A burning passion: Findon Skid Kids cycle speedway celebrates 60th anniversary

SIXTY years ago, Mick Harley was just a 15-year-old kid from Findon looking for somewhere to ride his bike. Now, on its 60th anniversary, Nathan Davies looks at the most famous cycle speedway circuit in the world and the spiritual home of the sport.

BLAZING SADDLES: Findon Skid Kids Aaron Sweetman (left), Raymond Menadue, Shane Harley and Neil Toye burst through the wall of flames, in 2008. Picture: BARRY O’BRIEN

IF you can picture a cross between track cycling, roller derby and Aussie rules, then you’re part way to imagining cycle speedway.

Four riders (generally two from each team) do four anticlockwise laps of a short, tight gravel track. First across the line wins the maximum points. Pretty simple.

Except the bikes don’t have any brakes — they’re not allowed to — and bumping your opponent is all part of the fun.

In a safety-obsessed world where everything is controlled by occupational health and safety officers, it’s a breath of fresh air and, according to club founder Mick Harley, that’s a big part of the attraction and one of the reasons the club has endured for six decades.

“This is old school,” he says. “Everyone takes responsibility for their own actions.

“It can get quite aggressive, especially in the international races. The Test matches.

Mick Harley with Braden, 20, Dylan, 8, and Brad, 11, at the Findon Skid Kids circuit (left). Picture: MATT TURNER

“We’ve had a few go over the fence after a nudge, but they’re all great mates off the track.

“In 60 years — and we keep count of this — we’ve had just 20 broken bones. That’s pretty good.”

CYCLE speedway traces its origins to England in the years after World War II.

With many London streets reduced to rubble and pocked with bomb craters, kids began racing modified bikes in the gravel.

If you didn’t have a nice bike you just put one together from old parts. It was democratic and, in a country ravaged by the war, it was some much-needed fun.

Rules were drawn up, clubs were formed, and the sport spread across the UK and Ireland, before making its way to Australia.

It also spread to continental Europe, and is still a popular sport in Poland, reflecting that country’s love of motorcycle speedway.

Club founder Mick Harley (left) with Graham Kearville, in 1961.

Just like in cricket a serious rivalry has developed between the Poms and the Aussies, and, just like in cricket, the two countries come together every few years to battle it out in Test matches.

Adelaide had several clubs in the 1950s, from Edwardstown to Woodville to Croydon. It was the Woodville club that Mick tried to join as a kid, only to find out that it was full and that there was a long waiting list. Time for some DIY.

“This area here was all gravel,” Mick says from the Findon clubrooms, its walls festooned with old bikes and the signatures of their riders on them.

“It was owned by the council and this is where they stored their gravel for the roads. I wrote a letter to the council and asked if they could grade a track and they agreed.” The 15-year-old Mick then set about putting a committee together and forming a club on February 26, 1958 — relying on that age-old trick of telling Bloke A that Bloke B was in, and then telling Bloke B that Bloke A was in.

The original clubhouse was a tin shed, which was replaced with an old asbestos Housing Trust unit in 1961. Finally, in 1972, the club convinced the council to lend it $8000 to build the current clubhouse.

P. Green takes the inside line on W. Lind as they compete for places on the Australian team for the 1960 world championships in England, in 1960.

“That was a lot of money back then,” Mick laughs.

“To pay them back, we volunteered to deliver phone books in the area — I think we earned 20c for each book, and you got a bonus if you could do it quickly. Well, we delivered 30,000 phone books in seven days!”

IT was Findon’s stunt team, known as the Findon Skid Kids, who really put cycle speedway on the map.

They were bona fide celebrities in the 1970s and ’80s, travelling the country and performing their incredible tricks to disbelieving audiences. On the wall of the club is a picture of a 26-kid pyramid perched on just seven bikes, making their way around the Royal Easter Show in Sydney.

But it was the fire jump — a stunt that sees the Skid Kids ride through a wall of flaming cardboard — that really got them headlines.

Five years ago it got them publicity for the wrong reasons after three young riders were burnt when the cardboard used failed to break up.

Riders form a pyramid during an exhibition of stunts at the track, in 1960.

Nobody was seriously hurt, and Mick says the club actually received a number of membership inquiries after the incident.

“I guess it goes to show there’s no such thing as bad publicity,” he says.

Findon has around 80 registered riders, with around 50 turning out on any Sunday race meeting.

Young and old are invited to have a go — the club will even supply a bike and a helmet if you need one.

You can even bring your car in and park against the fence, just like a country footy match.

“It makes for a great atmosphere,” Mick says.

“And the best bit is that anyone can have a go. Once you’re a Findon Skid Kid you’re always a Findon Skid Kid,” Mick says.

BRETT Aitkin agrees. The Sydney Olympics madison gold medallist says all the skills that put him on the podium in 2000 were learned at Findon.

“I started there in 1978, aged seven, and was there until 1987 or 1988,” he says.

And yes ... Aaron Sweetman, Raymond Menadue, Shane Harley and Neil Toye emerged safely out of the wall of flames.

“I just loved the aggression of the sport — that was a big part of the attraction.

“I was also getting into footy at the time, so I liked that you could ride and hip and shoulder people, plus there was that tactical side of sliding into corners to get a better line to overtake someone.”

All of these skills, Aitken says, were put into action during his Olympic campaigns.

“Without a doubt my time at Findon contributed to me winning a gold medal in Sydney,” he says.

“The skills I learned there gave me an edge — it taught me what to do when I was boxed in, and it taught me how to find that gap.

“I don’t get to spend as much time down there as I’d like these days, but I’m forever grateful for my time there.”

■ The Findon Skid Kids 60th Birthday Celebrations will be at Reserve Parade, Findon, on Sunday, February 25, from 4pm-6pm (with racing from noon).

The celebrations will feature the famous fire jump at 5pm. For details, see www.cyclespeedway.asn.au