PETE ’ S PEOPLE

may have completed a motorbike tour of Nepal , or won an international sidecar race , or pulled a wheelie for 40 kays between two towns , but no matter the cool factor , none come within a bull ’ s roar of the legend that is Tommy Sweetman . “ Tom ”, I ’ m informed when I meet him . He ’ s not a tall man , maybe 5 ’ 4 ” in his hey-day , but a giant man of the track from his first breath to his 93rd birthday in July of this year – and long may he continue . His achievements and experiences could be the template for the ‘ legend ’ term .

SPEEDWAY ON BICYCLES Tommy was born in England on July 21 , 1930 , growing up between world wars . Surviving and thriving as a youngster through the London blitz of WWII , he and his teenage mates would race each other on cycle tracks which they created by hand from London bomb sites – they ’ d clean up the bricks and lay tracks to race on , and then head to the local fire station to cajole them out of old firehoses that were unserviceable , and cut them up to create the running lines of the track markers . The bikes were dead basic , two wheels and a frame , no brakes , just handlebars , pedals , and a seat . They developed some bits to help , for example , Tom put aluminium discs in his front wheel to stop the pedals of the rider beside being him caught up in his spokes . Tom says that although by its very nature racing has crashes , and he had his share , it was probably the years of cycle racing - under speedway rules - that taught him that crashes were expensive . Costly both in time and the price of hard-tosource spare parts , and to avoid them . Tommy and his friends started Cycle Speedway in 1946 and it became massively popular , drawing huge crowds and getting the backing of many councils , as it gave young men in very straitened circumstances after the war ; a purpose , a focus , and provided spectacular

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