Welland races cancelled!!

Several racers get ready to practice for Sat 29th event at Niagara motorcycle raceway. Following severe rain on Thursday the races have been cancelled for this Sat 29th July. A scuba class will take its place and a full C.M.A licence will get you in!! The food booth will be open serving a variety of fresh aquatic life caught very locally.(on turn 4)

Stan Bradbury night. Paris 28th July 2006!!!

This coming Friday night at Paris Speedway, we will take a unique opportunity to celebrate the life of one of our very dear friends, Mr. Stan Bradbury.We will celebrate Stan's 80 years, with a great night including some exciting racing. Stan will provide two bikes for us to see, the amazing examples of his 1930's JAP speedway bike and his Canadian Championship winning Weslake. A keepsake program will be given to the crowd, as will the invitation to join us on the track centre green for celebration cake and treats following the racing! Many fans will know little about this quiet unassuming gentlemen of speedway and the amazing influence his has had, and still does have, upon speedway racing in Canada. We hope to change this, and when you leave the night's fun, you will also have the love and dedication toward a true 'Gentleman of Speedway' that everyone who knows Stan closely has! Ensure that you please spread the word, tell your friends and families, work colleagues and anyone else you possibly can, to join us in this historic night in Canadian Speedway!

Mother nature strikes!!

With 28 riders from Quebec to California signed in to ride the Canadian speedway national ,mother nature made it a no go!! With track conditions excellent at around 5pm, a steady rain soaked the already wet clay based track to the point of no return and the races were cancelled around 6.30 pm . Thanks to the 15 or so members of the Canadian vintage mototcycle group that showed their bikes at the track. But now the good news!! All the U.S riders that showed want to return next Saturday as long as Action Park, outside Binghamton, does not run. Shawn McConnell told me in the bar afterwards that he was very impressed with the club and its facilities and said he was looking forward to racing here. Road trip to Batavia next Friday 28th for the second round of the U.S open leaving around 3pm. Anyone interested contact me.

Welland weather update!!

Just called the track and Kevin Robillard tonights national referee says its on as of now (12 noon)
905 734 7058 is the phone number for the track and there will be someone by the phone.

Rain!! Rain!! Rain!!

Its now 10.00am and it has been raining here in St Catharines heavily for an hour at least. The forecast is for more rain too. Check back at 12 noon for an update by which time I will have called the track aswell!! Andy

McConnell makes his mark at Batavia!!

Quick results from Batavia Motor Speedway for Friday 21st July. 1st round U.S open
But........ Josh Larsen was missing from the field due to work commitments and will not be at Welland for the Canadian speedway national Saturday 22nd July.

1. Shawn McConnell
2. George Lazor
3. Casey Donholt
4. Gene Bonsignore
5. Dukie Ermolenko
Support
1. Corey Brookes

Big win for Josh Larsen!!!

Josh Larsen became the California state champion on Saturday night at Industry Hills speedway. Read the full story of the night and on the rider that is set to make his debut, in Canada, at the Canadian speedway national at the Welland County motorcycle club, this saturday night! (Practice at 5.30 and rider intros at 7pm)
http://www.worldspeedway.com/artman/publish/article_739.shtml

**** CANADIAN SPEEDWAY NATIONAL****

As of Saturday night I have 30 plus confirmed riders and in "Great links" click the "Welland pics" to view head shots af all of them. Also, the Canadian vintage motorcycle group will display at least 10 vintage machines and lap the track in the interval. Brian Kearsey(Industrial cryogenic enterprises) will provide a radar gun and speeds of the heats will be anounced both at the track live and on air in Wheels n dirt the following night on Tv Cogeco. Stan Bradbury will have a 1948 J.A.P speedway bike and a new Jawa laydown side by side on display.

Batavia win for "The Dark horse"!!

Friday 14th 2006

The US vs Canada match was changed to a regular program because the Canadians could come up with enough riders for a team.

1. Jeremy Parsons
2. Mikey Buman
3. Gene Bonsignore
4. George Lazor
5. Mike Robinson

Support winner was Brad Hazel

Sheffield Tigers go top of league

TERRIFIC Tigers are back on top of the Premier League after a 60-32 win over Newcastle at Owlerton. Skipper Andre Compton continued his unstoppable form with five unbeaten rides and both Ricky Ashworth and Kyle Legault also claimed maximums. But in the early stages Newcastle threatened to keep the scores close as they shared three of the opening four heats.Sheffield opened up a comfortable 19-11 lead in a delayed heat 5 after Christian Henry was excluded for stopping the race when he hit the fence at high speed. They never looked back as Newcastle failed to put up any resistance for the rest of the meeting, even when boss George English nominated riders for double points under the tactical ride rule. Pirtek Tigers had the last word with Ashworth and Compton brushing aside Henry and Franc in heat 15 to send the home fans home happy.PIRTEK TIGERS: Andre Compton 14+1, Ricky Ashworth 13+1, Kyle Legault 10+2, Emiliano Sanchez 9, Ben Wilson 8+1, Paul Cooper 4, Mark Thompson 2+1. NEWCASTLE: Christian Henry 10+1, Chris Mills 8+3, George Stancl 6, James Grieves 4+1, Josef Franc 3, Adam Mckinna 1+1, Manuel Hauzinger injured.

