Peter Collins MBE is without doubt one of the most successful British riders of all time, and a Belle Vue Aces legend. He’s finally put together his autobiography called Keeping It On The Tyres, and recently at his book launch at Longsight Sports on Social Club on Kirkmanshulme Lane, I managed to get some time with him beside his world title winning bike..!
His book is over 500 pages and documents everything you could ever want to know, and you can get hold of it at retro-speedway.com
An overnight sensation when he burst onto the Cheshire grasstrack scene as a 16-year-old, Mancunian PC quickly shot to speedway fame, too, as a Rochdale rookie in the early 70s and became the most famous graduate of the Belle Vue training school.
His 16 loyal seasons with Belle Vue – the local club he supported from the age of eight when he dreamed of emulating his boyhood hero Peter Craven – brought him the highest league and cup honours and, thanks to his trademark thrilling bursts from the back, a permanent place among the pantheon of Aces and England greats.
He was beyond compare, the supreme racer who took the breath away, admired by fans and TV audiences worldwide. No other rider in the history of speedway has dominated the front and back pages of top-selling English tabloid newspapers as Peter did the day after his biggest triumph in front of a capacity 120,000 crowd at Katowice, Poland in 1976.
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This podcast is part of the sports social podcast Network welcome to Long site for our little um talk today so what um what are you going to ask me that was the voice of one of British Speedways alltime Legends Peter Collins mve a one club man he only ever rode for
The Bellevue aces in Great Britain and his roll call of honors is as long as his arm but it’s not as long as his roll call of individual honors which of course is led by his world title win in 1976 now he’s put all of his stories
Into a book it’s been long awaited keeping it on the tires is the name ja’s new autobiography it’s over 500 pages there’s loads to go at and it’s available now and in this podcast we hopefully give you a bit of a flavor of the kind of thing you can expect from
The book and we’ll listen back to some of pet his Great Moments as well can Peter Collins avenge that world championship defeat in Gutenberg can he beat his old XT M his old rival Ivan major major is the one who is taking his time to settle trying the old kidology
Perhaps Collins not a quick starter major for like jet lightning and it’s major on the outside and Collins on the inside and it’s major who leads into the first corter Collin is in second place in third place and is Gordon Kenneth and Kenny in it’s Scot the better line
Around the outside of Collins and kennet gone powering under manger and majer wasn’t expecting that and now we’ve got Collins try the inside bom on kenet and this really is Super Speedway kenet battling back again under Collins Collins now trying the outside run so very wide and he has gone past
There as sweet as a nut what a piece of Speedway action Collins was jled and bumped and banged by Gordon kennet he got no mercy from him Collins is going to be the winner and what a winner Peter Collins during the 1970s and early ‘ 80s Peter Collins
Was a national hero really it’s hard to compare a British Speedway Rider who would have the same exposure and the same stature in the eye of the British public than Peter had back then he was on the back pages of the UK tabloids a true sporting Superstar and of course
His performances were on national TV back then as you just heard there with great Dave Lanning commentating on one of his International performances he had a globe trotting lifestyle he was living the life of a rock star as well here and had bigger paydays than those of contemporary International footballers
Certainly at the time and as a Speedway Rider he achieved everything and he was a one club man only ever Ro for the bellw Aces and for the aces this is what he won he won three British League titles 71 72 and 82 a knockout Cup in 72
73 and 75 The League Cup in 1983 the inter league knockout Cup in 1975 the British League pairs with Chris Morton his great friend in 1984 and he also broke the Hy Road track record on two occasions in 1975 in a World Cup qualifier and in a Grand Pre round uh as
It was then in 1976 of course the year that uh he became the world champion as well so those are his achievements just with the Belle Aces and as an individual Rider as far as representing his country he represented his country 154 times a record that’s almost certainly never
Going to be broken due to the sheer amount of fixtures required to do that England 136 caps British Lions 12 caps Great Britain two caps Great Britain under 23s three caps and he also got an England cap in division 2 as well just the one cap there but his major honors
Well of course he won the World Championship in 1976 he also o won the Seagrave trophy in that year as well he’s won five world team cups uh 73 74 75 77 and 1980 um four World pairs winners uh with 1977 alongside Malcolm Simmons 1980 alongside Dave Jessup 83
With Kenny Carter and 84 with Chris Morton he’s been European champion in 74 the Intercontinental Champion in 76 and 77 British champion in 7 9 masters of Speedway in 78 British League Riders champion in 74 and 75 the international in 74 and 78 a British Grand Prix in 76
British under 21 champion in 73 The Daily Mirror International Tournament winner in 73 and he broke the track record at Wembley in the world team Cup Final in 1973 it was Heat 2 in case you wondering what heat it did that’s just his a list of his achievements let alone
