21/11/2010

Speed







Fantastic images from the Streetracker blog.

Hero

It is exactly ten years since we lost one of the true greats of British speedway and track racing.

Throughout the eighties and nineties, Simon Wigg was one of the countries most successful motorcycle racers. Although he was a speedway rider of the highest order, it was on the super fast grasstrack's and continental "longtrack's" where he really excelled. He won the World Longtrack Championship five times between 1985 and 1994.

His career was cut short at the end of 1998 when a brain tumor was diagnosed and it tragically claimed his life two years later.

As well as being incredibly successful as a racer, Simon was also one of the sports true characters off track, a real showman who lit up the speedway scene at a time when the sport was losing the high profile it had enjoyed in the seventies and early eighties.

Simon was always ultra professional with his bikes and general set up and he was always looking for ways to improve the sport and the way it was presented. His trademark bright green leathers meant that he and his sponsors always stood out on track and in many ways he was genuinely ahead of his time.

We highly recommend the book "Wiggy!" published by Retro Speedway.