Motorcycle Speedway, Transnational Encounters, and ‘Provincial Heartlands’.
Touring Exhibition – Launch Weekend:
Hungate Medieval Art, Princes Street, Norwich, NR3 1AE
Saturday 24 & Sunday 25 August 2024, 10am-4pm
Admission Free, All Welcome
This temporary exhibition sheds light on one of motorcycle speedway’s interconnected “backwaters”. From rural East Anglia to Soviet Siberia, the sport fostered unconventional interactions. At the height of the Cold War, East Anglia relished its role in transnational speedway, as Scandinavian superstars graced stadiums in Norwich, Yarmouth, and Ipswich, and Eastern Bloc riders lit up the region’s tracks. King’s Lynn was the entry port for communist-built racing machines that dominated international competition. Based on research conducted by the University of East Anglia’s Centre of East Anglian Studies and the East Centre for the study of East and Central Europe and the former Soviet space, the exhibition underlines the region’s stature in international motorsport, highlights the extensive interactions between East Anglia and the wider world, and celebrates migrant riders and foreign machines that stood in the vanguard of continental interactions with the region.
