The last part of the series on West Ham Speedway is on the 1971 season, the last ever full season raced at Custom House Stadium.

With Speedway celebrating it's 80th year, and West Ham 80th Anniversary of the opening of both the sport and the stadium at the end of July, I though it would be nice to go back 40 years and see what the Hammers were doing in the 40th year of Speedway racing.

When the 1968 season opened, the team had returned to celebrate 40 years of Speedway in Great Britain.

When you have reached the top, the only way is down, but the Hammers did not quite see it that way.

In 1966 we reached the quarter final of the KO cup, losing to Halifax, who ended up as the 1966 Triple Crown Champions, winning the British League, the K/O Cup and the Northern Cup. It is still quite rare for a team to win the triple, and even more rare for a triple crown to be won two seasons in a row by two different teams, must be something to do with the Red, White and Blue race jackets!

1972 finally saw the end of Speedway at West Ham, and it was a sad end.

In the early 1960’s Speedway Racing had reached a point were the sport was in decline, which had came to a head at the end of the 1963 season when both New Cross in London and Southampton closed down. The search was on to find at least one new team to add to the National League or it would possible cease to exist.

The most famous Speedway rider in Canada was Eric Chitty, who for many years rode for the West Ham Speedway team.

He was called the Custom House Cannonball by the fans.

Eric was born in Toronto, Canada in 1909.

He started working life as an Electrical Engineer, but had been an amateur racer in Hill Climbs & Trails from 1928.