Geoffrey Cyril Mardon (24 November 1927 – 6 August 2015) was a New Zealand

motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...

rider. He earned 10 caps for the New Zealand national speedway team.

Career

Mardon began riding at the

Aranui Aranui is one of the eastern suburbs of Christchurch. It is a low socio-economic area. In its early years, Aranui grew along Pages Road, the suburb's main road. Aranui soon became a Working class, working-class suburb. There are also areas o ...

Speedway in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

in 1949, the same track that would later start the careers of World Champions and fellow Christchurch natives

Barry Briggs Barry Briggs (born 30 December 1934) is a New Zealand former speedway rider. Career He won the World Individual Championship title four times: in 1957, 1958, 1964 and 1966.Bamford, R. & Shailes, G. (2002). ''A History of the World Speedway ...

and Ivan Mauger. He moved to England in 1951 and joined the third division team, Aldershot Shots. He qualified as second reserve for the 1951 World Final. The following year he moved up the first division to ride for the

Wimbledon Dons The Wimbledon Dons were a professional motorcycle speedway team who operated from the Wimbledon Stadium, Plough Lane in London from 1929 until 1991. The team were seven times champions of Britain. History Origins The speedway track opened ...

. He rode in the 1953 World Final and finished in 3rd place. In 1954 Mardon was the third highest individual points scorer in the

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

. He rode in the World final again and he won the Brandonapolis at Coventry. Later in the year he married Valerie Moore, the sister of Ronnie Moore. At the beginning of 1955 he decided to retire and live in New Zealand. After a four-year break Southampton Saints persuaded him to return to British speedway in 1959. He rode for the Saints for a year and qualified for the World final. He continued to race when he returned to New Zealand and in 1964 he won the New Zealand Championship. Mardon also raced cars. In 1954, he competed in an Erskine Staride in England and in 1958 he drove a RA Vanguard in the Lady Wigram Trophy race. In the mid 1960s he drove a New Zealand built sportscar, the Stanton Corvette and in 1970 and 1971 he drove for the Begg Chevrolet Formula 5000 team in the

Tasman Series The Tasman Series (formally the Tasman Championship for Drivers)Tasman Championship for Drivers, CAMS Manual of Motor Sport with National Competition Rules 1974, pages 80 to 83 was a motor racing competition held annually from 1964 to 1975 ove ...

and the New Zealand Gold Star Championship. He died on 6 August 2015 in Christchurch.

World final appearances

Mardon had four appearances in world championship finals:Jones, M. (1979). ''World Speedway Final : a history from 1929''. London: MacDonald & Jane's. *

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the Uni ...

- London,

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

- Reserve - Did Not Ride *

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito ...

- London, Wembley Stadium - 3rd - 12pts *

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

- London, Wembley Stadium - 11th - 5pts *

1959 Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...

- London, Wembley Stadium - 10th - 6pts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mardon, Geoff 1927 births 2015 deaths New Zealand speedway riders Wimbledon Dons riders Southampton Saints riders New Zealand expatriate speedway riders in England Aldershot Shots riders Motorcycle racers from Christchurch New Zealand racing drivers