Garry Middleton

Garry David Middleton (born 19 July 1948 Corowa, New South Wales - 23 November 1994)[1] was an Australian Motorcycle speedway rider.

Garry Middleton
Born(1948-07-19)19 July 1948
Corowa, New South Wales
Died23 November 1994(1994-11-23) (aged 46)
Nationality Australia
Current club information
Career statusDeceased
Career history
1967, 1975King's Lynn Stars
1967Belle Vue Aces
1967-1968Wimbledon Dons
1969Newcastle Diamonds
1969-1971Hackney Hawks
1972Oxford Rebels
1973Coventry Bees
1976Birmingham Brummies
1977Leicester Lions
Team honours
1976World Team Cup
1968, 1971British League KO Cup
1968, 1971London Cup Winner

Career

He first came to Britain in 1967 a rode for a short time with the Belle Vue Aces and the King's Lynn Stars before getting a permanent ride with the Wimbledon Dons. He stayed with the Dons for the 1968 season but in 1969 he moved to the Hackney Hawks. He rode for the Hawks from 1969 until 1971. In 1972 he moved to the Oxford Rebels following a contract dispute with promoter Len Silver. Middleton also raced as an International rider for Australia.

Middleton incidents

He was nicknamed 'Cass the Gas' as he was a real showman and made his feelings known about a variety of subjects.

In 1969 he was involved in an incident with Roy Trigg at Cradley Heath. Garry tried to forcefully dive under Roy but Roy saw him and slowed down, leaving Middleton to shoot straight past him into the safety fence. Middleton then went into the pits into his toolbox and pulled out a handgun. He had to be dragged from the pits to avoid further trouble.[2]

In 1971, in a meeting against then World Champion Ole Olsen, Olsen was riding so well that he was unbeaten, passing people almost for fun. In the second half of the meeting, Middleton, to entertain the crowd, jokingly strapped two broom handles to his handlebar to stop Olsen passing him. The match referee did not share his sense of humour and fined him.

World Final appearances

World Team Cup
gollark: Why did you do such a thing?
gollark: Autocratic anaardvarkocracy, various communistic communisms, direct ultrahyperdemocracy, rule by random number generator, exactly seven people, sort of thing.
gollark: Depends on the afterlife layer, but mostly.
gollark: They actually loop around after 107 iterations.
gollark: Also in the GTech™ GAfterlife²™.

References
  1. Oakes, Peter; Mauger, Ivan OBE, MBE (1976). Who's Who of World Speedway. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. ISBN 0-904584-04-6.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. Fenn, C.(2003). Hackney Speedway, Friday at Eight. ISBN 0-7524-2737-7
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