Jeff Orosz!! setting up for the national??

A cool night brought out some hot racing between the 14 division one riders at Welland for the week 5 event. Jeff Orosz, still recovering from a nasty fall in St. alex, made good bike changes during the night and picked the inside gate for the final. To his right was, unbeaten, Arron Hesmer. Adam Mittl, John kehoe and Joe heye up against the fence completed the line up for what was the most anticipated speedway final of the season, so far. Jumpin' Jeff left the line first with Hesmer in hot pursuit but pulled away to an incredible lead considering the talent of the riders behind him. Adam Mittl forced his way through for third and John Kehoe hung onto fourth place until the last bend when Joe Heye squeezed by the take the place away from Kehoe. When I interviewed Jeff, trackside after the final, for the show, his comments to one of my questions on the final was, "I'been s******g myself all week, thinking about it, Andrew!"
The "B" main was lead from the start by "showman" Bobby Muszinski until, first Mikey Buman from second shed a primary chain and then Bobby did the same. This handed the lead to "Hotdog" Freddie Legault with Rob Dixon and Gary "The Hitman" Hesmer taking third.
"The "C" main was lead from start to finish by Marc Gauthier with Drew Kehoe, Bart Moskala and Doug Beaumont.
Division 2 was dominated by Andy "The black eye" Crawford with John Bennett, Terry Rideout (first time at Welland), Tim Murray and Al Chisholm.

Hesmer wins Paris again!!

Another night of superb thrills and spills were presented at Paris Speedway on a lovely warm summer night. The night was full of some superb racing, which was not only enjoyed by the spectators, but fellow riders also. The Polish sensation, Peter Fornal once again proved that he is determined to make a name for himself in speedway and he battled all night with Graham Wale to come out a strong winner, after Graham was too quick at the start of the final and he touched the flying tapes. Having to start back 15 yards, Graham was unsuccessful in his bid to win the night. Congratulations to Peter for another personal best! Division 2 was a battle and a half! Corinne Franic, Terry Rideout, Bob Mosquera, Tom Marriott and others, were left behind by the amazingly quick and focused George Lavender. George rode fast and hard this night and worked well to maneuver around the challenges especially from Corinne Franic in the final event. Corinne was unable to get the required grip on the outside line to get past the charging Lavender. Once again George proved that his style and control is a winning combination at the Paris track. Well done George and also congratulations to George's wife who won the 50/50 draw! Division 1 was a tightly fought battle right to the end. Joe Heye took another big leap forward and won his first couple of heats really well. He had a superb race with 'The Hitman' Gary Hesmer. Gary started really well and pulled away from Joe for 2 laps, but Joe's 'do or die attitude', threw him closer and closer, until the last lap where Joe went under a wide Hesmer and took the lead on bend 1/2. Gary was having none of this, and gave it all he had on turn 3/4 only to lose by half a bike length to a very happy Joe Heye! Jeff Orosz was again proving his worth at Paris, his calm composed attitude was very evident in his heats, of which he came out a winner in a couple of them. He made the final event, but unfortunately was not a winner this night! Aaron Hesmer was having some set-up problems and finished below par in his first 2 heats. After having made some changes to his gearing and wheel settings, he sprung out ahead and rode very well. The final event of the night was won very comfortably by Aaron, after having a text-book start! He rode hard, controlled and fast to take the night's award for Division 1 by a big margin ahead of Joe Heye, Jeff Orosz and Gary Hesmer respectively. Great racing and a wonderful night for all to see!

U.S open at Batavia

The final schedule for this years US Open Championships will be confirmed in the next several days but three out of State racers have been confirmed so far and a fourth is due to be confirmed soon. Reigning Champion, Shawn "Mad Dog" McConnell will be returning as will former British League Star, Dukie Ermolenko, and Californian John Stasiefski. Ermolenko was 2nd in the 2003 US Open and Stasiefski is no stranger to NY having spent parts of several seasons here back in the late 70's/early 80's. The fourth rider due to be confirmed soon is the 2000 US Open Champion and former World Finalist and Grand Prix rider, Josh Larsen of Newport Beach.The Open will take place over July 21-July 30. More details to follow.
Jason

Big home win for Tigers and Legault!!

