martinmauger

Excellent clips there, for some reason 'on-bike' or 'helmet cam' footage often doesn't come out very good, but that was great. I assume shoulder mounted cameras were used....

Shame he's ill and was a good entertainer. He certainly provided entertainment at Hull and think it was when Long Eaton folded he was approached to join the Vikings but didn't sign as he wasn't keen on the Craven Park track apparently, fair enough. That said, you'd never know he wasn't a CP fan as he always gave the home riders a hard time and I'd have been quite happy had he become a Viking. Get well soon....

And Hull. Shame the sport losing another track & team, premanently this case, and gotta feel for Rebels fans. Thing is, someone told me a long time ago "if you ever come into money (some hope) invest in land, the value will always go up as they don't make it anymore"....

I'll just add that "personal privacy isn't an issue until it is lost", trust me on that, I'll say no more....

No wasn't Thomas, it was grey poodle-type specimen, loved its speedway (and its crisps) though.

So is doggo an Aces or Tigers fan Used to be a couple from Peterborough regularly brought their dog into the stand at Hull when the Panthers were in town. Think it enjoyed the racing while dining on crisps inbetween heats, my sometimes-speedway-fan girlfriend initially didn't beleive me so ensured she attended Hull v Peterborough meets just to see the dog . As you do.....

As above (belatedly) I always enjoy reading Backtrack over and over (!), and very good to hear from Brain Larner, much more has been heard of and from Ian Thomas. Shame their partnership & friendship ended with moving Newcastle into the top league, both realsied on reflection it was a mistake, you can't win 'em all but they had a lot of success in speedway....

Good for you ! A previous job of mine was helping run 'Silver Surfer' & 'Computing For The Terrified' courses. Pretty much "this is the keyboard, this is the mouse, the computer won't laugh at you or bite, just because you don't know how to use one yet is no relfection on your abilities, as with everything you just need to learn", etc. One lovely old lady joined to learn word processing to, and I quote: "get her life story in print before she pegged it", i.e passed away. Well after getting her story 'down', she went on to learn basic accounting and literally ended up preparing the accounts for a row of shops in her village, I moved jobs and lost track of what she did next. Many such courses finished in Hull and the surrounding area due to the usual lack of funding, at one centre all the computers got half-inched (!), but mainly due to lack of interest by the local populace. Shame as there are still folk who want to learn about such things....

At the risk of stating the obvious; if the replaced track vehicles are road legal, and I fully understand they may not need to be if only used on the track, one solution could be possibly moving them to different locations before and after meetings. Another suggestion, which a promoter [name redacted] told me was when the stadium got broken into and his tractors regularly vandalised, but no other damage took place, they actually caught the culprit(s) and gave them jobs working on the track. Problem solved - no more vandalism and it worked out cheaper than constant repairs to track equipment and apparently they did good work on the track. Obviously suggestion 2 is potentially of high risk and would depend greatly on the character of the people concerned.....

Hull Vikings fans wouldn't complain too much either. A team full of great riders would be brilliant for fans of every club, but I guess the main thing for 2021 is to get a competitive league season up and running, then take it to and from 2022....

Just to let everyone know the CHiPs episodes with Bruce Penhall are being shown on ForcesTV Channel at either 6:00PM or 2:30AM and repeated at weekends. Sky Channel 181, or Freeview 96. From what I recall there weren't many episodes which featured speedway; one called Speedway Fever, and there isn't much and the one centered around the 1982 World Final, it isn't that great and is pretty 1980's cheesy and possibly a bit of a wasted opportunity but are worth watching from historical interest. Shame Bruce left Cradley Heath & speedway itself, but you cant really blame him; vis a vis the queues of hopefulls waiting in all weathers to audition for 'Britain's Doesn't Have Any Talent Nor The X-Factor' - type shows in the quest for fame & fortune Stardom. Looking forward to the speedway bikes, meantime gotta love those Kawasaki Z900 & Z1000's which are worth a small fortune these days. Think I need to get out more....

Ommited the 'magic' word in my own post: "Hope I'm wrong but if Odsal was considered a GP venue think it's too late for this year.", yeh Odsal not mentioned. With the Covid situation chnaging almost by the day like last year think the GPs will take place at the venues if / when they are able to...

Hope I'm wrong but if Odsal was considered a GP venue think it's too late for this year. After obviously needing new speedway pits, etc building, I think a test meeting would need to be staged before acquiring an FIM 'good to go' ticket. That was certainly the case for the USA World Final in 1982 (the Penhall / Carter one) at teh LA Collesiuim a US qualifier was run there the year before. I'm sure I recall seeing pics of half the Belle Vue time testing out Odsal prior to a qualifier meet and then the 1985 Final itself, even though it had previously staged speedway it was classed as a new venue and the track was much improved on the previous circuit. I loved my visits to Bradford, before and especially after Hull re-opened in 1995.....

Without getting into anything, I knew what I was doing, which I'm aware can turn easily into 'famous last words': mostly straight road, LED headlights on full - they literally do almost turn nite into day, a calculated risk one might say. Plus I am too familiar with at particular stretch of road having made too many similar desperaste, nite-time dashes (put the tiny violins away, sometimes shoot just happens). Plus, plus I am WAY too scared of my mum, whose car it is, to take any risk in stuffing it , but seriously, sometimes you have to do what you have to do. A friend who used to be a driving instructor, asked one pupil to go straight across a roundabout without turning left or right, they did exactly that and drove right over it. Another was asked to turn right at a roundabout, and did so, turned immediately right, the wrong way around with the roundabout on their left hand side. Another kept the car screaming in 2nd gear at 7,000 RPM for ages as they waited for the instructor to tell tell them to change up. What finally caused him to give up being a DI was the number of people who had numerous near misses, or actually hit someone or something, didn't realise why and scaringly didn't seem to even care....

