Surprise entry in speedway
One of Australia's outstanding riders in recent years, J. Airey, is a surprise entry for the New Zealand speedway championship at the Templeton Pall Mall Speedway on Saturday night.
A former world finalist, he has won the Australian championship several times. Last vear he played a leading role in the Australian team which competed in the world league in Britain. Since then, his activities have been limited. He is using.
the New Zealand championship to bring him to full match fitness in time for the opening meeting of the international circuit at Templeton on January 23. On Saturday, the opposition he will meet will be of the very highest standard. New Zealand’s three former world champions—l. Mauger, R. L. Moore and B. Briggs —are all in the field. Mauger, runner-up in the last world championship, is particularly keen to win the title: it is one of the few which have escaped him so far. He has only competed in the national event once
before, in 1959, and then finished second to Briggs. Moore, who is still riding as well as ever after a career spanning more than 25 years, has won the championship a record four times. Although now retired from league racing in Britain, he must still be regarded as Mauger’s biggest threat. Briggs will also be hard to beat but is likely to be suffering from travel fatigue. He is expected to arrive in Christchurch on Friday from America where he has spent the last few weeks. The “dark horse” in the field might easily turn out
to be another outstanding Christchurch rider, G. J. Stapleton. A heat leader for the Wimbledon team last northern season, he has swept all before him at Templeton this season. Other leading contenders will include the former New Zealand test riders, R. Wright and A. Brown. The English visitor, M. Brown, is another notable starter. The championships, which will be sponsored by Coca Cola, will be decided over 20 heats on the same basis as the world title final. Starters in each heat will be limited to four riders.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19740116.2.201
Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33434, 16 January 1974, Page 28
Word Count
351Surprise entry in speedway Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33434, 16 January 1974, Page 28
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.