Bruiser McHuge

Having watched Sean Wilson for 3 years home and away every match I certainly wouldn't say he was dirty at all...I wouldn't have even particularly said he was a hard rider..not during that period of the early 90's anyway ..

Mental health issues were obvious throughout his racing career ...but hindsight is a great thing. You have to remember Carter was a Yorkshireman and Yorkshire folk adore one of their own....I've never really known any rider get such fanatical support from a teams supporters as Carter did from Halifax fans ...they really did adore him. From my opinion I thought he was a really fast rider , definitely one of the very best visitors to Hyde Road and probably for a couple of years he was the best visitor to Hyde Road for that spell. There was a period when I thought he would be world champion but if I'm honest those thoughts had long gone when he did what he did...I thought he'd missed the boat and injuries and Gundersen and Nielsen and other factors meant that I thought his world championship winning days had gone ..he was certainly good at bringing publicity to the sport though when riding and that would be a great asset today .. It does surprise me how many fans he still openly has though considering what he did which is unforgivable.

Some interesting points and it shows that it's all about opinions and people have different opinions.. If I were to give my all time best riders from those I saw then I'd go Erik Gundersen , Hans Nielsen , Sam Ermolenko, Michael Lee and Peter Collins I started going in 1978 so it's an era thing really..I didn't have as much interest when Rickardsson was at the top and I found him a bit dull if I'm honest ..and I'd stopped going when the likes of Jason Crump were at the top because I would think Crump makes any list I would have thought.. I think geography plays a lot in people's views..I was a Belle Vue fan so we only got to see the likes of Scott Autrey once a season and he wasn't that great at Hyde Road so it blinkers views whereas Ermolenko came regularly and was fantastic there ...it was easier to judge northern and midland based riders as we saw them a lot more...I can barely recall seeing Malcolm Simmons at Hyde Road ! Finally I think the most underrated rider is Jan O Pedersen ..I think he suffers by not being at his peak when Nielsen and Gundersen were at theirs but I feel at the time of his accident he was at his real peak and robbed speedway of an all time great and if he'd carried on he would have won more and been rated higher by a lot of people.

Not read this but not yet another face from the old days looking in from afar and informing all and sundry what the problems are with current day speedway......who's next on the conveyor belt to roll out .......zzzzz

I'm going to this..first time I've set foot in Kirky Lane, or any speedway track rip or years....but Jason Crump is a legend and also usually a plain speaker not short of opinions so it should be a good night.....hopefully it will whet my appetite for my live speedway watching return in the new Belle Vue stadium next year...

Not seen it so can't really comment...but I do know. It's easier to say what is wrong with speedway...it's much harder to carry out everything once you are in a position of power...so it's easy to look good on paper giving opinions when not in power as such

It will be purely down to geography after Hampel gets his wildcard because of injury....if a genuine title challenger drops out through injury then they'll always get one..after that it's look at the top 8 and see what countries need a top up.....Woffinden wouldn't have got a wildcard if he wasn't a Brit and they needed a Brit at the time...you could say he has jusified that !!...Sweden will definitely get one maybe two as they are required for geographical and commercial reasons.. My only real passionate choice is Sayfutdinov but there's no chance of that....it's ridiculous really that a genuine world champion chance doesn't even bother..

A few points.. Not a massive Hancock fan as a rider to watch but to say he should have retired 5 years ago is just plain ridiculous....there's no law to say you have to miss the gate ans pass people...gating is a skill in itself and Hancock over these last 5 years has been better than at any stage in his career so why should he retire.....yes he's a bit boring as a rider but that's not his problem.. Woffinden's bikes....they are obviously super fast but he still has to ride them and control them...and they certainly won't be illegal ...too many checks for that...credit where credit is due for riding those machines in the way he does. Finally, the GP's are becoming a bit predictable in many ways, although that only follows most motor sports I suppose...it looks like the same few riders have the rocket ship bikes and they will always be at the top end while the rest struggle...it's become almost a 2 tier GrandPrix system with a narrower field of possible world champions all the time....if this continues we could see Tai winning 7 or 8 world titles !....it would be nice to have more competitive riders at the top end with realistic chances of winning the title.....little wonder Hancock continues ..I think it's vital that Sayfutdinov is in the series and the young Poles get up to speed ....gutting that Ward can't join in.....the series badly needs more real top end competition to prevent it becoming more predictable each year

