconscious for 23 days. The article mentions his love of the "Indian" bikes.

I have a newspaper report from Monday 6th June 1938 which says that Spencer Charles Stratton, aged 33, was killed in an head-on collision between two cars at Brigham, near Cockermouth (Cumberland) on Saturday nigh (4th June).
Three companions, Canadian riders were travelling with Stratton, were seriously injured, as were the occupants of the other car (John Roan, of Cockermouth, and G.O Smith, of Whitehaven), Stratton's injured companions were Ellwood Stillwell (28) Bruce Venier (21) and Robert Sparks (23), The five injured men were taken to Cockermouth hospital with severe head and face wounds

An Indian in need of some TLC, a seat would be my first part purchased. The Indians are almost sculptures in steel. I have seen works of art with less appeal.

Reg says: This picture was part of a Christmas card received some years ago from Richard Forshaw who lived near Poole and had the Aston Martin agency. He had a collection of some 30 old machines and this was one of them - all restored. He died suddenly and his wife gave them to a Museum at Yeovil on loan.

A 1930 dirt track Norton. Who knows what might have been if Norton had channelled some of its road racing efforts into speedway

Can you say where this Peashooter was used in 1927, Australia or USA. That is a BSA in the background

This Harley Peashooter is interesting as it looks as if it has been well ridden, oil leaks were very common with early motorcycles

1928 Scott, the only two stroke engine used in speedway. The most famous rider to use a Scott was Frank Varey

3 Douglas DT machines, they are owned by Terry Stone a member of the Men In Black and VSRA. The bikes are in tip top shape and ready to race in Men in Black events. The Douglas was the only bike to have flat twin engines. The low centre of gravity and longer wheelbase gave rise to "leg trailing"

Immense early machine and the most successful twin cylinder engine that speedway has ever known. Maybe modern day manufacturers Jawa and GM should experiment with a modern version of the Douglas.

The famous red tank says that these are Rudges. Top picture is of a 1934 model and the other is from 1928. That was it as far as Rudge and speedway go 5 or 6 years of manufacturing speedway machines although a few bikes would have been in use throughout the reminder of the 1930's.

These are the specifications of the highly successful but all to brief reign of the Rudge

A rare machine. OEC stands for Osbourne Engineering Company. I am told by Terry Stone that there are only 2 left, of this model in the world. The other one is in New Zealand. I wonder what the black rod is running parallel with the ground. Surely that would hit the ground on the corners.
Jim Henry Says: Hi John. The OEC you show on your web site and comment about the bar near the bottom of the machine is a very rare bird. It is a centre hub steer machine and is not like any other bike you will see. I've sat on the bike a few times and it is difficult to take in just how the the mechanism works. It is an amazing bit of engineering. It used to belong to Ivor Thomas (Barry's brother) and I saw Ivor ride it at a BMF Rally at Peterborough. I'm sure MCN magazine published a photo of Ivor using it

A beautifully restored OEC JAP. Not much to say other than if you want a beautiful bike get an old JAP

Terry Stone's 1960 Rotrax JAP. Arguably the most successful Speedway machine. It dominated world speedway for such a long time

I believe that the frame is a Jawa from 1970's with the last of the JAP engines from around 1980. I am surprised if it is true as I didn't know JAP were still in business as late as that. So come on then put me right John

Jawa 1968 or 69. These Czech built bikes took over from the JAP. Mainly because the Jawa was cheaper and easier to maintain. Most of the pictures shown above came from Terry Stone. Thank you Terry for sharing them with us.

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