Speedway Champions

8   GOLDEN HELMET CHAMPIONSHIPS  (8 > > >11) p.GH1
 
8.1  The First Golden Helmets, - Australia       

8.2  Pre-War English & Scottish GHs & SHs   

8.3  South  American Gold & Silver Helmets   

 8.4  Gold Helmets: Europe and Wider              

     

     Golden Helmets, as well as Silver Helmets, Golden Gauntlets, etc, were often presented as trophies to competition winners at many tracks by the promotional companies during the first days of speedway in the late ‘20s and early ‘30s as 2-man match races between the star riders were extremely popular with the large crowds of the boom years. They were a coveted prize: some were gilt, some silver plate, many assay-marked, a few the real thing. At an auction sale in 2004 in Australia the trophies of Frank Arthur included several hall-marked silver helmets, a 9-carat gold Golden Gauntlet and 9-carat Golden Helmet, (above rt,) which alone sold for $A10,000.

 

    From their oil-company sponsors the Ekka GHs were known as the 'Veedol Golden Helmet', (1926/27, left,) and the 'Castrol Golden Helmet' (1932 -'38); at Davies Park the GH became known as the 'ACUQ. GH' (Auto-Cycle Union of Queensland,) and was raced for extensively between 1927 and 1931 when holders included Vic Huxley, Frank Arthur, Billy Lamont, Dicky Smythe, etc. amongst a role call of over 40 defences. A list of all winners can be seen in the table below, (noting that there were also Golden Helmet events subsequently staged at most other speedway promotions such as were operating at Sydney NSW, Perth WA, Melbourne    Vict. and Adelaide SA: see Supplement.)

   The usual practice, in Australia then and later in England after Hunting's arrival in 1928 and the setting up of ISL (International Speedway Ltd.), - though there were variations with time and amongst other promotions - , was that the race winner, as holder, received weekly paid prize money whilst he continued to defend his title, - £15/wk initially at Maroubra, (equivalent to £750/wk in present day terms,) £5/wk at Ekka in 1926 - , and the valuable gold or silver trophy was then awarded outright at the end of the season to the top point-scorer. Such a regular monetary element was copied (but monthly) post-war to the British GH MRC when it was introduced in 1946, and the end-of-season holder continued to receive a reduced figure throughout the winter.

    Tb.8a/b/c  Click sections below for full-size up-to-date tables.-
       a) Aust. A.J.Hunting;         b)  Aust. pre-War Other;     c) Aust. post-War;         d) NZ pre-War,(+post.)
 

 8.2
 Pre-war English & Scottish Gold & Silver Helmets:

  -  England, 1928, '29
    On arrival in England in 1928 Hunting set up International Speedway Ltd, (ISL) and commissioned the manufacture of 8 precious metal trophies to replicate his Aussie prizes, (see full list in Supplement below, with race winners.) The Golden Helmet was then raced for, over heats and a Final, (sometimes with Semi's,) on a rotating basis, alternating with the Golden Gauntlet and other Silver prizes including the Silver Helmet, at each of ISL's 5 tracks throughout the season. Winners received a cash award at each Final and held the Helmet as long as successfully defended, when at the end of the season it was awarded outright to the best overall point-scorer.

    Frank Arthur took both the Gold and Silver Helmets, as well as the Golden Gauntlet and Silver Sash, along with their cash prizes of £200(GH), £150(GG), £100(SH), £100(SS) whilst Vic Huxley took the other 4 lesser Silver trophies that year. Arthur had been the winner of the prize trophy at the May opening night of each of the promotion's London tracks, and despite an early end to the season for him after fracturing his collarbone at Hall Green in August and returning home to Australia he had still topped the list of the 4 big ones, returning with £2,000 (= £100,000 in present day terms) and 31 trophies!

    Elsewhere in the opening year at least 12 other English tracks had run their own 'Gold' competitions, - Helmet, Gauntlet, Sash or Armlet - , the BDTRA tracks emulating ISL with featured winners such as Sprouts Elder, (a very widely traveled star, including Scottish appearances, who was able to justify his high appearance money,) Oliver and Eric Langton, Ginger Lees and Arthur Franklyn, the latter pair being contracted to Northern-dominated British Dirt Track Racing Assoc'n promoters, - see image-link below for venues, winners and dates.

    For 1929, ISL's second and final year, the two Helmets, the Golden Gauntlet and the Silver Sash were competed for over the season at their 3 London tracks, being the originals loaned back by ISL from Arthurs: the End-of-Season Golden Helmet 'winner' was Vic Huxley, though Jim Kempster had many GH successes.