SHEFFIELD 59 NEWPORT 33. SHEFFIELD Pirtek Tigers have one foot in the semi-finals of the Knockout Cup after coming on strong towards the end of Thursday's first leg against Newport. The South Wales side had kept things tight in the early stages to only trail by six points at the half-way stage - but Sheffield finished with five 5-1s in the last seven heats to rattle up a 26-point lead and whilst Newport have won their last two home matches by almost that number of points, Tigers' recent form on the road makes them strong favourites to progress from Sunday's second leg. Sheffield's only significant success in the opening eight heats was a third-race 5-1 from Emiliano Sanchez and Kyle Legault and with Newport working hard on containment the score after Heat 8 was 27-21 in Tigers' favour.But Sanchez was then to the fore as he and Kyle Legault left Carl Wilkinson and Billy Legg trailing in the ninth and the lively Sanchez then partnered Ricky Ashworth home in Heat 10.Newport did pull two points back when Doolan finished second on a tactical ride in heat 11, ahead of Atkin, but three more 5-1s in the final three heats - including two spectacular passes by Ashworth over Doolan - means the Welshmen will have to pull off one of the shocks of the season if they are to earn a plum semi date against Somerset. Both Ashworth and home skipper Andre Compton were in untouchable form for Sheffield with maximums while Sanchez and Legault each had four paid wins in their double-figure returns. PIRTEK TIGERS: Andre Compton 15, Ricky Ashworth 13+2, Kyle Legault 12+2, Emiliano Sanchez 11+1. Paul Cooper 7+1, Benji Compton 1+1. WASPS: Kevin Doolan 11, Joel Parsons 7+1, Carl Wilkinson 5, Neil Collins 4, Tony Atkin 3+2, Chris Schramm 3+1, Billy Legg 0.

Welland Speedway National 22nd july 2006

I will guarantee $100.00 canadian to the first 10 speedway riders from from out of Ontario that mail me to confirm and ride the Welland speedway national 22nd July 2006. I need to hear from you now!! so i can set up the sponsorship so dont delay!!!! This year is the 60th year of the club so act now!! The most riders in recent history is 33 ('92 I think) so lets beat it!!! Mail me!! If you want to sponsor a rider mail me too so I can set all this up in time!

Bad news for travelling riders to Quebec!!

The Nationals round at St-Alex was not run. The effect of heavy rains in the area for several days before the event made it impossible to get the track into shape to race on it although, ironically, the weather on Saturday was hot and sunny.
Duncan Luke.

Main win for John Kehoe

John kehoe won the 6 man main at Welland last night to take his first victory lap at the track in 2006. On a track that had received a large amount of natures watering during the days before the event, the track volunteers wheel packed the track while the crowd waited and to every ones amazement, rewatered the track. No practice was allowed as time was running out and the riders were given a couple of hot laps before their heat. With the other riders help the speedway heats ran with a good racing surface and the speeds for the races were very quick. Johns' first heat,however, left him scratching his head as he ran second to a very quick Rob Dixon. Still wondering about his first heat defeat, he ran second behind Joe Heye. Joe, on his first visit to Welland this year, looked decidedly lacking in his first heat however and ran last. With a seven man turn out, Fred Legault lost his engine after his first heat and took no further part in the event. This left Bennett, Small, Drew kehoe, Dixon and Heye to follow John Kehoe home in the final. John lead from the line and Joe chased and caught him but was unable to make enough speed to get past John.

Orosz takes Paris main!!

One of the nicest guys in Canadian speedway made himself a winner at Paris Speedway on Friday night. Peter Fornal put the wheel in the groove and rode his best race of his life, to win the Division 3 final. He battled hard with Sheffield's own hero, "Tiger" Tom Marriott and the "Pirate" Graham Wale. Tom worked so hard that he even took a short cut on turn 3/4 and rode on the grass! Peter held his own and deservedly won a super race. Congratulations to Peter for his dream to come true! Division 2 was again a great display of some riders working hard to get themselves to a higher level. The on-going battle between Corinne Franic and Terry Rideout, once again proved to be another highlight of the night. Unfortunately in their last heat race of the night, Corinne, Terry and Tim Murray all went down in a big heap on turn 4. Corinne was the loser of the battle and ended up needing some help and assistance from the St. John's ambulance crew. She was shaken up pretty badly and took a bad knock to her bum and her head. After some work and a complete check over, she was able to walk about the pits for the rest of the night in a slight daze! She assures us that next week she will be back kicking Terry's a*#!!!!Division 2 rookie number 63, George Lavender was victorious in Divisions 2 this night, riding very smoothly and having little pressure in the final. Nice one George! He is really having a good time and likes the Paris track. Division 1 saw a fired up Joe Heye win his heat races, he looked smooth and very controlled, but unfortunately this control was lost in the final and a second place finish was the best that he could achieve, after going out wide on the first bend.Aaron Hesmer carrying a serious stomach flu bug, battled away and looked very exhausted by the nights end. He did perform well in his heats, but was unsuccessful in his attempt to pop the champagne bottle open.Both Doug Beamount and Phil Small were unlucky not to have had better luck, Doug in his first year of Division 1 racing is really getting to grips with some great looking starts and first turn battles. He is struggling to get the grip needed to maintain his speed, but with a little fine tuning, Doug will be right up there! Phil Small made a courageous effort to push himself and his Weslake hard around the Paris track. Unfortunately for Phil, the "Wessie' is not giving Phil the needed power and it also had some problems in the final, which left Phil with a DNF along side his name for the first time this year. Knowing Phil Small, this will be rectified very quickly and he will get the 'old girl' pumping hard once again next week! The main man for this nights main event was 'Jumping' Jeff Orosz. Jeff took full advantage of Joe Heye's mistake and dived under him in the final race, he took a firm hold on the race and went on to win it well. Jeff has been working very hard over the last meetings to get his set-up just right and his 'never-die' attitude is very evident in the superb display that he produced for us all to enjoy.