Rotrax-JAP with multi-World Champion Ove Fundin's seal of approval – his signature is on the mudguard just behind the oil tank
What Goes Around Speedway Anniversary, Speedway Museum, Broxbourne, Herts - 23rd February, 2020
Q  By Alan Turner
It may be hard to imagine that at one time speedway was the second biggest spectator sport in the country. However, dig long enough among the crammed-to-the-rafters artefacts in the Speedway Museum at Paradise Park, located in its own building in the Hertfordshire zoo owned by former rider Pete Sampson, and you'll find plenty of evidence. If not, try any of the purveyors of memorabilia plying their wares in the marquee that's used for the annual Anniversary event. Magazines and programmes record that most towns had a stab at offering speedway as entertainment, with peaks of 28
interest in the decades either side of WWII. But there's very much a live element to the day. A few modern teams keen to reveal their fixture lists, then
enthusiasts and collectors with displays of bikes, many with interesting history. Andy Day had discovered a ComerfordJAP, a bike that came from speedway's earliest days, when
Classic Hagon-JAP, behind, the ESO that soon evolved into Jawa and ended the British manufacturers decades of dominance