| Born: 24 February 1907 Place: Duntocher, Scotland, United Kingdom Died; 4 February 1983 (aged 75) British Clubs: Crystal Palace Glaziers (1930-1933), New Cross Rangers (1934-1939) (1946-1950), Ashfield Giants (1951), New Cross Rangers (1951), Ashfield Giants (1952), West Ham Hammers (1955), Edinburgh Monarchs (1960) Honours: Scottish Open 1945, London Riders' Championship 1945,1946, Western Australia State Champion 1956 Team Honours- National League 1938, 1948, London Cup 1931, 1934, 1937, 1947 qualified for 1939 world Final event was cancelled due to outbreak of WWII The following bio is taken from the South London Press.
THE racing career of New Cross speedway star Ron Johnson ended in a terrifying catherine Wheel of bikes and limbs in the dirt of Wimbledon on August 1, 1949.
It was to be another 11 years before Johnno - by then 52 years old - would accept that it was all over. When the accident happened, in heat seven of the second-leg of a London Cup tie, Johnson was at his peak and very much the idol of the Old Kent Road --his home fans at New Cross in south-east London.
He had top-scored for Australia in the third Test against England on his home track and was about to lead his country in the fourth match of the series at Harringay. He had been the season's first challenger for Belle Vue skipper Jack Parker's British Match Race Championship.
At the time of the crash, Johnson was following his New Cross partner Cyril Roger for a 5-1 heat win. But Roger faltered in front of him and Johnson fell.
As he rose to his feet his Wimbledon opponent Cyril Brine ran him down, fracturing his skull. Later, Johnson said that his life was saved by the low protection his helmet gave the back of his neck.
"Otherwise, I would have been killed," he said.
But there could have been another factor. Stretcher bearers are apparently instructed to walk in step when carrying an injured person. According to witnesses, when Johnson's limp form was removed from the scene of the accident, one stretcher bearer was out of step - and the jolting this caused may well have dislodged a blood clot that was threatening to fatally starve his brain of oxygen.
The doctors recommended that Johnson spend six months in hospital, but he went home just before the end of the month and vowed: "I'll ride again in 1950." But his comeback saw him only a shadow of the once all-conquering international star.
In nine league matches in 1950, he scored only 29 points. It was a poor comparison with his post-war league form up to then.
In 1946 he scored 179 points, in 1947 it was 194 points, in 1948 it was 239 points, and up to his 1949 crash he had scored 186 league points. Johnson had also been London Riders' Champion in 1945 and 1946.
The 1951 season saw little improvement in John-son's track fortunes, and after scoring just 13 First Division points for New Cross he moved into the Second Division at Glasgow Ashfield, run by his old friend from the early pioneering days, Johnnie Hoskins. Even then, he managed a mere 35 points.
Johnson conceded that his old skills had deserted him, and early in 1952 he returned to Western Australia.
But he couldn't get racing out of his blood and in the 1954-55 season Johnson made a comeback at the Claremont speedway in Perth,winning the West Australian Solo Championship title.
It inspired him to return to England where, after a battle with officialdom for medical clearance, he made a brief return to the track for West Ham. The old maestro could score only one point in a handful of matches for the East London club.
When he first returned, he had hoped to race again for his beloved New Cross, but the little southeast London citadel closed for speedway in 1953 and its historic circuit was by then being used for stock car racing.
His pitiful on-track performance meant he could not afford the fare home to Australia. Johnno's old pals at 'Speedway News' magazine launched a fund for him which raised enough for his passage home and a bit over.
The Speedway News reported: "He sailed away, tearful and joyful... in the knowledge that his greatest speedway friends were those on the terraces - the ordinary folk who pay their two bobs."
It was a gesture of warmth and affection from the fans to their fallen idol.
In 1960, Johnson heard that Hoskins had reopened New Cross and he was back yet again to make a much-published and glamourised attempt to recapture the old glory at his former stamping ground. The result was a sorry one One race in the second- half, ended in disaster when Johnson crashed after being passed on the inside by junior rider Jim Chalkley.
In a bid to help Johnno get back into speedway, Hoskins sent him to Edinburgh - then being run by his son Ian Hoskins - where he failed to score in five matches. Late in 1960, Johnson had to take a job on the track staff at Belle Vue, and eventually he returned again to Australia and permanent retirement.
Johnson was one of speedway's greatest and most accomplished stylists in a career that had started in the early 1920s. He was a star at Crystal Palace between 1929 and 1933, and moved with them to New Cross in 1934.
Some believe he should never been allowed to race again after his 1949 crash. His racing licence was taken from him in 1951 following a blackout while racing for Ashfield.
In 1953, he spent many months in a West Australian hospital where lumbar punctures were part of the treatment to reduce pressure on the brain which was causing headaches.
And it was, ironically a road accident in Western Australia in 1968 that resulted in the supreme speedway stylist being confined to a wheelchair until his death on February 4, 1983, aged 75 years.
|
       |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ron Johnson