At the risk of stirring the pot in both directions; the last time I did '60 in a 30' was at 2:20am last year, rushing to be at the bedside of a dying relative. Ok, well naughty but I knew there would be little to no traffic (there wasn't any), hoped any local plod would be sympathetic, I know the roads well and am, hopefuly, a good driver - no accidents, convictions, nil points on licence. Obviously I don't reccomend or condone such, arguably, legitimate 'boy- racer hooligansim' at all, but there are times one needs to step up big style and do one's best. Sadly didn't make it in time but I'd probably do the same again. On the other side of the coin, one of my uncles in one eye has a condition (cateracts ?) which means he doesn't drive at all after dark as he sees 'stars' under street lights, especially if it's raining, not sure whether he just doesn't drive at night or isn't permitted to. Irellevant really as sadly, few people will ride with him as he regularly pulls out of his, admittedly quiet, cul-de-sac without looking (!) as "no one ever comes drives down here" , well one day someone might. In other words he can drive ok but is, a 'tad' (!) arrogant with his driving habits and attitude....

Now THIS is also promotion ^^. Really appreciate the offer Barry, but I have proggies from Hull's IOW visits, I downsized (?) my speedway collection focusing mostly on Hull Vikings & Ivan Mauger related items or other meetings I attended, or 'special' ones e.g. SGPs, SWC, SONs, Test Matchs, etc. as I literally had boxes and boxes (and boxes) of stuff. The items I disposed of BTW; a lot was given to a fellow collector in Hull, some posted to a good friend & Glasgow supporter and vast amount of NL progs from 1970's to mid 1980's, many relating to Scunny, were given to a guy who works at Scunny speedway, so it all went to speedway-related good causes. I hope IOW can come to the tapes in some from in 2021 and I wish you and Martin all the very best for the future. Good luck....

With speedway-oriented friends, workmates and, going back a few years school pals, it has always been a saying between us "if you are near such-and-such town and go to the speedway, get me a proggie please". Always say it semi-jokingly to relatives too. Well, one year my folks went to the IOW on holiday, on returning they told me "you'll never believe it, but on alighting the ferry to arrange transport inland to the hotel, at the railway station / taxi rank (I forget which) the first thing we saw was a billboard advertising IOW speedway". Now THAT's promotion, though my admittedly non-speedway folk didn't attend a meeting so never got me a proggie. Oh well, can't win 'em all....

A great read, one heck of a talented rider Kelly certainly lived life to the full....

Going slightly sideways, which is what we do in speedway, though staying mostly on topic; I recently tried to buy rugby league publications for an uncle's birthday. I drew a blank everywhere I tried; supermarkets, newsagents, garages, etc. I told him as such and he replied "I'm not surprised (that I drew a blank), they aren't printed in the off-season (I subsequently discovered that they are) no-one would buy them as there is nothing going on, they are only sold in the actual season. There are only 12 teams in the top league (UK) anyway so there wouldn't be much to write about out of season". I mentioned Speedway Star is printed all year and in a 'normal' close-season contains features, interviews, team & season reviews, possible team news, etc, and assmumed publicaions of other sports would also be printed all year, they certainly are in other motorsport, he was extremely surprised. For some reason I forgot to mention there are 6 teams in the 'top' league of British Speedway....

Didn't see Olle Nygren ride or meet him, but speaking to people who did meet him and attended his training schools he certainly was an interesting character in addition to being talented all-round motorcyclist. Speedway has lost another true legend, RIP....

Comsidering what may be an obvious question; bearing in mind my interest in football is zip, the only grounds I've visited are Shielfield Park, The Shay, Owlerton (think they staged football for a time?) (original) Wembley and Hull's KCOM Stadium (only as part of a university course). So: how does it work for the football divisions / leagues with presumably the F.A. creating, enforcing and if necessary altering the rules of the game for the clubs which are (presumably) all separate businesses ? I just wondered in respect to how a much proposed 'independant ruling body, could / would work enforcing the (too many?) rules & regulations to ensure unbiased fairness in UK speedway....

Adding my 2p's worth cos I can't sleep and I'm bored, but tis true re; America, I have relatives in Florida who report "it's too cold to go outside". Down to 75C during the day, the poor luvvies. But seriously, a bad situation occuired at the Capitol....

Various options exist to cope with the sun getting in one's eyes on a speedway track; tinted goggles and / or angling one's head with helmet peak are but a couple. The sun shon over the 1st bend at the Boulevard (from time to time) and Kelly Moran's stated method was "as you go over the start / finish line and you can't see a thing because of the sun I just count 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3 Mississippi - then I turn left". Sure seemed to work for him ....

This ^^ word for word. Was all up for going to the Ben Fund Meet at Scunny, day before got a 'cold in der dose' so cried off. Next day felt a lot better (as you do), by 4pm, so too late, thought "nice day, heck I could probably have gone after all. Still, there will be loads more speedway to come.............".....

Link arrived early this morn, so plenty to read, thanks....