Richard May was a speedway rider that rode for

Reading Racers Reading Racers are a British motorcycle speedway team. Formed in 1968, they won four British League titles during their history. The club closed in October 2008 after the lease on Smallmead Stadium was sold and the site was demolished. In 2016 a ...

and

Poole Pirates Poole Pirates (also known as Poole Speedway) are a motorcycle speedway team based in Poole, England, competing in the SGB Championship. The club have been the champions of the United Kingdom on ten occasions. Poole Speedway is promoted by l ...

between 1969 and 1977.

Career

Richard "Dickie" May (born 8 May 1944 in

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

) is a former

motorcycle speedway 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 ...

rider. He was the Southern Centre 350cc Solo Grasstrack champion in 1967. In 1970 he was part of the Young England side that faced a Young Sweden side in the Division 2 Test Series tour and won the individual titles of Stadium Trophy (8/6/1970), Suffolk Open Championship (2/7/1970), the Argus Trophy (5/7/1970), the Peter Arnold Memorial Trophy (10/8/1970) and the Reading Open Championship (7 /9/1970). In 1971 he won the Golden Helmet from Ken McKinlay. While riding for the

he was part of the 1973 British League Champions team along with regular riders

Anders Michanek Anders Michanek (born 30 May 1943 in Stockholm, Sweden) is a Speedway rider. In 1974 he won the Speedway World Championship in his Swedish homeland with a maximum score of 15 points. Career Michanek had a very successful career riding in the B ...

Dag Lövaas Dag Lövaas (born 25 February 1951 in Holmestrand, Norway) is a former international motorcycle speedway rider, who reached the finals of the Speedway World Championship in 1974. His brother Ulf was also a speedway rider. Career summary He won ...

, Geoff Curtis, Mick Bell and Bernie Leigh. He also rode for

. While riding for the Pirates he competed in the preliminary round of the British Qualifiers of the

1974 Individual Speedway World Championship The 1974 Individual Speedway World Championship was the 29th edition of the official World Championship to determine the world champion rider. Sweden's own Anders Michanek scored a 15-point maximum to claim his only Individual world title in front ...

and was the leading bonus point scorer that year for Poole. Speedway writer Arnie Gibbons (author of ''Tears and Glory'' ) wrote in the ''Speedway Plus'' article "We had Joy, We Had Fun" that after a meet on 5 October 1970, May had become his first speedway hero after scoring a 12 point full maximum which helped the Reading Racers beat Eastbourne.

References

External links

* http://wwosbackup.proboards.com/thread/1973/richard * http://www.poolepirates.co/club-history-1970s.html * http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/64373-golden-helmet-memories/&page=2 * http://www.speedwayplus.com/ReadingClosure.shtml 1944 births English motorcycle racers British speedway riders Reading Racers riders Poole Pirates riders Living people {{UK-motorcycle-racing-bio-stub