My brother in law ran one engine throughout a British season...promoters often thought that unprofessional but he spent ages after each meeting completely draining the oil from the bike and was always the last to leave the pits and that engine didn't break down and was competitive enough without spending fortunes.....so I say that's pretty professional...promoters were just impressed when a rider lined up 3 gleaming machines in the pits because it looked good !

i think they would worry a second GP in Britain would affect the gate in Cardiff , which is their showpiece event in many ways.....to be fair I think it probably might or do people think that if the events were spaced our enough then fans might go to both ?....perhaps they would and there is room for two ?

Always had the national track cycling based at the Manchester velodrome..national squash based next to Manchester city's stadium...some martial arts have their national training base in Manchester...some sports are based in Sheffield....it's the facilities not the geography that matter really.

Tai Woffinden was very impressive team riding on a Sky match riding for Rye House in his very early days...it was that that convinced me how good he could become.. As I said Sam Ermolenko was the best I've seen,,,I've seen him collect a paid max of second places behind a much slower second string while fending off international riders in 3rd place....fantastic really.

I think Tai is capable of pulling off exciting rides but he's now realised that if you get to the latter stages o a GP then there's not much point in risking everything for the sake of a point or 2....he's got a lead and you don't lose much ground if your are 3rd or 4tth compared to actually winning the meeting...in fact you can still gain ground which definitely adds to a safety first approach rather than a win at all costs. That's the drawback of so many GP?'s , it becomes a points accumulation thing rather than having to win thing which takes away some of the spectacle I like the fact that every point counts now, it's a big improvement on some of the old formats but I would just like to see the winner of the final race get rewarded a bit more.it would make for more excitement and keep more people in the title race once they fall behind...barring injuries it's very hard to gain many points per meeting over an opponent under the current system

So has it always been the case that riders can only accept a guest booking if a club goes to their club first and not direct to the rider ?....I'm sure that wasn't always the case and it was down to riders themselves to accept bookings at home and abroad...they are self employed after all... Even so this sounds a bit petty and if I were one of the riders I certainly wouldn't be happy about the restriction of earnings and it surely would damage their relationship with Birmingham long term which seems crazy of a small point of principle....using riders as pawns in a dispute is never clever

Sam Ermolenko was the best I've seen at team riding..it was a sight to be seen, especially on a small track like Wolves.. If they really did stop paying bonus points then I'm not surprised riders stopped team riding...the minute bonus points stop being paid then speedway ceases to be a true team sport..why would any rider be prepared to sit behind his partner if it costs him money,,,madness.....is that still the case ?

But you really need a rider to give precise feedback after each race so a technically efficient rider would be ideal...riding the thing is one thing but technical input is another thing altogether

It depends what the engine's long term intentions are......if it aims to be a budget engine that riders can use over a season in the league without too much service and maintenance then that is not going to be an attraction to a GP rider chasing the major honours as they are never going to ride an engine like that. That's why I don't think a young rider like Robert Lambert is the way to go for the Gerhard as he is chasing his goals and really needs engines on a level playing field with the top GP guys and not a still being developed budget engine...that's surely not the target rider at present. I don't think they could have a better test rider than Peter Karlsson though, he's been there and done that and has great knowledge and should really help develop the engine on a day in day out basis and once properly tested it surely must have a future with the everyday riders racing day in day out league speedway where savings must be a major attraction .......the very top end of the sport is a different matter altogether.

To a degree you are probably right, and it wouldn't be the first wife or girlfriend to be a regular in the pits....and I can remember a couple of American ones being a massive distraction to everybody !....and one constantly gave her husband a real hard time......but it's not recommended in my book.........I can remember Rob Woffinden having Tai regularly in the pits in Australia when he was about 6 but he was actually helping and I think he's used that early knowledge to good effect !!......normally though I can't see why a rider would want a girlfriend, wife or mother in the pits when riding, although as you say it's each to his own I suppose.

