Express & Star

Historic memorabilia collection of speedway legend Ivan Mauger to go under hammer

A collection of speedway memorabilia belonging to track legend Ivan Mauger will go under the hammer in Staffordshire on Sunday.

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Ivan is the most successful rider in history with six individual speedway world titles and five other track racing gold medals.

At 77 years of age he is currently in a Gold Coast nursing home in Australia and too ill to travel but his three children have flown into Britain for what will be an emotional occasion as 300 items from across his career, including 10 bikes, go up for sale.

The auction will take place at Bonhams Stafford's autumn sale at Staffordshire County Showground on Sunday.

Ivan Mauger’s 1968 World Final winning machine. Credit: Bonhams.

Ivan's eldest daughter Julie said: “As the day goes on it will become more and more emotional for us.

"We all want to know these items are going to a good home."

Debbie, the youngest of his three children, added: “You feel as though you are letting go a big part of his life but I know it’s the right thing to do and I’m good.

“We know this is what Dad wants us to do and Mum told me: ‘Your father would be very, very proud of you all.’”

Mauger, who began his racing career in his native New Zealand, made his first trip to Britain to join mighty Wimbledon in 1957.

The family made England their permanent home until he retired from British racing at the end of the 1984 season.

By then he had captained Newcastle, Belle Vue and Exeter to a total of five league titles and also led Great Britain to three World Team Cup victories and, when Commonwealth-born riders were not longer able to represent the Lions, helped New Zealand to their one and only success in 1979.

Front cover of Auction Catalogue. Credit: Bonhams.

Mauger also rode for Eastbourne – in his teenage days – and Hull before returning for a second spell with Exeter in his farewell season in this country.

Among the 300 plus items being auctioned – some of them are in collective lots – are ten of his bikes, including the Jawa-engined machines that powered him to victory in the 1968, 1969, 1972 and 1977 World Finals.

Another star item is his 1961 Rotrax-Jap, one of the stable of Jap bikes on which he won five major title, the 1963 and 1964 Provincial League Riders’ Championship, the 1966 European Final, and, in 1968, the British and British Nordic Finals.

There are also four of his Long Track machines, including the 1971 gold medal winning bike, and, the bike provided for him by Newcastle that he sold, later bought back and restored.

Along with this bike are a selection of trophies that he won in the UK during the sixties, including the one from the 1964 Provincial League Riders’ Final, the last major individual event of that era.

There are further 15 lots of several hundred trophies that he won throughout the world, including four unique Yugoslavian Golden Helmets.

The decision to sell so many of his possessions was a family decision.

Julie said: “I don’t think people realise the volume of stuff Dad had – he kept so much and for us to have kept it we would have needed to open our own private museum!

“The family have kept some of their favourite items, including those with personal significance.”