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GRASS TRACK CHAMPIONS - UK & Continental Europe The final of the 2010 "British Masters" 500cc Grass Track Championship Rhodes Minnis, Kent. (winner Andrew Appleton, nearest camera,) Grass Track Racing - UK | |
| | | Background. The UK’s Solo Grass Track Championship Rolls of Honour are liberally scattered with names readily recognisable to the speedway follower: - Loram, Collins, Screen, Pusey, Morton, Wigg, Hagon, Briggs, Tatum, etc. Being very much a week-end only sport, v/v speedway’s hectic 7-day schedules, Grass Track racing has long been a development route and proving ground for youngsters and would-be speedway riders, an introductory route into the professional sport, (though for today’s Grass and Long Track stars at least, it is now a paying occupation.) Whilst a total of just 14-18 riders partake in a full speedway meeting, in excess of that number can ride in a single Grass Track race and the entrant field across the classes can easily reach 200, hence opportunity and experience are more readily achieved by starting racing on grass. 
Organised and run by local amateur motorcycle clubs, bikes in past times were a mix of scramblers and speedway-style machines with gearbox, rear suspension and brakes. Primarily in rural communities these clubs organised Scrambles, (now ‘Motocross’,) through a long summer season and Trials in the winter months and would fit in a limited season of Grass Tracking after haymaking and before harvest time on the newly-cut fields. Today it's an Easter to November racing season. Photo'd left: Lew Coffin c.1950 Kidney-shaped tracks were often used as much as ovals in the past, the deliberate inclusion of a right-hand bend, perhaps with undulations or even on a hillside, intended to present more of a challenge to the rider and create interest for the crowd. Track lengths were and are variable, around 400-500 metres plus, whereas speedway circuits have become smaller over the years, many now below 300m. and inside their original circuits, (e.g. Ipswich and Birmingham speedway.) Mindful no doubt of continental tracks, the circuit of the ‘Lincolnshire Poacher’ Grass Track Classic measures 1000m and qualifies for designation as a Long Track race, (see below.) Today grass bikes have no brakes and a 2-speed box, all tracks are oval, i.e. 2 straights and 2 bends, - no right-hand bends - , and youngsters may compete in Junior Grass Track racing from the age of 6, junior clubs catering for riders with motocross bikes as well as Grasstrack machines. n.b. The majority of Grass Track meetings as well as continental LongTrack meetings covered on the next page include a sidecar class, (or two, - 500cc & 1000cc,) but such championships are not covered on this website. 
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| Championship Results. Though the earliest meetings first took place in the 1920s it was 1951 before the amateur clubs collaborated to run a national Grass Track championship on the Mallory Park 1660yd pony trotting circuit used by the Leicester Query M/C.C. following the collapse of the Pony Club project. (The track subsequently got tarmaced, modified, and switched to road racing, for bikes and cars.) Today the pinnacle of the domestic Grasstrack season is the ACU’s 500cc solo "British Masters" Championship held at Rhodes Minnis, Kent, which also determines who is to represent the UK at international level in the FIM World Longtrack Championship. 500 Class:  The first 500cc Class Championship winner in 1951 was Cradley Heathen Dick Tolley (left) with an average winning speed of 61.65mph on the 1660yd Leicestershire track. Dick was the eldest of three local speedway brothers, who (with Les and Jim Tolley,) all gave continued service to Midlands speedway at Birmingham, Tamworth and Wolverhampton as well as at Dudley Wood speedway throughout the immediate post-war period. The 3 rode together in the 1952 Cradley Heath team.
