waiheke1

National qualifying rounds. Four quarter finals (overseas final, nordic final, two continental semi final). Inter continental final and continentsl final with 8 from each to the final. Host nation guaranteed one final berth (if didnt qualify, top placed in qualifying meeting through at expense of 8th place).

The other two riders were lance king and jeremy doncaster. I mis-remembered the final though, it was actually won by shawn moran (gundersen was top scorer in the heats). Penhall beat pc 3-0 with times only 2-3 seconds slower than heat winners in the meeting itself - pretty impressive when you consider he hadnt ridden a competitive meeting since 1982! Will post full results later

was one of the last meetings I went to at hyde rd (we moved back to nz a few weeks later), and its one of the relatively few programmes I kept, so stands out.

I went 81-86. Memories are carter blitzing the fields in 81&82, mort winning a three man run off in 84 (erik touched the tspes and got excluded, then mort did nielsen from the back), pc rolling back the years to finish on the podium in 85, then nielsen destroying the field in 86 (mort having an engine fsilure which cost him second, and then finishing last in a four man run off for 2nd/3rd).

Penhall and pc had two or three match races, penhall won all convincingly. Will dig out the programme tonight, from memory gundersen won a six man final. Off the top of my head there were six aces (mort smith blackbird mckinna thorp ravn), two moran brothers, three collins brothers (les niel phil), gundersen, wigg, tatum dont recall the other two riders.

Agree it should have no bearing on the verdict.but I think most would agree that 12 month ban would be sufficient, in which case ward would be available. That being the case, it would be surely a no brainer to give the Melbourne wildcard to darcy.

You dont have 83 also do you daveallan?

Bollocks. Plenty were cynical BUT I dont believe a single person wanted this to fail.in fact most of the cynics were at pains to point this out, as the accusation of them "wanting it to fail" was consistently and erroneously aimed at them.

Brilliant many thanks

Anyone able to provide heat results for these meetings? Thanks

Clearly it doesn't make it all right. My point was a that darcy isn't unique in offending and b that attitude towards darcy is different to that of others who have done the same.I've been pretty consistent in saying I think a 6-12 month ban appropriate.

According to his recent biography, kelly moran rode on many occasions while still hungover or drunk from thr previous night. But most consider him to have been good for speedway, and a real drawcard...

Going WAY back - Jack Young, the only rider to win the world title while riding second division?

As good as any on his home tracks. But never proved himself on the world stage in events which are typically viewed as the yardstick of greatness - world championship (individual and team) and the british league (which contained most of the world's top riders). Maybe he could have been an all time great - but as he didn't test himself against the world's best away from us soil, personally I'd rank his achievements below those of not just American world champions, but also the likes of autrey sigalos and the morans. Id add that the riders I mention were mostly just starting out as basts era of domestic domination ended. Autrey the exception, but didn't he get banned for not going back to the states to race in some of those championship s? Much harder for any one rider to dominate in the 80s when the number of quality American riders had increased.

If u stretch this back to the old national League, then joe owen at Newcastle must be up there.

What sites are you going on your laptop on while on the toilet twk that you're ending up stuck to the seat?!?

I think by neccessity in the off season articles of this type are needed to fill the magazine. I suspect also that most star subscribers date back to the backtrack era in any case.

Read it, really pleased I re subscribed, top article Phil!

Renewed my online sub today on basis of Larry Ross article - comfortably my all time favorite rider. Look fwd to reading it thus evening.

If darcy ward played football he'd be ched evans? I know it doesn't rhyme but..

But u quoted my post? How does that work when I was on ignore?

It was actuallyy on the very first page of this thread! And u replied by saying it was confusing two grouos having such similar names!

But there was an earlier thread - I'll try to find it - where it was specifically pointed out to you that those were two entirely different groups?

Yes and as arson said you added close to a thousand to the membership list of 10308 in your earlier post

I agree gustix. See, the postings are much more intelligent on bsf.