Replica of the 1972 Long Track World Championship Final-winning, 1972 Jawa Long Track Racing Motorcycle, Frame no. 045 Engine no. P 500 129

Important Collectors' Motorcycles and Spares
Replica of the 1972 Long Track World Championship Final-winning
1972 Jawa Long Track Racing Motorcycle
Frame no. 045
Engine no. P 500 129
Following Ivan's win at the Speedway European Championship Final in 1966, his raised profile led to increasing approaches from Continental promoters. 'From 1967, I was fitting in additional meetings on the Continent, usually on the 1,000-metre tracks, and sampling grass, sand and shale,' he recalled in his autobiography, 'The Will to Win'. 'Soon there were invitations to do a couple of grass tracks and long tracks which meant buying a long track bike.' After a meeting at Wimbledon Ivan went to Alf Hagon's shop at 350 Leyton High Road and bought one of his Hagon sand racers, into which he fitted a spare JAP engine.

'Long track appealed to me since the first time at Easter 1960 when I saw the mile track at Port Pirie,' he recalled. 'I could not wait to get on my bike and go fast down those long straights. Although the long track is not as spectacular to watch for spectators, from a riding point of view it is definitely more exciting. And money-wise, it made a lot of sense to do more meetings.'

For 1971, the FIM elevated the premier long track championship from European to World status. Already World Speedway Champion three times, Ivan had twice qualified for the European Long Track Final but had not ridden in either. He made it to the first ever Long Track World Final only for his factory Jawa to give trouble in one of the heats. Ivan borrowed Don Godden's fast and reliable JAP for the decider, which he won.

In 1972, as World Champion, Ivan was seeded directly to the semi-final at Scheeßel, Germany and won it. 'The final was at Mühldorf on September 9 and I won with a 30-point maximum,' he recalled. 'It was the first time the world long track championship had been won with a maximum.' One week later at Wembley, Ivan won his fourth Speedway World Final to become the first rider to win the speedway and long track finals in the same year.

Built by Ivan in the early 1990s using a long-stroke engine, the machine offered here is a replica of his 1972 World Long Track Championship-winning bike, and is believed to have the latter's mudguards. In one of his notebooks, Ivan records that at the 1972 final, '500-129' was a spare engine, listed as 'special'. Following completion, the Jawa was displayed for 18 months at Ash's Speedway Museum in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia (circa 2014).