The Forshaw Collection goes under the hammer at Stafford
Here in the OBM Shed we are rather fond of speedway motorcycles and so you can imagine we are quite excited about a remarkable collection of some 31 speedway machines which will be the centrepiece of the Bonhams auction at the Autumn Stafford Show on October 15-16.
The Forshaw Speedway Collection represents 60 years of speedway history from its beginnings in the 1920s. Led by an exemplary pre-war American duo of a Crocker and an Indian – be still our beating hearts! – the collection also includes European motorcycles, representing great marques such as BSA, Douglas, Norton and Rudge. They are being offered with associated memorabilia, including six engines and an extensive selection of race jackets. Having been displayed at the prestigious Haynes Motor Museum for the past 25 years, the collection is now up for grabs with a total high estimate of more than £500,000.
The motorcycles and memorabilia were amassed by the late enthusiast and engineer Richard Forshaw, whose father, Captain Ivan Forshaw, was a former motorcycle racer before founding the family’s respected Aston Martin specialist business in Dorset in 1937 (Aston Service is now run by Ivan’s grandson, Anthony). Richard was also, in his own words “a former, if undistinguished, speedway rider now with a passion for collecting the machinery of the sport”. He tested his engineering skills by restoring some of the machines as a “labour of love”.
At the heart of the collection is a 1934 Crocker Speedway 500cc OHV. This model made its debut at the Emeryville speedway track in California on November 30, 1933, and won nine of 12 heats in one evening, prompting The Motorcyclist of December 1933 to gush that they were “…two spotless and keen pieces of racing equipment surely worthy of the best the country had to offer as their pilots. Two American-built night speedway racing engines swept the boards…9 first places and 3 second spots out of 12 starts…The call came suddenly for the builder, for Al Crocker who was in the pits… [He] came to the microphone. His speech was short, brief; just the sort of thing that the situation called for… He was glad that they [the bikes] were good…They would be better.”
It's believed fewer than 40 were ever made and this example is described as ‘the most original known as it still has the correct Crocker tank, frame, etc.’ The estimate is £100,000-150,000.
Meanwhile, the other star of the collection is a circa 1927 Indian Speedway 350cc OHV Dirt Track Model which was ridden by an early star of the sport, Art Pechar. The American National Dirt Track champion came over to compete in England when speedway first arrived in this country in 1928, breaking the Greenford and Stamford Bridge mile records on the same day, June 16. The machine, purchased by Richard in 1990, was carefully and attentively restored by him and is offered with various letters vouching for its authenticity. It’s hoped to fetch £90,000-130,000.
But the rest of the Forshaw Collection is no less interesting and includes a 1930 Norton Speedway 490cc, Norton’s attempt to break into the sport. It was a stylish but heavy machine and the Rudges of the time quite literally ran rings around it, so few were ever sold now adding to its rarity value.
A 1922 Martin-JAP Special Speedway is being sold in ‘as found’ condition and was found in a cupboard under some stairs in 1998 where it had been since 1935, while a 1930 WallisBlackburne 500cc Speedway is another rarity, Blackburne engines being very seldomly used on the shale track despite being successful in road racing.
Eric Langton won the
British Individual Speedway Championship in 1932 and rode for England 35 times in the 1930s. He designed and built his own frames, as well as extensively modifying JAP engines to achieve both maximum power and reliability. This is a chance to own one of his machines from around 1948 and it could be yours for just £5000-7000.
Alf Hagon needs no introduction and the collection includes a 1965 Hagon-Cole 497cc JAP, while two later machines are a 1977
Jawa with a Swedish-made ERM engine and a 1979 Rotrax-JAP Mark 2 fitted with the last of the JAP engines, a double overhead camshaft four valve design, to bear the company’s logo.
The Forshaw Collection is currently being exhibited at Haynes Motor Museum where it has been on display since Richard’s death in 1997, with the exhibition opened by six-times speedway world champion Ivan Mauger. It will be the last chance to see this fantastic collection together before its individual motorcycles doubtlessly disappear to the four corners of the world and that, as much as anything, is reason enough to be at Stafford this October.