Tony Webb,  born Anthony Brian Webb in Felsted Essex on November 24 1940, eldest of three children. Felsted is  an historic village that is famous for its public school where Oliver Cromwell’s sons were educated. Tony has held a lifetime interest in both local history and speedway racing. His family  construction company had built Ipswich Speedway stadium in the UK in 1950. Tony’s relative Rod Laudrum was the first signing for the Witches in 1951, this team became home for many Australian riders when his admiration for the Aussies with colourful names began.

During the school boy years he was a keen cycle speedway rider, in 1961 -64 he Rode at  the Mike Broadbank School at Rye House and found out how hard the transition from pedals to power was. He had a few rides at Hackney and Rayleigh in 1963. A two year period in Perth Western Australia gave him a taste for the Australian lifestyle. Tony had entered the building trade as a carpenter in 1956 by the time he was 20 he was self employed.he worked in Western Australia as a contract carpenter  1967-1969. Business opportunities and family back in England then took a priority over speedway until 1969. Tony had by then founded a group of building related companies, Taxi Trucks, Woodpecker Joinery, JW contractors, Araluen Construction co ltd, and Tony Webb Ltd, but still wanted to get back into speedway.

Realising  there was a need for speedway spares and services, Tony and his brother Jack started Shaleway Products in 1969, one of the first track side sales services, this grew to cover 12 tracks with over 500 customers. A few rides at Mildenhall school followed in 1973/74. An unsuccessful attempt to introduce speedway at the Essex Showground in 1974 with former Ipswich rider Rod Laudrum and Birmingham promoter Colin Barber  was another adventure. Receiving an offer for Shaleway he could not refuse in 1982 saw him heading for back for Western Australia.

Several different ventures and ventures followed Woodlands Pergolos in Perth 1983-1992. In 1992 a property of 10 acres was purchased from the Prince Jah of Hydredad where Tony and Maggie started, a Wild life Sanctuary,and Wydinya  Bed and breakfast. 1993-2003  Chittering Times was founded in 1996 which was the beginning of the venture into writing and publishing, Bindoon Books followed, one of the the first on line bookshops in 1999, this was situated in Bindoon business centre [antique shop, a business centre and a museum which Tony developed from the old Bindoon post office site.], Then a spell as an Elected Member of Local Government for the Shire of Chittering. He was president of the Bindoon Historical Society, and Chittering Country Club incorporated. chair of the Bindoon Cemetery committee, member of Bindoon Bush fire brigade, Bindoon progress association and a director of Underhill Holdings pty ltd. It was his last business venture, an antiquarian bookshop in 1999 that surprisingly brought him back into speedway once more.

A complete burn out in 2004 saw Tony and Maggie retire to their beachside home in Lancelin, after a year of seclusion and getting back to basics they moved to Brisbane in 2006. There were increasing demand for speedway books, drawing on his knowledge of speedway spares he produced a few technical articles, then moved into biographies and history. The book business was one of the first antiquarian shops to go on line. When he sold the premises, the new owners did not want the books or the data base of customers, 5,000 books were shipped to to his retirement home in Queeensland, the business still flourishes on line.

Tony’s life time ambition was to write a specific speedway history, after a series of self published works from 1996, a Brisbane publisher accepted his manuscript on the history of a little known speedway at Davies Park in Brisbane that flourished in 1927-1932. Speedway Tonight the story of Davies Park was published in 2010.

Apart from speedway ,Tony writes history columns for the Northern Valley News in Western Australia, the Felsted journal in England  and publishes the VSRAA  magazine, and speedway Workshop. With his wife Maggie they run a bed and breakfast.

 Contact

E-mail on binbooks@iinet.net.au

   contact Tony for details on the above e-mail

This author is prolific and has many titles published and those concerning speedway are listed below:-

A-Z of speedway machines 2005

Bluey Scott Story 2006

Australasians in England 2012 DATA FILE

Keith Cox story 2006

Keith Gurtner story 2006

Syd Littlewood story  2006

Queensland Speedway data file 2007

Rusty Rees and North Queensland 2008

Alec Hunter with Jan Hunter 2008

Braund Brothers 2008

Waddell Brothers 2008

New South Wales fact file 2008

Garry Middleton Story 2008

Bert Kingston speedway world 2008

Huntings Ten 2008

Jack White Speedway world 2008
Steve Reinke speedway world 2008

Speedway Memories Queensland  2008

Various articles Australian Speedway world 2006-2009

Speedway Tonight the Davies Park story 2009

Deagon speedway 2014  book 100 pages

Worldwide Speedway adventurer the A J Hunting story 2014 book

Pioneer park story qld book

Wheels of fate Garry Hay story book

The Mittagong flash Buck Ryan story.

Speedway workshop magazine 2013 published 4 times a year.

NEWS VIEWS AND ISSUES. VSRA magazine contributor

Speedway Researcher contributor

Tapes up. tales from down under

About Tony Web