Category: Books on Motorcycle and Motorcycle Racing

My interest in Speedway has been inspired by the great Czechoslovakian Franta Juhan with whom I had the privilege of spending some with. He raced every motorcycle discipline and excelled in them all. Speedway was his thing and he loved it. My vlog on Franta Juhan has more.

My copy of the Speedway Annual No2 is the premise for this intro where I show a bit of yesterday and today starting out with some great footage from Wembley in 1933 in front of 55,000 fans and some Modern Speedway featuring recently retired World Champion Greg Hancock.

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In Europe they draw big crowds to these events. What I personally love about it is the feeder system to the national teams.

Speedway is a team sport Towns have that compete against each other. Each race is contested by four riders, and lasts for four laps. Competitions are conducted in a heats format. For each race, riders are awarded points based on their finish position, where 1st place finish carries 3 points, 2nd carries 2, and 3rd place finisher receives 1 point. The rider finishing in 4th place or who does not finish the race does not receive any points. The rider with the most points at the end of the competition is declared the winner.

Wiki says “Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that use only one gear and have no brakes. Racing takes place on a flat oval track usually consisting of dirt, loosely packed shale, or crushed rock (mostly used in Australia and New Zealand). Competitors use this surface to slide their machines sideways, powersliding or broadsiding into the bends. On the straight sections of the track, the motorcycles reach speeds of up to 70 miles per hour (110 km/h).

There are now both domestic and international competitions in a number of countries, including the Speedway World Cup, whilst the highest overall scoring individual in the Speedway Grand Prix events is pronounced the world champion. Speedway is popular in Central and Northern Europe and to a lesser extent in Australia and North America.

Now retired, one of the best is was Greg Hancock from the USA who was a California kid who dominated the sport for over 25 years and practically unknown in the United States but a hero in Europe,

A variant of track racing, speedway is administered internationally by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Domestic speedway events are regulated by FIM-affiliated national motor sport federations”.

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My friend Frankie Juhan was invited to write the inserts for Jawa Road Racers by Raymond Ainscoe and Peter Murray

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His dad Franta Juhan was a Speedway Champion for Jawa,

The Juhan family, Franta Juhan, Frankie Juhan, and Jaroslav Juhan have collectively won races world wide on two and four wheels.

Franta and Frankie Juhan are an integral part of motorcycling in Canada having supported the sport by assisting riders and events including Road Racing, Motocross, Cross Country, Trials, Flat Track and Ice Racing.

In Jaroslav’s biography written by Jan Kralik and published by Grada “Jaroslav Juhan, Life Without Brakes, the man who brought Porsche to Carrera” there is a great section on Franta Juhan which I have chronicles on my blog.

The book on Jaroslav Juhan “Life Without Brakes, The man that brought Porsche to Carrera is written by Jan Králík in Czech and published by Grada Publishing

The translations (with help from Google), narration and video were done by myself. The views are my own and any the use of the book as a reference is with permission of Frankie Juhan. Frankie let me use his hard copy to augment the PDF Jaroslav sent me from Geneva before the book went to print.

The book is broken down into four videos inspired by sections of the book. please let me know what you think.

#1 : Franta Juhan, Czechoslovakian Speedway champion and Jaroslav’s older brother.

#2: The pre-war years Life was good!

#3: The war years and imprisonment by the Nazis

#4: Porsche 550 and Jaroslav Juhan The man who brought Porsche to the Carrera.

Life with Porsche, Lotus and Ferrari

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Jaroslav Juhan was a Czech racing driver who played a significant role in bringing Porsche to the forefront of motorsport. In the early 1950s, he raced a Porsche 550 Spyder in several endurance events, including the legendary Carrera Panamericana race in Mexico.

Juhan’s success in the Panamericana race in 1953, where he finished third overall and first in his class, Porsche’s management invited Juhan to join its works racing team, and he continued to compete in endurance races around the world, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Mille Miglia. Juhan’s success on the track helped to establish Porsche as a formidable competitor in international motorsport.

His contributions to the development of the Porsche 550 Spyder also helped to shape the future of sports car racing, with the lightweight, mid-engined design becoming a template for future Porsche race cars.

Juhan’s achievements in motorsport were not limited to racing for Porsche. He also won several Czechoslovakian national championships and competed in Formula One, becoming the first Czech driver to do so.

Overall, Jaroslav Juhan’s career as a racing driver helped to shape the course of motorsport history, and his legacy continues to inspire fans and competitors alike. His brother was the famous Speedway star Franta Juhan so the family was influential on four and two wheels.

The process I used to do these included my writing notes as I read the book to give me a reference point. This wee clip was to show my best friend Frankie Juhan and Jaroslav’s nephew peek at my process.