    Track numbers having mushroomed, a further 28 other English dirt tracks promoted themselves by staging "Golden Helmet" events as well as other gold and silver prizes, - Gauntlets, Sashes, Wings, Stars, etc. - , and though the tenure and value of many must be questionable the status of the winner in the eyes of local fans was not, even though competition at some venues more remote from the London base of the big names, (i.e. ISL riders,) would have been limited. Prominent amongst such trophy winners were Joe Abbott (15+, Preston and elsewhere,) Frank Varey (18+, Manchester,) Frank Charles (13+, in the N.West,) Eric Langton, (11+, Leeds,) but outstanding was Squib Burton with at least 44 successes, mainly at Rochdale, but also at 9 other tracks. (Taken from incomplete 1929 data, - ultimate totals may therefore have been higher.)

ISL track programmes, 
           B'ham Hall Green                  Belle Vue                            Harringay                 White City, London
                   1928                                   1928                                     1929                               1929 

  -  Scottish Gold Helmet,
   - Scottish Silver Helmet
     In two phases between 1928 and 1939 races for the 'Scottish Gold Helmet' were held regularly at Marine Gardens Edinburgh and also in '39 at Glasgow White City, (see detail via image-link above.)

The first ever dirt track meeting at Edinburgh's Marine Gardens in May 1928 featured the 'Gold Helmet International Race'. A series of Match Races run over 4 heats, 2 Semi-finals and a 6-lap Final, it was won by New Zealander Stewie St George from Drew McQueen. For the following and all subsequent stagings the helmet was termed the 'Scottish Gold Helmet' and was raced for on 10 further occasions that year, progressing from match races then to 3-man and thereafter 4-heat, 4-man races. A new Golden Helmet was put up in 1929 (left,) when McQueen was successful on 4 occasions but the helmet was awarded outright to Frank Arthur when he took the Marine Gardens Track Championship in August '29. (This trophy, seen left, was a sterling silver 'gold' helmet and was sold at auction in Sydney in 2004 along with other Arthur trophies.)

    In the same year a short-lived Scottish Silver Helmet contest was competed for at Glasgow White City. At both venues the Helmet events alternated with Silver Gauntlet, (Ed.MG '28), Gold Sash, Gold Gauntlet, Silver Sash (Ed.MG '29), Gold Armlet, Silver Torch, Silver Gauntlet, Silver Sash, (Gl.WC), Gold Sash, Gold Torch, Gold Gauntlet, (Ed.MG '30). A new third Gold Helmet was presented in 1930 which on the fourth occasion raced for, on July 19th, was awarded outright to George McKenzie, and which today can be viewed at the Scottish Speedway Museum outside Edinburgh.

    It was 1938 before a Scottish Gold Helmet was again competed for, when speedway returned to the capital. The event continued in 1939, when both venues, Edinburgh Marine Gardens and Glasgow White City staged races for a Scottish Gold Helmet, but in this period it was visiting English and Australian stars who took the glory.

  n.b. Post-war a Scottish Match Race Championship was contested, (1949-'53, and 1964-'76: see Br.MRC page,) but did not involve Helmet trophies. In more recent times a new Scottish Gold Helmet, the Heathersfield GH trophy, was created in classic style and contested initially in 1997 for an 'Open' Linlithgow competition at Conference Lge. level, (see Supplement, p.GH 2.)

                 Edinburgh 1928                                                            Glasgow 1929                       

 8.3
 South America  1929-'31

   After the UK, Hunting went to South America and set up a number of similar high value trophies which were raced for in their 2 operational seasons, - at Huracan stadium in Buenos Aires and at River Plate Speedway also in B.A. The 'Casco de Oro', - Golden Helmet - , was sponsored by the Buenos Aires newspaper 'Critica', and raced for over 4-man scratch heats, semi's and a final, as were the Silver and Bronze Helmet trophies. Sprouts Elder gained the most successes over a squad of chiefly British riders, (as well as in the World's Championship series,) most of ISL's Aussie contingent having chosen to return home for the UK winter, though late season appearances by Max Grosskreutz (1930,) Ernie Evans, Dicky Wise and 'Cyclone' Billy Lamont (1931,) added to the fare.

     Lamont's Silver Helmet, seen below, with inscription, was auctioned in Melbourne in Oct. 2015, along with the similar red 'Enamel Helmet' (below rt.) and other trophies acquired during his racing career. The solid silver helmet fetched over $A10,000, the red enameled brass $A4,000, (and his 1931 silver-plated World Championship trophy $A2,440.)

 8.4
 Gold Helmets,  Europe and Wider:
.
  - Continental Europe
    In Europe helmets as trophies were also presented at track races, - speedway and Long track - , from 1929 onward, e.g. the Pardubice Golden Helmet, which has had a long almost continuous run pre- and post-war. 
See dedicated next section, Chapter 10.

  - South Africa & Rhodesia
     For all South African and Rhodesian Gold & Silver Helmet Championships, 1928 to date, see Southern Africa page, Ch.3, plus SA Supplement S.Africa