The actual stories that go with it so I caught up with Peter Collins before his book signing uh at the longsight sports and social club which is just adorned with Belle AC’s memorabilia from yester year and right next door to the National Speedway Stadium as well so there was a
Huge queue Gathering outside of or fans of friends as I say of um Heroes of Speedway as well people like Jason Crump were in the queue to go and meet Peter Collins and get their book signed and uh I caught up with Peter and uh started by
Talking about the the venue that we were at at longsight and uh you know the memories that that area of Manchester has has brought to to Peter in his life well obviously long sight’s very sort of familiar to me because obviously the the site of the old hide Road Track is just
About a mile from here or half a mile in fact yeah and uh you know that’s where I had some of the best moments of my life and then I only ever rode for one club which was Belle so mhm you know it’s great to be back um so close to the
Place it is it is one and especially at this time as well where BW have have now won the the league title after so long again and and back on top of the speedway World in this country too that’s right yeah because you know during my S of time at bellw when I
First joined the club we won the league championship um twice while I was in the team and also three times because they won it before I joined uh I joined bie in six no 7 W so I won the league championship with him in 71 and 72 and they’d won it the
Previous year as well it was a rich time wasn’t it because the the the the Bellevue Aces side at that time was was also uh evolving as well from you know the Peter Craven era sence Justin and Riders like that too well BW has got such a fantastic history because the
Club started in 1929 um and initially they started at the dog stadium and then um the owners of bellw built the the world famous h Road track where I spent all of my career not a bad home track to have for your entire career well it was very very
Special I mean so famous it was like like wherever you go in the world if you mention Manchester everybody knows about Manchester United but if you go to a country that knows anything about Speedway you mention Manchester and they all know about Bell View Speedway you know historically it’s the most famous
Club in the world Heat number 14 let’s watch this outside Alon white remember Collins on the outside in good four and it looks like olon and Collins have got out together and olon gets to the corner first Collins is back in third place going around the outside of
Dave Jess and now Collins chasing after OE Olson just cannot taken away from these two Riders they’re having the most colossal battle Olen leads second place is Collins let’s just sit back and enjoy this tremendous action you’ve now written this book detailing your time it is a is a chunky production I’ll say
It’s there’s a lot of pages in there and a lot of stories why why now why why is why is now the time for you to to be going back through these memories and putting this incredible book together well for a number of years I’ve been reading um a lot of the autobiographies
And books done by a lot of my um competitors and other Riders I used to race against and I realized that at some point I had to do my book and and um I needed to do it while I could still remember everything cuz I really do have
A good memory and I can remember a lot of interesting stuff and the book’s actually not just about the racing side and stuff it’s all about the family life and home life and the family history and you know a lot of the stuff that used to happen out on the road funny stories
That people basically don’t would had no chance of knowing that’s the stuff that people want though isn’t it P that’s how I looked at it they needed a different book not just about how many how many points I scored at one night they want to know you know more about you know
What you did in your spare time and um you know uh the things that happen to you when you’re on the road and stuff cuz you know the amount of traveling that I used to do I used to drive thousands and thousands of miles a year
All over the world and um you know such funny things happen when you’re out on the road with you know your teammates and stuff so uh you know I decided that I wanted to put a lot of that in the book so I started doing it in January of
This year uh and decided to devote the whole of this year to finishing this book you done yeah because also Not only was I doing the book but I’ve also had two shoulder replacement operations and one in early February and the second one um 30th of wow so it’s been a it’s been
A busy year for you so I thought while I’m sort of incapacitated you know it’s perfect time for me to write it because um I tend not to use a keyboard and computer to write stuff I still do it in the old freehand way done it the old fashioned way so
You’ve really written it all down then in the New Year sort of January time I saw Dawn French on the TV and she she said that she just finished a book and she’d gone to carwall for six weeks to write this book in solitude on
Her own and she said she was doing it she was taking an A4 notepad a load of pencils and um a rubber eraser and a pencil sharpener and she was going to do it the oldfashioned way and I thought you know what that’s good if it’s good
Enough for Don French it’s good enough for me obviously must be a great source of Pride to look back on this it’s all in the book now and uh it is available it’s published by retro Speedway so you search out their website and you’ll find it Peter Collins MBE keeping it on the
