Terry

Technically Shawn Moran did win a world title, the 1983 world longtrack championship. My top 10 Americans. 1. Bruce Penhall 2. Scott Autrey 3. Dennis Sigalos 4. Sam Ermolenko 5. Shawn Moran 6. Billy Hamill 7. Greg Hancock 8. Bobby Schwartz 9. Kelly Moran 10. Lance King

Ahh, Screenys mate. Great rider, not so good if he missed the gate.

Did not what?

I can't believe you think Knudsen was at fault. Hans clearly clattered into Tommy's front wheel before he had any chance of taking any avoiding action. Nielsen certainly didn't stick to the inside, he was out of control near the fence when Knudsen came off. There wasn't any difference between this and Hans knocking Ermolenko off. As others have said, as great a rider as Nielsen was, he was prone to the odd desperate move in world championships.

If Carter had come third, it would've been some race between him and Les Collins to meet Penhall in a run-off. It was a shame that Bruce retired so early. I watched some of those CHiPs episodes he was in, and he didn't even play a lead character! True enough regarding Hans steaming under Tommy. He wasn't so lucky when he did it to Sam 7 years later though!

Carter would still have had to have beaten Penhall as Peter Collins was leading the race. Why would Penhall show any remorse? He'd just won the world championship, he wasn't going to care how Carter was feeling. (I assume you're talking about the world final and not the overseas final!) Eddie Jancarz definitely split the Danes. I think it was Olsen raising his arm as he crossed the line that influenced the referee's decision.

True enough. Practically every American who came over here in the late seventies/early eighties was a star. Even Rick Miller, who wasn't a star made a world final. Hard to believe there hasn't been any great American riders since Hamill & Hancock

There is a clip on youtube showing a different angle of the Penhall/Carter clash, (I think it's one of the CHiPs cameras) that clearly shows there was no contact.

I don't think you can compare the two incidents. Jessup and Ross were still racing, whereas Penhall most definitely wasn't. Obviously it was suspicious, but you couldn't say for a 100% fact that they were cheating, unlike Bruce.

You tend to forget how badly he was hurt, and how much he's still suffering years later when you see him on sky with Coventry. Let's hope things improve for him.

No argument from me that Mauger was the better rider. Although maybe he rode for too long, whereas Olsen retired while still at the top. I guess it proves the calibre of rider 30 years ago was stronger, with Hancock still at the top but Mauger slipping down. It's certainly not due to fitness.

Add to that, Olsen and Gundersen letting Petersen through in the 82 Inter-continental final and Ermolenko and Hancock making sure Larsen went through the 94 Overseas final. Probably dozens more examples. I think what p!ssed people off was how blatant Penhalls actions were. Tootling around at the back popping wheelies. He should've faked an engine failure or slid off. He was probably the most popular champion ever when he won at Wembley, but all that disappeared with that incident.

I don't think Britain were seeded a place at Bradford 85. Luckily Kelvin Tatum qualified.

Agree with you apart from tape touching, which I think doing away with has been the best decision over the last thirty odd years. I used to hate watching riders fannying about, rolling forwards and backwards at the tapes. I do think that races shouldn't be brought back if a rider makes a 'flyer' though. He's running the risk of being excluded for touching/breaking the tapes, so if he gets away with it, good luck to him.

And fourth! Beating the Yanks in 1937 and the Danes in 88. Those early Wembley finals must have been incredible. My dad went to everyone of them, I saw the last three,(maybe 72, can't remember!) Fantastic events.

They had cameras at both tracks, like they do today with the play-off semis. The Eastbourne v King's Lynn title decider was actually on a Saturday, with Lynn needing a draw to win the league.

I've noticed everytime someone posts against the play-offs you seem to think they're posting in favour of them. I don't know how clearer I can be when I say, 'the team that tops the league should be the winners.' Obviously you think the play-offs are a good idea. Fair enough that's your opinion. I still believe they were only brought in because of sky. They got lucky in 99 and 2000 with the league going down to the wire, Oxford won comfortably in 2001 and surprise surprise, along came the play-offs. I would say most fans over 40 prefer the old way of winning the league.

I don't know why you think it's fantasy land. The sport is hardly thriving with the play-offs. Ok you get big crowds for the final, but as soon as a team qualifies for the top 4 their fans aren't going to bother with their remaining matches, they'll just wait for the semi's. So it probably evens itself out over the season. Just because other sports have play-offs, it doesn't mean speedway has to have it. I believe the league champions should be the best team over eight months, not two weeks.

I don't like the play-offs or the British final having a semi and final but the gp has always had a grand final so I can live with that.

I actually think they should go back to the early days of the gp when they had D,C,B and A finals. At least then it was only one of the top 4 that could win.

Rubbish, whoever finishes top at the end of the season are the league champions. Forget all this play-off nonsense. Whoever is the top scorer after 20 heats is the British champion. Forget all this semi-final and final nonsense. Top 8 from gp and top 7 from gp challenge. Forget all this seeding nonsense. It was a simpler time!

Wasn't he only in his mid twenties when he retired? Such a shame, a brilliant rider, much loved at Hackney. Wish he'd stayed for longer.

When Hackney were away to Wolverhampton (the only other Friday night British league team) throughout the seventies, we used to hold an individual meeting called Superama with a line-up to equal any world final, to keep the regulars happy. Wolves had such good crowds that they weren't bothered about the lack of away support. Can you imagine something like that happening today!

As the song goes- Those were the days, my friend!

Blimey, what a memory! My main recollection of 77 (apart from Dave Morton's sickening crash) is how good Keith White was. He was averaging about 8 points a meeting and was five rides away from his world final debut, all at the age of 21. Then he seemed to lose it and was never the same after that, even though he didn't suffer any injuries. I guess he just peaked early.