Tony Kasper 1962 - 2006 a tribute by his former mechanic and friend Chris Callaghan

Tony waiting for the tapes to rise in the famous Hackney Hawks body colour

Tony's mechanic and friend Chris Callaghan writes a personal tribute to Tony Kasper

Tony Kasper (I never could get my head around the Toni spelling, and told him early on it was a ‘girlie’ version any way!), was always, to me, a very humble guy. I remember the first time I saw him. It was at a Hackney training school on a Saturday afternoon when I was having a go myself. Tony had turned up in his old Lada car. He got himself ready and cued at the back of the line, two by two, awaiting his first chance to try the Waterden Road circuit. It was an impatient Len that summoned him to go straight onto the track and by-pass us ‘potential’ speedway champions! It was also around this time that Tony was the European (or world) under 21 champion. Now that’s humble!

That first season Tony stayed with Jan Verner, and Len asked if I would help mechanic for Tony, as Zenon, who I had been helping previously, wasn’t to return that year, due to some political barrier I think.
I helped Tony at all the home meetings and as many away ones as I could, as I was also working shift work. I swapped shifts wherever I could to help out. That first year Tony was establishing himself, gaining knowledge and experience. I admired him though as a 19 year old I think he was, living miles away from home with us in Essex, following his dream to be a champion. I think he could so easily have been a world champion, but saw his dream marred by a big crash at Reading where he broke his pelvis and noticeably lost a lot of confidence, which I’m not sure if he ever recovered from.

The following season Len asked if I would be willing for Tony to actually live with me and my wife for the whole season. As a young 20 year old, a year older than Tony, and with a mortgage, I was grateful of a little extra income. We became such good friends, like brothers really. I remember one night, whilst I was doing a night-shift, Tony stayed up the whole night putting together a radio controlled buggy that I had bought. We used to race it around the pits and track at Hackney before the meeting, and started a bit of a trend!
Now borrowing his dads’ diesel Mercedes with a bike on the back we travelled all over the country for Hackney, and to Europe too, whenever Tony represented his country or was on world championship duty. We travelled to Pocking for Tony’s first world final that year.

Tony and me with his dads diesel Merc

Occasionally we would return to Prague, Tony’s home town. I remember meeting his mum and dad the first time, staying with them under the strict Communist conditions that used to exist in those days. His mum and dad used to make me feel so welcome.

At the Marketa stadium we would sometimes do some preparing but Tony always had time to help others that needed his advice. I never got to see Prague properly in those days as we would literally drive from England to Prague and back, usually in a long weekend, just over a thousand miles each way! None of this flying business like today.
Back at home in England Tony would relax when we would pop down to the local for a drink and a few games of pool. Tony loved a Bitter shandy which was so different from the Czech ‘lager’ beer he had been used to, although we always stocked up when we went through Plzen on the way back from Czecho!


Sadly we lost touch as I moved away from the speedway scene altogether for various reasons and I hadn’t even seen a speedway meeting for quite a few years. About 6 years ago I noticed that Sky was doing a good coverage of speedway which rekindled my interest. On TV, I saw Tony riding in the World team cup, doing well at Peterborough and was very tempted to go and see him. Sadly again I didn’t make it on that occasion and missed the chance. It was in 2004 that I made a real effort though, through his Prague club, to make contact with Tony. I had been following speedway GPs on TV for about 3 years, although only attending the Cardiff one with my daughter Emma who Tony hadn’t ever met. Tony contacted me by email and we arranged for me and Emma to go and visit Tony and his family. We linked it with the 2004 Czech GP and had a brilliant time, staying with Tony four or five days, V.I.P. treatment at the GP, and meeting his wife Iveta and his two daughters, Denisa and Gabriella.
For the first time I saw the beautiful city of Prague properly, shown around by a true local, all of us together looking at the sights of Tony’s home city, including his school! We hadn’t seen each other for almost 20 years and had a great time reminiscing over those earlier days. My daughter Emma commented that Tony didn’t have a normal Eastern European accent and she spoke of his ‘cockney’ version, which he had picked up from me all those years ago. She also marvelled at his knowledge of cockney rhyming slang too, especially when Tony asked us to ‘come and have a Butchers’ at some new trees planted in his garden!

The tree in Tony's garden

Tony and I meeting up in Prague and catching up on old times

It was so nice to see he had been successful though. Speedway had been good to him and he was also blessed with a beautiful family. He was still involved on the scene when I saw him, with a printing business and various engine tuning jobs, both speedway related.

On that last day, when Tony took us to back to Prague airport, I some how wondered if I would ever see him again. His daughters wanted to visit England some time, and we spoke of meeting up again then. Our last contact was when Tony sent me a hilarious email at Christmas 2005. I wasn’t even aware that he had cancer, although he must have known. His wife Iveta later told me that it had been discovered towards the end of 2005 and that he had an operation in January, which initially seemed to be very successful. Around April 2006 Tony felt unwell again and was told it was now terminal. He wanted to stay at home, but eventually had to be admitted to hospital during July, two weeks before he died. He finally lost the battle to cancer on the 31st July 2006. Iveta said those last two weeks had been the worst time of her life.

It seems so sad that we will never see him. His big cheeky grin and his Cockney/Czech accent! He was such a lovely guy who had so much laughter around him wherever we went. God bless you mate.

My thoughts and prayers got out for Tony’s wife Iveta, and his two beautiful girls, Denisa and Gabriella.


Chris Callaghan
chris.callaghan7@ntlworld.com

The Kasper Family. Tony, his wife Iveta, and his two beautiful girls, Denisa and Gabriella.