Tires what was the what was the uh what was that about yeah but when I first started racing uh my first sponsor Jim rollington he had some mechanics and always before I went off to a meeting they’d always say that to me keep it on the tires and that actually means
Basically when you’re out racing make sure you you stay on the bike yeah don’t crash if you crash it and you end up on the Cent green or in hospital you don’t learn anything and you don’t earn anything either no so you know you’re better off keeping it on the tires and
Getting the experience why is advice for any Speedway Rider there in that that that’s still true today isn’t it well I still say that to a lot of the lads now yeah you know it might be a bit might be a bit oldfashioned but it’s still true to
The day you know if you if you’re not on the bike if you crashed it and you’re watching from the center Green you’re not earning and you’re not learning either so when You’ thought back about these stories then I mean give us a flavor of of what life was like on the
Road then because these days ride is a obviously jet setting Here There and Everywhere and quite often they’ maybe got people doing the stuff for them life would have been different in the 1970s and ‘ 80s I would have thought well to be fair because I was so successful I
Did more meetings in in the all over the world than probably anybody else did um you know I know a lot of lands go back and to now to Sweden and Poland but I used to do all that as well and I probably used to go to Germany sometimes
Two or three times a week as well as on my British commitments because these days you know their actual race nights you know they probably only got fixtures like one or twice a week whereas at my time we had like clubs that used to race every day of the week
Like on a Monday there was like reading exitor um lots of other ones Newcastle and on a Tuesday we had Leicester which I was nearly always at Leicester on a Tuesday then Wednesdays we had the liks of White City down in London um Thursday was Sheffield IPS
Witch um you know just every day of the week I was riding sometimes I went for about a month and probably did in 30 days I probably did 32 meetings in 30 days sometimes two in a day I going to say that means it’s that’s that’s that’s twice in a day then
Yeah so the amount of traveling and driving that we used to do and flying yeah amazing and the people that used to meet out and about on the road um you know it was very similar to what all the the pop groups were doing at the
Time all the music people they were all doing the same sort of traveling Like Us in bands and Trucks and Things um you’re living a rock star lifestyle in a way we were absolutely yeah and we did meet a lot of rock stars did you during that
Time yeah who have you met and we sort of met Jeff Lyn from ELO and um The Searchers the holles and um in my free time I used to go and watch a lot of these bands during the time cuz during the’ 70s it was a massive sort of clam
Rock time with the music and stuff and I recently met one of my heroes um ndy holder out of slade you U I’d got close to seeing him a few times in in the past but he was actually a neighbor’s party a few weeks ago and um I got a picture
Taken with NY which was brilliant so you know even heroes have got Heroes that’s a fantastic fantastic T that’s been a lot of times driving to Germany and um you know the border crossings and things like that with the old paperwork and passports and all that
Used to go through in the pre- Europe days um and some of the things that used to happen and also going into Poland and that in later years because when Poland first kind of opened up to the west Western Riders and that I was the one that initially did all the contracts
For well about six or eight of the riders that went to Poland first so I was very much involved with all that and me and my mate AR Ratliff used to take all the bikes to Poland in um March before the season started and then pick them up in October before the
Season when the feas season finished but you know some of the times that we had some of the fun that we used to have on the road and stuff things that you wouldn’t believe obviously the thing that people will always associate you with as much as being a Belleview Legend of course
Being world Champion as well there’s not many people who have been world champion you achieved it you got right to the very top of the sport and in that era as well when you consider the riders that were also in that field um a huge a huge
Achievement to win it the problem was that um during my time there such a lot of good writers around like Ivan major and Ollie Olson and Anders mitchen and a lot of good English writers like Dave Jessup and John Louie and Malcolm Simmons so you know I didn’t have it all
My own way at all no but an incredible field to say that you’ve done it again against those Riders Well I obviously was born at the right time because during the 70s the sport was booming and um you know there’s a lot of TV coverage and coverage and also you like the you
Know like the the Tabloid newspapers and that used to carry such a lot of um Speedway yeah I mean when I won the world Final in 1976 The Daily Mirror carried had a picture of me on the front page and on the back page so I mean that doesn’t happen today
Either does it no very rarely very rarely and being on like prime time TV on Saturday afternoon on World of Sport ITV World of Sport and there was only the three well two channels three channels then absolutely yeah so so you know virtually everybody was watching
