May 22nd 2003


By Scott Stewart

Oakville Today - Sports Editor

A long-time Oakville resident has enjoyed a dozen years of dominance in his sport, a sport that precious few on this side of the Atlantic are familiar with. Motorcycle speedway racing, or simply Speedway, traces its origins back to the 1920s.

There are four separate and very distinct forms of Speedway: dirt track, long track, grass track and ice speedway. Tracks can be as short as 175 yards or over 1000 yards in the long track format.

Speedway bikes use methanol, the same fuel used in Formula 1 race cars. And like an F1 car, these bikes can flat out fly, able to go from 0-100kmh in a scant three seconds.
The bikes are equipped without gears but do feature very minimal exhaust systems, letting the crowd, and other riders, hear who is on the track.

The bikes are also equipped without brakes...no, that is not a misprint.

To slow the machine sufficiently to get around the corners of the 1/8 or 1/4 mile oval track, riders pitch them sideways and slide them into the corner using the rear wheel to scrub off speed while still providing the drive to power the bike forward and around the bend.

Speedway bikes can be found on every continent but Antarctica, but the centre of the Speedway world is most assuredly Europe. That being said, a local rider has been tearing it up in Speedway for the
better part of two decades.

John Kehoe (shown on the right with son Drew) has been a force in the sport since 1991, but success has followed him around virtually since day one. Kehoe first saddled up on the ultra-cool, ultra-fast bikes back in 1981, and immediately knew he’d found his niche. It took Kehoe but four years to win the High Points Award, a feat he duplicated every year from 1990-2002 save for 1993.
The rest of his resume is equally as impressive:
Winner of the Max Award in 10 of the last 14 years, Ontario champ every year but two from 1990 to 2002 and Quebec Champ in 1990-92. But the achievement that stands out the most is the Canadian National Championship, won an incredible 14 out of 15 years (1990 was the year of the lone missed title).
He has ridden throughout Ontario and Quebec, seven different American states and at the famous King’s Lynn in England.
                                                                                                                             
Paris and Welland are the two main centers for Speedway in Ontario, according to David Hensby, Head of public relations for the Canadian Speedway Racing Association. Friday nights in Paris and Saturday nights  in Welland are the places to be to enjoy this wildly entertaining sport.

But don’t blink...a four-lap race can be over in 70 seconds.

Hensby said part of the appeal of the sport to him, other than the thrill factor, is that “it’s not a class-oriented sport. It’s $7500 for a new bike, and $3000 gets you on the track, a used bike and gear.”
People from all walks of life participate: mechanics, sales managers, directors, and accountants to name a few.

There is a youth movement underway in the sport. The President of the CSRA is an 18-year-old named Aaron Hesmer, Hensby says having Aaron on board “helps to bring in the youth.”

All money raised at the races goes to prize money for the riders who compete in three categories: Division 3 for the novice rider, Division 2 for the more experienced rider and Division 1 for the seasoned veterans. Hensby said “you have to be there in person to get a feel for it all, to take it all in.”