Briggs injured in bike mishap

Press, 10 December 1984, Page 48

Briggs injured in bike mishap

By

ROD DEW

The former world speedway champion, Barry Briggs, is in the intensive care unit of Kew Hospital after a freak accident while practising at the Invercargill speedway on Friday. He is suffering from broken ribs, a perforated lung, and a broken shoulder.

He underwent surgery yesterday morning. His condition last evening was Stable.

Briggs, who will celebrate his fiftieth birthday at the end of this month, was preparing for the New Zealand final of the world championships after qualifying the previous Sunday in the South Island championship at Invercargill. The throttle of his revolutionary monocoque racer jammed open, the back wheel dug in and he was thrown into the safety fence of the speed-

way. Witnesses say he attempted to slide off the back of the bike but really had no chance to save himself.

Briggs stayed in Invercargill after the South Island championships to practise away from the glare of publicity which inevitably followed him when he stayed in his home town of Christchurch. He will be confined to hospital for at least two weeks, probably longer, and will have little chance of contesting the New Zealand final at the Lucas Batteries speedway, Ruapuna Park, on January 2. This will be a tremendous blow to Briggs, who came to New Zealand from the United States, where he is now based, specifically to ride in the world championship qualifying round, and demonstrate the capabilities of the new

bike he has designed and built himself.

One of the most popular and talented riders the sport has known, Briggs was still considered capable of claiming the single world championship qualifying place available to New Zealand riders. He won the world solo championships four times, in 1957, 1958, 1964 and 1966, and was the runner-up on three other occasions.

He had been officially retired for eight years before staging a comeback to the world championship trail last season when he decided this was the best way of developing his new racing bike. Mechanical problems prevented him finishing in the first two, but he returned this season convinced he had the machine and the ability to win the New Zealand championship again.