Tit For Tat

The war of nerves between the Provincial League and the National League continued as Exeter tracked a new signing “Reg Neal” who subsequently turned out to be National League Oxford’s Ronnie Genz in a seemingly innocuous league match against Middlesboro, which they won 52-26. “Neal” collected two paid wins before being hampered by mechanical problems. The Speedway Star report describes Neal as “looking very much like National League refugee Ronnie Genz from Oxford”! A few days later, Oxford attempted to get their own back by programming a rider under the name of “Freddie Falcon” in their challenge match. He didn’t appear and his identity was not known but it seemed certain it would have been an Exeter rider. Genz would later appear at a disciplinary tribunal to answer the charges of riding on an unlicensed track and being absent from the British Final, where he was to be first reserve. He was fined the princely sum of five pounds, which pales into insignificance against Andrews 100!

 

The End of Handicapping

The NL relied heavily on handicapping to ensure competitive racing. Reserves and “the big three” were handicapped, reserves starting ten yards ahead, while Briggs, Knutsson and Fundin were off the twenty yard mark. After a season of blown motors and sapped confidence, Briggs threatened to retire if the backmark gate wasn’t abolished. The SCB couldn’t let him retire, particularly with the British Final, the World Team Cup and the World Final all looming. They acceded to his demand but said that handicaps would be reviewed in due course. Reserves would still start ten yards ahead, suggesting that there was a huge gap in standards at the lower end of teams.

 

PLRC Final

Belle Vue had agreed to stage the 1964 PLRC final long before the dispute started and all along insisted they would honour this business agreement. The SCB put them under increasing pressure not to stage the event, threatening to ban them from the NL if it went ahead, and also listed an Aces versus Norwich fixture at Hyde Road for the same night! Mike Parker promised that no Belle Vue rider would be disadvantaged if the ban was applied, saying he would arrange meetings for them on PL tracks. Newcastle and Sheffield were amongst the first to offer to stage challenge meetings against the Aces.

The meeting did go ahead and Manchester’s biggest crowd of the season witnessed a thrilling finale which saw Newcastle’s Ivan Mauger defeat Glasgow’s Charlie Monk in a run off for the title, Roy Trigg similarly beating Peter Kelly for the third rostrum place. The SCB duly banned Belle Vue, but it was soon apparent that the Aces would be content to see the season out riding against PL teams. Within days their licence was reinstated, in time for them to race in their scheduled home fixture against Swindon. A few days later, they rode at Sheffield, a meeting that had been arranged as soon as they were informed of the ban. They later rode at Newcastle, without attracting any sanction for either fixture.