Former rider John Simmons has passed away
Latest News Saturday 20th December 2025, 1:51pm
We are sorry to bring you the news that one of our wheelchair riders, John Simmons, has passed away. John was a speedway hopeful more than half a century ago, on the verge of a senior team place when he suffered the accident at Peterborough which ended his career and changed his life.
He had started racing in 1972 on a JAP bike bought for £133 from Dave Bickers Motoyrcycle shop and had been riding second halves at various tracks under the watchful eyes of John Berry.
He rode at Rye House, King's Lynn and Hackney and bought a second bike, a Jawa, from Clive Noy.
Berry suggested he travel to Peterborough, and John believed that his performances there had Danny Dunton considering for the Panthers' team during 1973. Unfortunately on July 27th, after winning a heat by quarter of a lap in his first ride, he suffered his accident in his next ride. "I got hit from behind going in to the first turn, I got T-boned, and went straight into the fence. That was the end of my career."
The family lived in a rented bungalow and initially there wasn't the assistance which would be anticipated nowadays. In 1982 he moved to a specially adapted bungalow, and his carer was his mother Anita, a former nurse, for many years. She is still alive at the age of 100. John continued to attend Speedway until the mid-nineties but thereafter was not able health- and mobility-wise to get around.
John's family wish to record their appreciation of the assistance John has had from the Ben Fund and the care he has had from Ipswich Hospital.