Then yeah and so many people now when I’m out and about in the world they they remember that this bike that’s that’s with us here this evening tell us about this this bike that you brought to the event tonight at long site well it is
The bike the West like bike that I won the 1976 World Champion on yeah this is the one in a cat viter in Poland wow in front of 130,000 people that’s that’s a decent crowd isn’t it I mean these days you you don’t get crowds that size for
Football matches in in in um in the northern hemisphere do you they might have a few um stadiums like that in South America that will hold that many people but 130,000 people in one Stadium could you imagine the atmosphere there Peter Collins just coming in here he has
12 points a second place he will be good enough to bring the title back to England for the first time in 14 years his opposition on the inside Ian major the danger man in red GG one next to him Valerie Vladimir Gorda from the Soviet Union on the outside Mar Seck let watch
Collins and he’s away Collins and major are away together major leads it Collins is in second place this will do it but I don’t think Peter will be happy to sit back there in second place for long a second place will be sufficient for Peter Collins to bring the world crme
Back to England major leads it and Collins is going to play safe the Eastern Europeans are a long long way back there there’s no danger to Peter providing he doesn’t do anything very D major leads Collins of second place is sufficient he’s looking over his shoulder you’ve got all the time in
The world P that old world crme is just two laps away and this for so many invol with English Speedway is really the Fulfillment of a dream we’ve been to Sweden we’ve been to Australia we’ve been to America following the fortunes of the English Speedway boys we have
Seen the England team win the World Cup three times on ITV we have never seen an England World Champion and although it’s Ivan major in front there he is there Collins is sitting back high wide and handsome in second place he’s just got about 50 m to go as they go over the
Line major wins that one that Collins has won the title the title comes back to England and the English contingent absolutely jumping mad and so sitting next to this bike now the bike that took you over the line I mean it’s in Immaculate condition but what’s your what’s your memory of that
Moment where it was all you know sealed that you’d actually done it it was yeah well obviously I mean I was I realized very early on that I should keep all me old bikes that I’d used in big meetings like that and also of course like the
World championship winning bike I had to keep that and S I’ve um recently re furbished it so it’s it looks incredible it’s kind of in Prime condition 1976 World Champion you must be the calest English of the place how does it feel to be the official number
One of the world I just can’t believe it it’s not it’s not struck me at all yet I’ll probably crack up when he does but I mean those first couple of three races you had a really battle you weren’t starting did you really think you were going to win it after one race
Or two races or when did you really think that crime was within your grasp well I thought me first two races were the hardest and it turned out that they were and after those first two everything just seems to go great for me um and I only needed a second place to
Win it in the last race so I didn’t do anything silly I just sat there and in second place cross the line fantastic F when when we think of of of of the Collins of course you the you’re you’re a family of brother Dy yeah I mean I I my my only
Experience of riding a Speedway bike was with Aiden Collins of course you’ve done the riding box I did the ride and skid it yeah and he was saying that the conversations around meal tables when you’re all together maybe throw in more in there as well and and and those conversations could be quite
Fun oh yeah we’ve obviously all got lots to talk about because we’ve all done so much but like Les and Neil they’ve had the more team appearances for any other Riders on the planet yeah they’ done more team racing than any other the Riders so that’s their argument but then you come
Back with yeah well I’m very proud about you know basically my 154 caps for England which is a record yeah I can’t ever see that record going because there just aren’t enough England matches anymore or Internationals it’s a very good point yeah and of course me eight sorry me 10
Um fim gold medals for me five world team cups yeah four World Pairs and of course me 76 World final so you know having the pictures of all medals and stuff with that in there yeah when I say all them in the world championship ones and me BR me three British League medals
Are in there as well inside we’ve got Eric buop in the dark colored helmet next to him we have Anders mitchen diing up some dir trying to get a bit of extra drive to fly out of this starting grid next to him we have Collins and on the
Far outside Tommy jansson remember it’s all square it’s all on this one England versus Sweden heat 13 Sheffield Stadium a light and buzzing and here they go away and oh Buck has missed the f l is show first L is show first is in second place Tommy J want a TR because
Eric buop re dreadfully sweet in front sweet Collins battling with all his heart from and Collins coming through on the inside bitching it close as the on him Collins DED so hard for a 19y old whiz kid trying to get under neck this is what it’s all about J is not
