George Hunter (30 January 1939 – 11 May 1999) was a

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 28 caps for the Scotland national speedway team, 17 international caps for the

England national speedway team The Great Britain national speedway team (formerly the England speedway team) is one of the major teams in international motorcycle speedway. The team is managed by former Great Britain riders Oliver Allen and Simon Stead, and captained by th ...

and 16 caps for the Great Britain team.

Career

Hunter's early career was on grass. He joined Motherwell Speedway team in 1958 and moved to

Edinburgh Monarchs The Edinburgh Monarchs are a Scottish speedway team based in Armadale. They compete in the SGB Championship, racing on Friday nights during the speedway season. The club is run by a board of directors, chaired by Alex Harkess and also runs a ...

in 1960. Known as the "Ladybank Express", he rode in 360 league matches for the Monarchs over his lifetime career. In 1963, he was leading the former world champion Peter Craven in the final race of a challenge match between Edinburgh and Belle Vue at Old Meadowbank when his engine seized. After taking evasive action Craven may have clipped Hunter's wheel before crashing through the fence and suffering fatal injuries. Hunter narrowly missed out on being the 1963 Provincial League Riders Champion, suffering an engine failure while leading in the final. Ivan Mauger took the title. Edinburgh became the Coatbridge Monarchs for the 1968 and 1969 seasons before Hunter left the club to join Newcastle Diamonds in 1970. In 1971, Newcastle dropped out of the league and most of Newcastle's riders were allocated to Reading Racers but Hunter along with Russ Dent and Mike Watkin were left without a club. Hunter switched to the Glasgow Tigers for 1971 and 1972 and completed two seasons with significant averages of 8.29 and 8.41 respectively. Having been part of the Midland Cup winning

Wolverhampton Wolves Wolverhampton Wolves were a British motorcycle speedway team based in Wolverhampton, England. They were champions of the United Kingdom five times and raced at Monmore Green Stadium from 1928 to 2023. History 1928–1930 Speedway (known ...

in 1973, he might have expected to win it again in 1975 when Wolves only lost to Oxford Rebels by 2 points away and might have expected to win at home and thereby win on aggregate. However, George was not present for the second leg at Monmore Green, Wolves lost at home by 1 point and on aggregate by 3.Lawson,K (2018) “Rebels 1975 – The Last Season”. In 1976, Hunter was a British Finalist for the third time, having previously reached the final in 1966 and 1967. He retired in 1983.

Personal life

Hunter was born in Ladybank, Fife, Scotland. He and his wife, Barbara, have a daughter, Natalie. Also two children Scott and Gillian from his first marriage. He died of cancer in 1999.

World Final appearances

World Pairs Championship

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

Rybnik Rybnik (Polish pronunciation: ; ) is a city in southern Poland, in the Silesian Voivodeship, around 38 km (24 mi) southwest of Katowice, the region's capital, and around 19 km (11 mi) from the Czech Republic, Czech border. It i ...

Rybnik Municipal Stadium Rybnik Stadium (Polish - Stadion Miejski w Rybniku) is a motorcycle speedway and association football stadium located in the northern part of Rybnik off Gliwicka 72. The stadium is the home arena of Polish speedway team KS ROW Rybnik who compet ...

(with Jim McMillan) - 5th - 16pts (5) *

1976 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...

Eskilstuna Eskilstuna () is a Urban areas in Sweden, city and the seat of Eskilstuna Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden. The city of Eskilstuna had 69,948 inhabitants in 2020, with a total population of 107,806 inhabitants in Eskilstuna municipality ...

, Eskilstuna Motorstadion (with Jim McMillan) - 6th - 12pts (2)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, George 1939 births 1999 deaths British speedway riders Scottish speedway riders Berwick Bandits riders Edinburgh Monarchs riders Glasgow Tigers riders Motherwell Eagles riders Newcastle Diamonds riders Oxford Cheetahs riders Wolverhampton Wolves riders Sportspeople from Fife