Over the years the most successful riders in the National 500 Solo Championships have been Alf Hagon, (Oxford Cheetahs & Leicester Hunters,) with 4 titles in the ‘50s; Simon Wigg (Cradley Heath & Exeter Falcons,) 6 titles in the ‘80s before his premature retirement due to terminal illness, and Kelvin Tatum, (Coventry Bees, Sky TV, and England speedway captain,) in the ‘90s with 4 titles and 5 rostrum places. Other notable-name winners were Screen, Loram, Maxted, Pusey, Luckhurst and Briggs, (- Murray Briggs, brother of Barry.)   above: Lew Coffin & Alf Hagon,(4x 500 champ, 7x 350 champ) Don Godden,(3x 500 champ) 350 Class:  Hagon senior was even more effective in the 1960s on his 350 JAP, winning 7 national championships, - 6 consecutively. He then gave up speedway and grass tracking to concentrate on Drag Racing, where he eventually became the first man to better 10 seconds for the standing ¼ mile on his 1000cc HagonJap, to be followed by being the first to achieve a terminal speed of 200mph. Steve Schofield, in the ‘80s took 7 350cc titles, and Jason Hadley in the ‘00s had 8 championship wins. Speedway-notable name winners included Chris Pusey (left: 1977 Champ,) Screen, Briggs, plus Peter Collins, Chris Morton and Bill Bridget, Wolverhampton promoter of the time. 250 Class:  The Baybutt brothers Dave and Chris (left, 1976 Champ,) together won 7 250cc national championships in the ‘70s, whilst the most successful national Grass Track champion across all classes was Mark Wadsworth, wining 13 250cc Championships between 1978 and 1999, (and 6 additional rostrum placings, meaning that only 3 times in 22 years was he not placed.) U21 Class; Introduced in 2000, the U21 (500cc) Grass Track Chamionship was first won by another Tolley, Ryan Tolley, whilst the present 2011 champion is Tom Perry (right) who also rides speedway for Dudley Heathen. The Heathens therefore have representation at both ends of the Grass Track Championship table, as holders of the oldest senior and the newest junior championship ! .................................................................................................................    
Coventry 1946 Biggin 1966 Avondale 1995 Maidstone 2010
Andrew Appleton, 2010 500cc Solo Grass Track, "British Masters" Champion and 2010 European Grass Track Champion. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Grass Track Racing - EUROPE 
- European GrassTrack Championship
- ADAC Silver Helmet, Gy - Golden Helmet of Tetrow Bergring, Gy plus Bergring Cup, plus speedway: Capercaille Cup, Schildburg Cup - Silver Rose of Zweibrucken, Gy - Golden Pheasant of the Main Valleys, Gy - Golden Apple of Bodensee, Gy - Golden Helmet of Roden, NL Continental Grass Track Championships Although Grass Track racing on the continent, at the upper level, i.e. World Championship GPs, is encompassed within the Long Track sphere, there are nonetheless specific grass track competitions, including a European Championship operated under the auspices of the UEM. The European Grass Track Championship was established in 1978 since when successes have been well distributed amongst competing riders over the years, with no domination other than nationally by German and British participants. The 2011 champion is Martin Smolinski, (rt.) of Bavaria. Stefan Tresarrieu Martin Smolinski 2008 European Grass Track Champion, 2011 EGT Champion ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ADAC Silver Helmet The ADAC Silver Helmet of Germany, like its LongTrack/Sandbahn counterpart the Golden Helmet, is put up for competition annually at alternating venues throughout the country for Grass Track racing. 7 riders have won both the Silver Helmet and the Golden Helmet in the same season, including Riss 3 times amongst his 4 successful years. Fellow countryman Robert Barth has also been ADAC Grass Track Champion 4 times, whilst Brits (plus Mauger,) have taken the trophy 8 times in total. Kelvin Tatum and speedway world Champion Bjorn Knutsson are riders to have done the double by winning both the Gold and the Silver helmets in the same year. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Tetrow Bergring Golden Helmet  