Finished bit neck cin Tred so hard for England it’s TW this Tommy Jon Eric bu Back In Contention now at the moment this will be will win Goin Ben Json Goin coming again go the mor F looks in command at the moment he knows where he is he’s so clever he’s so
Crafty he knows exactly where he’s going to come from and col is trying the outside he’s Clos again fops coming back in contention at the back now Colin’s going around the board in tremendous St and I think he’s going to do it it’s right fantastic pet L come through on
The inside to on this last lap England are going to win it England are going to win it fantastic thanks a lot Peter for for sharing um some details the book and um as I say it’s it’s got loads of pictures in there and and some fantastic stories
As well and uh if you were to pick out one story then one chapter from this what was your what’s the favorite chapter that from from the book that you’ve written well it’s such a lot you know from like the early days of like um from
The family and Mom and Dad bring us up on a farm and that so we had access to motorbikes and you know tracks around the farm and stuff so our parents did such a lot for us yeah which we all carried that on into later life yeah the farm years were you
Know legendary yeah CU I’ve done all my family history and it goes back to Farmers in Carrington over 500 years ago wow oh you’re deeply rooted in in Manchester then aren you yeah well obviously also the training grounds for Manchester United and Manchester City and sales sharks in Carrington are on
Land that my my ancestors used to farm are they yeah wow see you the all all comes back to the collinses looks like it doesn’t it yeah thanks very much for speaking to us Peter and and all the very best with with the book too you’re welcome thanks for the opportunity Peter
Collins MV and uh a little chat I had before he signed hundreds of copies of his book Peter Collins keeping it on the tires His official autobiography and you can find out more about it at retro- speedway.com um before we go a few times Peter to mention in that that some of
His favorite Tales were Tales from being on the roads I just wanted to read you a little excert of a time that he visited Perth in Australia and met up with Ken Becket and his wife Anne for a meal and after they had a pleasant evening they
Raised their wine glasses to yet another toast to the mechanics of course which they respected hugely because without the mechanics they would be struggling and a little ritual every time that they met up for dinner was to pay tribute to the mechanics but who he was with was
Always game for a laugh and it was on a trip in Poland in 1974 he and Simo played a practical joke on a photographer for the speedway male um Alf Weeden who was also the co-owner of the speedway maale and honor rival at katavich airports they all had to open
Their suitcases to be checked by security staff and just before Al picked up his luggage to proceed through the terminal Simo and Ken quickly undid both Clips on Al’s suitcase while his back was turned and Alf was sating across the road about to join the rest of the party
Waiting by the bus to take them off to their hotel when suddenly his suitcase burst open his wer tumbled out and started blowing down the road with other items of his clothing the commotion happened in full view of the Polish police of course Poland was a slightly different place there behind the Iron
Curtain but luckily the Polish guards found it just as funny as everyone else there you go the story of alf’s wife runs there fully detailed in Peter Collins’s book keeping it on the tires there’s plenty more say there’s over 500 pages and uh £25 RRP but get the the
Details you might even get yourself a sign copy as well retro- speedway.com thanks for listening um check back through our previous episodes if you’ve not heard them before we’ve got chats with all sorts of people from the world of Speedway uh this is our most recent
One for a little while uh but there’s plenty of stuff to go back from over the past couple of years we’re chatting with Stuart Robson who is going to be having his um testimonial in fact the start of the 2023 season at red car so you can
Hear that uh Neil Vater the Great Britain under 21 manager and also the man in charge of all the referees at the SCB we spoke to him earlier in 2022 also spoke with Paul akroy top former referee and now the man in charge of the speedway Riders benevolent fund we also
Chatted with Tom Brennan who uh of course is Speedway Nations world champion also the League champion with the bellie aces this year as well Jordan Jenkins Adam Ellis Phil Lanning uh son of a man we’ve heard quite a bit in this episode of uh son of Dave Lanning of
Course David how Chris Louie and another Collins Aiden Collins and of course he is the son of Les Collins Peter’s brother and therefore nephew of Peter Collins as well so uh have a listen to any and all of those at your leg there’s much more besides and we’re aiming to do
Some brand new episodes very very soon on humans of Speedway thanks a lot take care and we’ll catch you Soon sport social podc Network looking for a fun way to win up to 25 times your money this basketball season test your skills on prize picks the most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports just select two or more players pick more or less on their projection for a wide
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1 Comment
Pc was fantastic around Hyde Road! Very very fast!!! And a great guy!! Can't wait to read this book!!!