For the 1976 season Reading Racers had to find themselves a new number one when Anders Michanek opted out of Division One racing. The Swedish number one and 1974 World Champion had been with Reading since they took over Newcastle's Division One licence in 1971, and despite taking a year out in 1974 whilst the Racers new stadium at Smallmead was being built, lined-up up with Reading for the new era of speedway in Reading for the 1975 season.
So who was going to fill ‘Mich's' shoes? Stepping into the role in a big-money full transfer from Leicester Lions was England International Dave Jessup. Anyone who thought that 'DJ' wouldn't be able to replace mighty Mich soon changed their minds as Jessup had a magnificent debut season in Reading's colours. Joining Jessup at Smallmead for the 1976 season was John Davis, Bengt Jansson, Bob Humphreys, Bernie Leigh, Mick Bell and new Polish rider Eugeniusz Blszak.
The season started with a series of Challenge and Spring Gold Cup meetings, but when the British League campaign got underway Racers got off to a flyer winning their opening four meetings, which included an excellent 51-27 win at Birmingham. Jessup and Davis rolled out a full and paid maximum respectively, and with Jansson giving good backing with a 10 point haul, Reading started to look a very solid outfit.
Home wins over Wolverhampton and Leicester soon followed and then an excellent 39-39 draw at Belle Vue on 22nd May increased Racers standing in the Division One league table. However this was to be the last British Speedway saw of Blaszak, as the Pole was arrested for shoplifting in Reading and was subsequently ordered to return home by the Eastern European authorities. Of the new to Britain Poles who had had arrived in March, it was Blaszak who had settled down best and was actually scoring points for Reading, so his departure was a blow. As a replacement the Polish Motor Federation sent over Zielona Gora's Polish Junior Champion Boleslaw Proch, and he quickly demonstrated he was a cut above the other Poles who were now racing in Britain. He scored 8 (paid 9) on his Racers debut against the touring USSR team at Smallmead, and went onto score well in his debut season in England. Reading remained unbeaten at home going into July, but they suffered another blow when Jansson returned home to Sweden after running into mechanical and money problems. He had been averaging 6.36 before his departure and his absence was a big one to fill as Racers had to use guests to replace the Swede for the remainder of the season.
Reading immediately bounced back from this setback with a thumping 47-30 win at Leicester on 20th July and the following Monday raced to a narrow 41-37 home victory over Kings Lynn. July was proving to be a profitable month for the Smallmead club as they then won away meetings on successive nights at Poole (40-38) and Sheffield (41-37). The Jessup/ Davis twin spearhead was proving to be formidable as the duo dropped just four points between them over the two meetings. Three days later Reading were on the right end of a last heat decider when defeating Belle Vue 40-38 at Smallmead and then four days after that they travelled to Hackney's Waterden Road in match which was to probably prove the turning point of the season.The scores were tied at 30-30 with three heats remaining at Waterden Road and with Jessup still having two rides remaining, Reading fancied their chances of coming away from East London with the points.
Unfortunately things turned sour in heat 11 as Jessup was excluded by referee Terry Golledge on the third lap for allegedly bringing down Hackney's Dave Morton - and more drama was soon to follow. Proch was excluded in the re-run for exceeding the two minute rule and it soon became evident that all was not well in the pits. The entire Reading team, with the exception of guest Ian Cartwright, went on strike and refused to race the final three races leaving the Hackney riders to contest the final three races unopposed for three 5-0's - final score 45-30!!
Reading had ridden 22 of their 36 league matches and stood just five points behind league leaders Ipswich with three meetings in hand over the Witches, as they entered a period of three tough away meetings in six days soon after that. Reading could go top with a good return of points from that trio of matches (Hull, Coventry and Exeter), but the Racers lost all three and with that combined with the Hackney fiasco went Reading's hopes of being crowned champions for another season.Racers season seemed to go into decline after that, which saw them lose their 100% home record with successive 39-39 draws against White City and Newport in early September and then with Davis scoring a rare lowly 6 points at home to Ipswich the following month, Reading went down to a 40-38 Smallmead defeat to the Witches.
The Smallmead blond-bombshell (12 point maximum) and the Racers did bounce back in their very next meeting by winning 46-32 at Wolverhampton, but Reading finished off their league campaign on a low note with another home defeat to Hackney (43-35) and an away reverse at Ipswich (50-28).So from serious title challengers in July, Reading finished the season in a final position of sixth place in the eighteen team league. Ipswich were crowned champions on 53 points, with the Racers 11 points adrift of the Suffolk men on 42 points. Of their 36 meetings in total, Reading won 14, drew 2 and lost 2 at home and on the road their record read won 5, drew 1 and lost 12.
In the Speedway Star KO Cup Racers never got out of first gear. They lost 41-37 at home to Hackney and although they give a good account of themselves when losing 40-38 in the second leg, they were out of the competition at the first hurdle losing 81-75 on aggregate. They did fair a little better in the Spring Gold Cup finishing in second place behind Ipswich in the Eastern Sector.
However, with the Witches losing just one of their eight meetings, it was the men from Foxhall who progressed to a two-legged final against Western Sector winners Wimbledon, where they defeated the Dons 80-76 on aggregate.Jessup did manage to fill the big void left by Michanek's departure by racing to a magnificent 10.42 average from a total of 36 meetings.
He also scored 13 maximums, of which 4 were paid. Davis was next best with a 9.27 (34 meetings, 3 full, 1 paid), followed by Leigh (35), Humphreys 6.47 (36), Jansson 6.36 (10), Proch 5.58 (27), Bell 5.33 (35) and Blaszak 3.67 (8).