This event in the former East Germany has a history back to the 'fifties when the pre-war mountain grass track circuit was relaid after war-time crop production and the 'Bergring Cup' introduced under a new club structure. The Bergring Gold Helmet was added to the Pentecost (i.e. Whitsun) weekend programmes from 1974 onward, and whilst the race is unchanged the change of motor racing authority from ADMC to ADAC has given rise to the new title for the competition of 'Bergring Green Band.' since 2007.  The 1877m. track is practically unique by todays standards with its dips and rises of up to 16%,(1-in-6), 30m. drops, and its dumbell shape giving right-hand bends in addition to left. With only one event per year riders have no opportunity to gain experience on the unusual track, other than the eve-of-race practice day. Bikes are modified with extended suspension travel front and rear, and swinging footrest for the right-hand bends, (see green elastic, below, to retract rest.) After a number of British Cup wins participation was closed to Western riders throughout the DDR after 1971 and thus there was no Golden Helmet winner from the West until after perestroika when Simon Wigg won the Cup in 1991 and the Golden Helmet in 1992. He took both trophies in 1993 & '95: Trevor Banks took both in '98 and Kelvin Tatum, emulating his father's Cup win of 1961, took the Golden Helmet and the Bergring Cup in both 1999 and 2004. King of the Mountain Ring was clearly oft-time East German national Long Track Champion, Deitmar Lieschke with 14 successes, - 6 doubles - , in a span of 11 years until injuries terminated his career in 1986.   left: Deitmar Lieschke in 1977 right: Simon Wigg in 1992    
1958 1st Cup 1974 1st GH 1979 1989 ........................................................................ Since 2002 the Tetrow club has added a 314m. speedway oval in the 'Bergring Arena,' with 2 international meetings, at Pentecost and in September each year, at which intially Americans Hamill, Ermolenko and Hancock, (runner-up,) then latterly Sebastian Ulamek of Poland have dominated. Tetrow Speedway  | CAPERCAILLIE | CUP | | | SCHILDBURG | CUP | |
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| | WINNER | 2nd | 3rd | / | WINNER | 2nd | 3rd |
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2011 | A.Loktajev | O.Allen | A.Karpov | | S.Ulamek | M.Jablonski | T.Gapinski |
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2010 | P.Hougaard | S.Ulamek | S.Hefenbrok | | N.Magosi | T.Gapinski | M.Ferjan |
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2009 | M.Ferjan | T.Gapinski | A.Gomolski | | S.Ulamek | J.Monberg | M.Ferjan |
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2008 | S.Ulamek | Ruud | T.Bachelor | | T.Kroner | N.Klingberg | J.Screen |
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2007 | S.Ulamek | M.Ferjan | C.Louis | | G.Walasek | S.Ulamek | M.Ferjan |
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2006 | B.Hamill | S.Ulamek | N.Klingberg | | S.Ulamek | C.Hefenbrock | M.Kroger |
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2005 | S.Ermolenko | L.Dryml | S.Andersson | | S.Ulamek | S.Andersson | G.Walasek |
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2004 | B.Hamill | S.Ermolenko | N.Klingberg | | P.Karlsson | N.Klingberg | S.Ermolenko |
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2003 | S.Ulamek | T.Wiltshire | S.Johnston | | - | - | - |
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2002 | T.Wiltshire | G.Hancock | Dados | | - | - | - |
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~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ More 'International Grass-Track' Competitions in Europe Golden Pheasant of the Main Valleys Silver Rose of Zweibrucken Golden Apple of Bodensee   
Silver Rose of Zweibrucken Inaugurated in the early 1960s, the local Motor Sports Club held it first Grass Track event on the long established horse racing circuit of Zweibrucken, a town noted for its equestrian activities of racing and breeding and of its rose gardens. When the horse racing association rebuilt its facilities at the end of the century the 1008m Grass Track course was forced to be reduced to 650m so that the track involvement with international Long Track activities has been curtailed though top-level racing, including periodic staging of the German national ADAC Silver Helmet competition continues. During its Long Track period big-name winners have included Moran, Pedersen, Michanek, Crump and Wigg (3x, - seen photo rt.) as well as national heros such a Gerd Riss, a double winner as well as being a 5x winner of the 'Silver Rose' on its present-day shorter grass circuit, on which UK's Kelvin Tatum has also succeeded. 1989: Simon Wigg, JanO Pedersen, Gerd Riss. Rt;Simon Wigg, 1995 
The Golden Pheasant has been raced for for over 50 years at Klein Krotzenburg, east of Frankfurt and a number of Brits have taken wins including Malcolm Simmons as early as 1970. Present day No.1 German Long-Tracker Stefan Katt has had 3 wins in the last decade. 
The Golden Apple grass track meeting was run for 20 years uti 1991at Langnau in the Lake Constance (Bodensee) region of Baden-Wurttemberg. Successes have gone to Don Godden, to World Champs Anders Michanek, Egon Muller and the ubiquitous Simon Wigg, (rt,) - grass/long-track's equivalent of Ivan Mauger. Karl Maier was a 4-times winner, with a hat-trick at the end of the 'eighties.    Bernt Diener 2007 Golden Helmet of Roden, NL  
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