keepturningleft

http://www.peter-upton.co.uk/racing.htm

Yet another good feature on Tai including interview back in Scunthorpe on Yorkshire Calendar programme today. Strictly speaking they don't cover news from Lincolnshire so it's good to see.

Substantial report on BBC Look North Lincolnshire tonight.

Surely he made his debut in 1853?

Gosh, I'm not alone after all! I have nothing but respect for all speedway riders for the bravery and skills they show, but hell, Greg Hancock is the dullest rider ever! Yes, he is a master craftsman like Ivan Mauger, but he was dull as well. Greg, like Ivan, is a gater and not much more. Once Greg has been overtaken that's pretty much it. Yes, I know, Phil R will probably rattle off examples of a few meetings where Greg has been brilliant, but over a very long career I think my appraisal is pretty accurate. It's interesting to note how the riders all fit into categories. Ivan and Greg - steady, unspectacular, and therefore generally avoiding major injuries because you will never see them attempting the the sort of spectacular overtakes that the Wards and the Gollobs entertain us with regulary. Yes, Greg has been a great ambassador for the sport, but I wish he would retire now and let the young un's in!

What is really odd is that the script ever included such an unlikely line in the first place. Hayley is much to young to be aware of an obscure 1940's film unless she has a keen interest in either films or speedway. Even genuine film scholars may be not ever have heard of OAJS. As someone has already said, it must be some speedway fan scriptwriter.

Fitting that an Englishman is poised to take the world crown at this time

Modest but attractive stadium, proper tiered seated viewing, good track, terrific pits, great presentation. Even a relative speedway backwater such as Croatia boasts a stadium superior to anything in Britain (not including Cardiff). Just goes to show how the infrastructure of speedway in this country has fallen far behind the rest of Europe.

Brilliant! The thing is that when I hear those two dreaded words Sam and Ermolenko, I now think the worlds worst ever commentator rather than brilliant speedway rider.

Looks like 'Back From The Brink" may need an update!

I can't understand why Kelv and Nigel continue to express puzzlement and bewilderment about the poor performances recently by Gollob. The man is 42 years old, and quite clearly he is losing his edge as age begins to take it's tole, and quite naturally he is now approaching the end of his career. He is noticeably riding more carefully and very obviously at this stage of his life doesn't want to get badly injured. There's no mystery at all. Re the age thing, Greg Hancock must be some kind of a freak!

excellent meeting, excellent commentary. What more can we want?

Very interesting articles about the speedway Mail mag in the last 2 issues - now how about bring them all out in PDF format on CD Rom!!?

Cheers - but will potential casual customers be aware that these are not full strength national teams?

I've definitely missed something here - can anyone clue me in? GB v Australia without Harris, Woffinden, Ward etc etc ??

Well, the next logical step is that all the GP races and finals will all in fact be a mere qualification procedure for a single grand final race at the very last GP, similar of course to the league play offs. The fact that one rider may dominate every GP throughout the season but then suffer an engine failure in the grand final race will be simply tough luck. The circle of madness currently enveloping speedway will then be complete.

I can see knew art forms developing into speedway replacing long lost ones such as team riding - that is riders deliberately losing races but not making it look obvious, and sophisticated signalling systems coming from the pits so riders know when to lose or win. I cannot believe we now have a situation where people pay good money to watch riders deliberately lose races. It absolutely beggars belief. Everytime there is a situation where a team will fall 6 points behind if they win a race, the public can never know if they are watching a genuine speedway race or not. This is a fraud and a deception and the public should be eligible for a cash refund. The solution should come from the riders who should simply refuse to take part in competitions where this charade is allowed to happen - but I don't suppose that will happen. It is also sickening to hear the commentary team towing the corporate line. I'm certain that Nige and Kelv hate the Joker as much as every other true speedway fan but they want to keep their jobs presumably, so they will go along with it and keep away from controversey. Speedway - a sporting tragedy.

Kenny Carters secret love child?

Does anyone know why we never ever, ever actually see Steve Brandon apart from his hand? Has he got a "don't show my face" clause in his contract, or is he wanted by Interpol or something?

Don't imagine that speedway is any different to other sports, but it appears that respect for the national anthem of whatever country appears now to be a thing of the past. Tonight, NP spat during the Danish national anthem and DW was fidgeting around all over the place and drinking during the Australian nation anthem at the end. Does this matter?

Who is Doug Deep? Who does he ride for?

Was pleasantly surprised to see Backtrack on sale in WH Smiths in Huddersfield today! Good luck with that - hope it sells out!

Over the last few years the Cardiff GP has taken world championship speedway in Britain to a different planet. A less than perfect track maybe a price we have to pay for the overall phenomenon that Cardiff has now become, an 'event' which is probably greater than the sum of it's parts. Or maybe should we go back to holding the GP in a weed strewn terraced stadium in the provinces in front of 10,000 people with the real possibility of a rain affected or rained off meeting and an inevitable decline in media interest? The track for the 1975 world final at Wembley was also a disaster - and that was smack in the middle of speedways last golden era with millions watching on terrestrial tv. There is nothing new under the sun. In speedway, as in life, things go wrong occasionally. Those events in'75 didn't harm speedway anymore than last nights will. After 13 years there's no sign of a major down turn of attendances at Cardiff despite the many posters here who proclaim defiantly, "I'm never going again!" Funny that. The last 3 Cardiff tracks have been good, so hopefully the shale issue last night was an unforeseen one off, and things will be back to normal next year. Eurosport coverage is excellent and Scott Nicholls superb as pundit and summariser.

Speedway is a motorcycle sport that isn't a motorcycle sport - if you see what I mean. Think this one reason why technical talk from the pits - "we've made some changes etc" is completely pointless as most punters just aren't interested.

Were Nige & Kelv in Poland? They reacted to the repair work to the starting gate - but we couldn't see those pictures.