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| Ammanford
Speedway |
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| Ammanford Trotting Track, Pantybetws, Betws, Ammanford
South Wales. I believe the cinder based track was adapted for
speedway in 1970 and staged 2 meetings only in that year. The track
was probably more
grass/cinder than shale. |
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A Riders Memory
Of Ammanford |
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| Chris Thompson Says: You are
correct it was a 1/2 mile cinder track ( think it was originally pony
trotting circuit ) . I raced there very early 70's, Very fast, the
highest gear I ever pulled, 23 tooth engine sprocket when normal
circuits would be 19/20t. From memory, it cut up badly on the corners &
as there was a fence on the inside as well as outside, when laying bike
over to enter the bends your head was lower than the interior fence,
forward vision nil. The meeting was abandoned prior to completion as an
accident occurred during a sidecar race resulting in a fatality.
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| I don't recall whether any later
meetings were held. |
John says: If anyone knows
anything about the fatal accident mentioned by Chris. The
name of the sidecar racer etc I would like to "remember" him on
the website |
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| Not much yet on Ammanford so If you can scan any pictures, programmes or badges send
me an email John |
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| Maciej says: Hi John! I have a question
about speedway in Ammanford. I know the first meeting there was in
12 september 1970 but don't know it was a grasstrack/longtrack or
speedway meeting? Which bikes did the riders use? Best wishes from
Poland, Maciej. |
| John says: Hi Maciej Thank you for
visiting my Defunct Speedway website. Not much is known about
Ammanford. It was a Trotting Track (horses) and was a large
cinder track. The riders came from the UKs grasstrack scene
(mostly). I believe there was only 2 meetings before it closed in
1970, never to open again. |
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| Early 1970s Bike |
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| John Skinner says: Bikes similar to this one would have been
used at Ammanford. Ivan sent me this image of his restored
mount from the early 1970s. I much prefer the older upright
engined bikes to the modern laydowns. This bike looks great
with it's potent looking upright single cylinder engine .
Motorcycles in modern times moved away from "big" 500cc Single
cylinder machines still used in our sport. Road going Honda,
Suzukis and Yamahas etc all have multi-cylinder engines which can
rev much more than a speedway bike does. Our bikes have low
revs grunt! which means they can beat the road bikes in a
0-60 test but they then flag and are beaten by the road bikes as
revs become more important at higher speeds |
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