Not seen this interview but I must admit to never being impressed with any other Alex Harkness interview that I've ever seen....he comes across as somebody who has been put into a position and is completely out of his depth....like I said though I've not seen this latest offering.. I will admit that the job is very hard though and cryingl out for a top CEO but they can't and wouldn't be able to afford one

My son is 17 , nearly 18 and at college with 12 months to go and then will be off to uni .....he's a really mature lad but it makes me realise just how young Robert Lambert really is....he really needs to be given some slack ...I cringe when I think back to myself at 17.....my son plays youth team football at a top non league club and I've watched those 17 year olds every week which again reinforces just how young Lambert is...he's doing fine and should be fine, although if he really does have his mum and girlfriend in the pits with him then that's a no no ....no problem with a dad as a mechanic though...or a mum if she's good at it !.....but it's definitely not a family outing in the pits.

It depends on the actual role the parent plays ....I've seen plenty of close father/son relationships in speèdway and some have been positive and some not.........if a father is very clued up on the mechanical side then that can be very beneficial..but those who are not yet still have an opinion on everything, usually not positive, can lead to problems and can hinder a riders progress.. You could argue that somebody like Michael Lee and Andy Lee were almost a team in his early days and father was a big influence on son's early success in that case......of course it went wrong later...

It's an awkward one There is no doubt that 4 equally matched low level British riders would probably put on a more entertaining meeting but I honestly believe hardly anybody outside of the old diehards would go and watch........I honestly believe that more people would be tempted to see the top stars....the higher the level of any sport attracts more people......dumbing down the sport is the easy option but is a route to disaster in my opinion The issue is how to make the top stars viable and how to attract the fans to cover their payments....that's the hard part but the part that has to be done....dumbing the sport down to virtual amateur level is the easy option but will attract very few fans , raising very little revenue whilst still having the same staging costs for a meeting, rent etc

Talking of rider shortage, where do the real youngsters of British speedway come from these days.....most tracks seem to be rented with next to no chance of use outside of a match .....not many training schools seem to be about......the pld Monday night training school at Hyde Road was always busy with youngsters having a go. Junior grasstrack was always the main route in for talented kids but I don't think that seems as big now and not as big a route into speedway.....so where are the youngsters coming from and where are they practising their skills in the main....nationwide that is.

It would never work, it would be too expensive for a start.... Riders are self employed workers, they look after themselves and most aren't particuarły bothered where they ride as long as the deal suits them.....they are not going to sign a squad contract to sit on their backside waiting for a call without a good retainer and probably equipment at the ready for short notice calls......teams can hardly pay their riders now and squads would mean paying more riders for a whole season whereas a guest is is meeting by meeting payment and would be cheaper than paying a squad....and they would want payment...I know riders and I know they would want a retainer....and if riders are tied to a squad then it means they can't guest so that would mean they would ask for bigger contracts and a bigger retainer to make up for the lack of guest bookings they would normally take It a good idea on paper but unworkable on the track..in my opinion

Not sure about Rosco's grievances to be honest.....It sounds a bit of a shambles at the end but the chequered flag coming out after 3 laps didn't affect anything as Swindon got a 5-1 in the re run which they were not on in the first race......it shouldn't happen but Swindon gained from that and certainly didn't lose anything...........as for Cook, well if he touched the tapes then it was only the rules that he had to go from 15 metres to complete his rides....if he had got changed then it's not his fault but is the refs fault ...I assume Swindon would have preferred Cook off 15 to a reserve level from the tapes, and so would Belle Vue on the night I think so I doubt Rosco complained at the time about Cook having to get back changed ....if he'd had come in last , as expected, then he wouldn't have batted an eyelid........again , this shouldn't happen but the fact Cook got the 5-1 has caused Rosco's frustration, yet the reserve replacement would probably had got the 5-1 as well so Swindon didn't lose out there as well in my opinion. Yes it's a bit of a shambles but neither incident was particularly result affecting.