It's impossible to look at any speedway website these days without seeing this call for an independent ruling body, but no one seems to remember that this is what we used to have in the pre 1965 era when the sport was run by the old Speedway Control Board. The board used to include one promotor and a riders' representative. The remaining members were appointed by the ACU and the constitution decreed that the board must always be comprised of a majority of ACU nominees.
The board was constantly criticised and the major gripe used to be that decisions were being made by people who had no financial involvement in the sport and that this was unfair and unacceptable to those who had. The Shawcross Investigation at the end of 1964 which resulted in the formation of the British League, accepted this and agreed that control of domestic speedway should be invested in what was then called The Promotors' Association, but which later became the BSPA.
Are we saying now, that we want to go back to having a Speedway Control Board - which everyone wanted to get rid of back in the 1960's? The present day successor to the Control Board, (known as the Speedway Control Bureau)includes two members of the BSPA Alex Harkess and Chris Van Straaten, and nine other officers. Its actual role seems a bit obscure.
