Speedway Champions

   Supplement 5  -  Ice Speedway Racing

          - Alpenarena Cup (Switzerland ): 2003 - 2010      - Swiss Open Championship: 2000 - 2010

 - Master of Spikes :  Golden Spike
     To increase the number of meetings for ice racers, for them to maintain race fitness and gain financial opportunities, promoter Gerd Sievers introduced a high profile individual event, the 'Master of Spikes' competition, staged on a 400m circuit at the IceSports Hall in Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen for the 1996/97 season.  Unsurprisingly it was dominated by Russian riders, (Nikulin under a German licence.)
   In 2004 the Golden Spike Series, "GSS", superseded the one-off event with a competition staged over a max of 7 rounds in 5 countries, - Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czechia, and Sweden - , with the additional prize of a new Jawa motor. There was often late relocation of venues dependant on the weather, i.e. when too warm or wet, so that the actual number of rounds was sometimes singular! There was a hiatus toward the end of the decade and by 2013 the event had become the 'Flims Golden Spike'.  Dutchman Johny Tuinstra (below) took the first GSS whilst the elder Klatovsky brother was a double winner.   


                         
                  Johny Tuinstra (NL) 2004 Spikes winner        Franki Zorn (AUS) 2012 Winner, Dresden        
                                                               

 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

DOCUMENT 3
     USA :    - I.C.E. Ice Speedway National Chamionship
                   - I.C.E. Ice Speedway World Cup Series Chmpshp
                   - I.C.E. Ice Speedway World Championship
                   - I.C.E. Ice Racing 'Manufacturers World Cup Series'
                   - AMA / XiiR Speedway Ice Race National Chmpshp Series
     Two promotional organisation, I.C.E and XiiR, stage almost all of the ice racing in USA (and occasional events in Canada,) using indoor ice hockey rinks. Whilst 'International Championship Events' (ICE) have staged indoor Ice Speedway (with studded tyres) since 1977, and their first National Championship in 1983, since 2006 it has transferred its motorcycles' programme exclusively to studded Short-Track bikes following the formation of 'Extreme International Ice Racing' (XiiR) who now stage the (studded-)speedway bike championship series. Consequently the ice-speedway riders now race with the new camp, which has AMA/FIM status. (Both Short-track and speedway riders usually ride their respective dirt and/or road-race tracks in the summer: both organisations also feature parallel championships for professional Quad-bikes on the same evening programme.)
    In its speedway days ICE ran 3 main events alongside its city championships: a single annual 'National Championship'; a multi-round 'World Cup Championship Series'; a single annual 'World Championship', (but note that a Series winner will often have been called World Champion in the press/internet.)
   In the early days of Ice Speedway the late Gary Ford, record-holding Canadian dirt speedway champ, was equally unbeatable on ice until a serious accident curtailed his career, and for the next 3 decades up to the present day Californian Charlie Venegas, a Long Eaton and Belle Vue rider in '96 & '97, has had things much his own way with 12 World titles and only Englishman Anthony Barlow, former ICE World Champion and the XiiR founder, in a position to seriously challenge him on the ice. Short-tracker Jared Mees has added 4 ICE championships to his AMA Grand National Championship and other summer titles.

          Gary Ford                             Charlie Venegas                      Anthony Barlow                      Jared Mees