The 1978 season will not go down as the most successful season in the history of the Reading Speedway, where in actual fact the Racers suffered their worst-ever top-flight finish when finishing in a lowly fourteenth place. This was their lowest position since their initial move into Division One in 1971.
Reading had a great top two in Dave Jessup and John Davis, but that apart, there was a serious lack of strength in depth and that combined with a series of injuries, saw the Racers bosses have their work cut-out to try and maintain a good league position for the club. Joining Jessup and Davis for the 1978 season with Reading, was returning Smallmead favourites Bernie Leigh, Hans Wasserman, Bob Humphries and Doug Underwood, plus a new face in Polish rider Henryk Glucklich. The 32-year-old was a four-times World Finalist and arrived at Reading highly-rated, but apart from a league debut of 5 (paid 7) at home to Birmingham, he failed to live up to his billing and was soon on his way out of Smallmead in early June.
The Racers started their league campaign at home to the Brummies, and despite being without Jessup (broken leg) they brushed aside the Midlanders to run out 45-33 winners. They came down to earth, however, in their next meeting when they crashed 54-24 at Coventry and then suffered a 41-37 defeat in the return meeting against Birmingham four days after the Bees defeat.
It was nearly a month before the Racers raced in the league again, but it did enable Jessup to make his return from injury, but although the Reading skipper scored 9 points, he couldn't stop his team going down to a thumping 56-22 defeat at Wimbledon. The Racers did bounce back from that loss four days later though, by beating the Dons 40-38 at Smallmead with Davis racing to a 13 (paid 15) maximum, but five days after that they crashed to a humiliating 58-20 defeat at Halifax, with only Jessup making any worthwhile contribution (10 from 5 rides).
White City were the next to arrive at Smallmead, but they inflicted a 43-34 defeat over the Racers despite a 15-point full house from Jessup, and then Jessup (14) and Davis (12) couldn't stop Reading going down to a 46-32 loss the following Saturday at Belle Vue. Two days after the Aces loss Reading slipped up 40-38 at home to Poole, which was quickly followed by defeats at White City and Hull.
The Smallmead men then lost 44-34 at Sheffield in a meeting which saw the departure of Glucklich, but in the return at Smallmead four days later then run out 42-36 winners over the Tigers, with Davis again in good form scoring a 15-point maximum. Mel Tayor replaced Glucklich in the six-point win over Sheffield, scoring 4 (paid 6) from 3 rides. Later that week Jessup scored a 13 (paid 15) maximum at Poole, but Reading lost 41-37 and then despite a battling performance three days later at Swindon, they just missed out on the league points when losing 40-38 against the Robins.
A good 8 points from Bernie Leigh helped Reading to a 39-39 home draw with Hull on 26th June, but the following week at Smallmead the Racers got back to winning ways when they thumped Hackney Wick 53-24. Next up for Reading was a trip to Ipswich, but as well as slipping to a narrow 39-38 defeat at Foxhall, they also lost the services of Wasserman. The German crashed heavily into the fence and was taken to hospital with serious back injuries, which would go on to threaten his future career. Wasserman's absence would be covered for the remainder of the season by Kevin Bowen and Roger Abel, with Ashley Pullen getting a few outings as well.
After the loss of Wasserman the Racers lost successive home meetings against Belle Vue (43-35) and Coventry (40-38), with a 40-38 loss at Leicester sandwiched in between. However the smiles were back on the Reading camp's faces when they raced to a 43-35 win at Hackney on 4th August, with Jessup bagging a 15-point full-house and Davis providing great support with 11. They nearly followed that up with another away win at Cradley in their next meeting, but lost out in the final few heats before going down to a narrow 40-38 defeat to the Heathens.
The Racers then rolled over Halifax and Wolverhampton on successive Mondays at Smallmead, but went down to a 53-25 defeat in their Bank Holiday meeting at Exeter at the end of August. Despite that heavy loss in Devon they did have enough about them to inflict a 40-37 defeat on the Falcons later in the day back at Smallmead, with Jessup 13 (paid 14), Davis 12 (paid 14) and Leigh 8 (paid 9) scoring the bulk of the points.
This was quickly followed up with home victories over Leicester and Kings Lynn and then, rather surprisingly despite being without Jessup, the Racers raced to a moral-boosting 42-36 win at Wolverhampton. Davis scored a 15-point maximum in a narrow 39-37 home victory over Ipswich, but the Bristol Bulldogs were easy meat the following week when they went down to a 44-43 defeat at Smallmead. Reading lost 55-23 in the return at Bristol four days later and the season was finished off with 39-39 draws at home to Swindon and away at Kings Lynn, before bringing down the curtain with a narrow 40-38 home loss to Cradley Heath.
So the Racers finished with 29 points in fourteenth place out of the nineteen Division One teams in a league won by Coventry Bees on 54 points. Reading didn't fair any better in the KO Cup, as despite an excellent 40-38 win at Cradley, they lost the return leg 41-37 at Smallmead, so were out of the competition at the first hurdle. Ipswich went onto beat Belle Vue in the Final over two legs.
For the record Jessup finished seventh in the British league averages with 10.24 from 31 meetings, with Davis next best for Reading with 8.87 from 35 matches, followed by Leigh (6.00, 36), Wasserman (6.00, 15), Underwood (4.62, 33), Taylor (4.53, 15), Abel (4.00, 13), Humphreys (3.81, 20), Glucklich (2.95, 19) and Bowen (2.56, 10).
On the Individual front, Jessup qualified for World Final at Wembley, but the Racers skipper suffered a broken push rod in his opening ride whilst leading which cost him the chance of being crowned World Champion. He eventually finished in fourth place on 11 points, with Ole Olsen taking the crown with 13.
