keepturningleft

Fantastic occasion - what's not to like about the GP's? Jason Crump - superb in the commentary box, articulate and informative - a real joy to listen to.

Point taken about the ‘alarmist’ headline but truthfully not for a moment did I perceive it as having adverse connotations. Printing mistakes turn up in high profile, million seller titles occasionally. Years ago I worked (part-time) in the print trade and overlay/print errors of the kind that occurred to my copy of BT would usually be replicated, which is why I’m surprised by my lone, rogue copy. I think I will change my mind and ask you to kindly send a replacement copy. Will be in touch shortly. Cheers

TMC - please believe me, the very last thing on my mind was to present some negative agenda. I have bought every single issue of Backtrack from issue 1, so I am not on some anti-Backtrack crusade - in fact quite the opposite. I don’t necessarily keep every issue of the mag and the odd ones I don’t keep I have always made a point of surreptitiously dropping with the other mags in the doctors or hairdressers in a very limited but optimistic attempt at spreading the speedway word. I honestly expected there to be flood of readers experiencing the same thing with their issues because a bad glitch occurring on a single issue on a print run of few thousand(?) is unusual I would have thought. I was merely flagging up a potential problem which presumably could have caused you a bit of a headache had multiple copies carried the same fault as mine. As Humphrey Appleby alludes to, pointing out printing errors is hardly a criticism of the magazine. I will keep my copy of the magazine as only four pages are affected. It goes without saying that you work hard TMC - that’s evident by the quality of both mags but I do feel there’s been a bit of overreaction here. Nonetheless, future subscriptions from me are safe! Keep up the good work.

Ok everyone, cheers

Must be just my copy then, not to worry...

Has anyone got the same problems as me with the new issue? Pages 1 & 2 are overlaid on pages 6 & 7 making the Louis article almost impossible to read. The Briggo article on pages 46 & 47 is overlaid on pages 42 & 43 rendering the Scottish item difficult to read.

Let's spin this the other way round. If we still had the one off- final today, who do we think would have won over, say, the last five years and why.

For some reason It won't let me link a clip here, but if you type in MOVIETONE SPEEDWAY into youtube, dozens of fantastic old clips appear. I've seen some before, but there are many others new to me. The thing is, the quality which is easily the best I've seen from these old clips.

Spare a thought for Nige & Kelv - direct from the Friends Arena Stadium in Stockholm to the Manchester dog track!

Cancel Cardiff - let's have the GP at Long Eaton.

I'm not going to wipe this from my Tivo for a long time because of that heat 14! What skill and bravery from Emil.

Exact quote: "I was have to do everything from the back and I don't really enjoy doing that, although I'm sure everyone at home does" oo er missus!

Quite right - let's keep positive!

Was Tai being naughtily rude in his interview just prior to the first race or, did it just by chance sound like a line from a Carry On film??

Does anyone know if there is a contingency plan in the event of a rain off for the opening event? A possibility in March, in Manchester, in England.

Harsh perhaps, but you have to wonder what Greg is trying to prove at the age of 45. He can never seriously be considered as America's greatest ever rider. It's taken him 28 years to win three world titles. It took Bruce Penhall 4 years to win 2. Considering the awful the situation with Darcy Ward, why would you still want to take these risks not just late in your speedway career, but relatively late in life. I've just had a word with my wife and apparently I do exist, so the answer to your question is yes.

Tai is the cleverest rider I can remember seeing for a long time. You can see his brain working and figuring things out with every lap. How many riders have come from last to first twice in one meeting? Incredible stuff. I know that this is not really a very nice thing to say, but Greg on the other hand has to be most boring rider in the entire history of speedway racing, who has overstayed his welcome in the sport by at least 5 years. I always record the GP's and watch, 20 minutes or so behind so I can fast forward through the commercials - and all of Greg's races. For goodness sake Mrs Hancock, demand that your husband retires after this season.

Compared to this, speedway is tiddlywinks. http://metro.co.uk/2013/05/31/isle-of-man-tt-the-worlds-most-dangerous-sporting-event-3816587/ I urge everyone to read the article as I'm certain the sentiments expressed from the road racers apply equally to the mindset of speedway riders.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/motor-racing/justin-wilson-crash-video-british-former-f1-driver-in-coma-and-in-critical-condition-after-freak-accident-during-pocono-indycar-race-10468784.html Another motor sport, another awful Darcy Ward type situation. It would be useful to comision someone with the stats and information, and with time on their hands, to go through the records over the years and determine once and for all whether speedway really is more dangerous now than in years gone by so we can put this never ending debate to bed.

Was in the Manchester area today and decided to take a trip to Kirky Lane to see how things are going. It's looking good - all we need is a funfair and a zoo and we will be back where we were!

god, I hope Greg Hancock doesn't see this!

Worth pointing out that many people will be reading the book having borrowed it from the library. I counted 20 date stamps over a three year period on the copy in my local library.

A fabulous GP, thoroughly entertaining. To witness the riders fearlessly attacking the track when it was a bit rutty early on confirms my view that there is is no more exciting sporting spectacle in the world than speedway! Just one thing - in the race summary section, Scott Nichols always clearly identifies the riders by referencing their helmet colour. Only occasionaly do Nigel and Kelvin do this. For casual or new fans, all riders look exactly the same, so I wish our two friends in commentary would follow Scott's example during the actual race.

Has anyone noticed the physical similarity between Peter Craven and John F. Kennedy? And, they died in the same year within couple of months of each other!

I too made my first visit to Owlerton for some time and was dismayed by the amount of long gaps there are particulary after every 4 races for track grading. I am certain that in the 60's and 70's when I watched the sport at Halifax, fans were not subjected to these tiresome delays. The meeting lasted 2 hours and the racing lasted 15 minutes - that's 1 hour and 45 minutes of staring at the hoardings on the back straight with absolutely nothing happening. And then we get an interval. There is no way speedway will atract a new, young audience if this is typical of an average speedway meeting today. Youngsters today have short attention spans with limited amounts of patience, and they live in a totally different world to those of my generation. There is no chance whatever that they will tolerate a sporting event where for most of the time you are in the stadium there is nothing happening. The main meeting should be run slickly, be done and dusted in an hour or so - and then we should have a second half. Sorry to be a misery, but the future looks bleak because the sport just doesn't seem to get to grips with the modern world.