keepturningleft

It is clear from many postings over the years here on the forum and on Facebook pages that Kenny Carter enjoys hero worship status amongst many. Thank goodness I am not the only person who feels deeply uncomfortable by all this. According to Tony Mac’s excellent book, a close friend of Pam’s claimed that Carter regularly hit Pam and prevented her from going out and leading a normal life. So now it turns out our hero is a wife beater, a man who inflicted mental anguish on his wife and then finally a murderer. If Carter’s actions on that fateful night had come about after some blazing argument resulting in a red mist moment, it may have made this whole wretched business 1% more bearable. However we know that Carter travelled to the Huddersfield area the day before the shooting to seek out the murder weapon, eventually sourcing one on the day of the murder so he had plenty of time to consider his actions. The decision he had made, to murder his wife and devastate the lives of two young children, clearly identifies this as a premeditated and truly heinous crime. Some claim Carter had become unhinged over the years and that his actions were fuelled by his, admittedly terrible, upbringing. Some are also now tagging a mental illness spin (with no proof), on the story but listening to Carter’s many inarticulate, and cringeworthy ranting interviews on World of Sport over the years he comes across as a little more than a hot headed child and frankly, not very bright. Many people are raised in deplorable and shocking circumstances but don’t go on to murder. If you take the position that it’s possible to separate Carter’s speedway career from his personal life, then you have to ask yourself this question: Is Kenny Carter’s speedway career more important than Pamela Carter’s life? It’s interesting to speculate about what might have happened had Carter not killed himself that night. Presumably he would have spent the rest of the 80’s, all the 90’s and some of the early century in prison. Would he have been given a heroes welcome home on the day of his release? As a convicted murderer, I doubt that he could have returned to speedway in any capacity and especially now given the extremely high profile nature of the Me Too movement and the game changing outrage over the murder of Sarah Everard. Kenny Carter would today almost certainly be banished to complete obscurity, a sad old man. Would his fans still be lauding him as a hero and legend in these circumstances? But of course by killing himself Carter conveniently avoided all this, thus bestowing upon himself the status of moral coward of the very highest (lowest) order. The achievements of people such as Carter, Phil Spector, Oscar Pistorius and many others in their respective fields, will aways be there on record. Nothing can take that away from them, but what we should do is to stop eulogising them. Their crimes have cancelled their status as legends or heroes. RIP Pam

If only the Aces could respectfully and tastefully capitalise on this!

Those white boots! RIP Olle.

Good book, well worth buying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDWQLWHXY0Y ...near the end of episode

Thanks for that.

Wouldn't minding getting this book but from where? Perpetually unavailable from amazon.

How many of you knew that Plech was Vice Champion of London? Check this article out, presumably translated form Polish - it's absolutely hilarious. https://www.world-today-news.com/zenon-plech-is-dead-a-man-to-whom-the-english-bowed-the-waist-and-he-had-no-equal-in-the-polish-league/

A couple of years ago I happened across a model car racing circuit in West Vale near Halifax and, lo and behold, 'the smell' was immediately apparent. Therefore the cars presumably use Castrol R which means an obvious thing to do would be to watch speedway on your tablet whilst in attendance at one of these model car tracks!

No more 6 man races! Poor old Nigel and Kelv would be seriously struggling If six riders are chopping and changing positions during a race, and casual or new fans will have no chance whatsoever of identifying and following the riders in such close contact for the duration of just over a minute per race. Ivan Mauger was pushing this concept at Hyde Road 35 years ago for his retirement meeting declaring that fans were bored and needed something different. He was wrong and common sense prevailed. The first serious accident caused by 6 man races would finish this folly for ever.

6 rider races are a completely useless and dangerous idea. I can't remember who they were now but a few years ago at least a couple of top riders declared they would never again ride in 6 rider races considering them too dangerous even on wide tracks. An experiment such as this took place at Ivan Mauger's farewell meeting at Hyde road years ago and it was crap. Useless for spectators because the eyes and mind struggle to keep track of who's who with 6 participants in such close proximity. Don't fix things that aren't broken.

Having spent many years racing down the road at the dog track, so pleased that Jason Crump has been able to sample the full majesty of the NSS!

At 6.24, a young lad in the centre is wearing a visor remarkably similar to what many are wearing now in the corona virus crisis. How come no-one thought of manufacturing those back in the day? At tracks where receiving a faceful of shale was always likely, they would have sold like hotcakes!

I obviously didn't spot your earlier post iris123. Just thinking, in the 50's, 60's & 70's, most towns in the UK will have had their own amateur cine society's. Most of the films they made would have been shot on 16mm, far superior in quality to vhs videotape which came along to replace cine in the 80's. I wouldn't mind betting there is a goldmine of high quality amateur speedway footage languishing in many vaults.

Belle Vue NSS is the template for what is possible if there is the enthusiasm, the council support and the finance. Would be wonderful if Coventry were to become the 'Belle Vue' of the midlands.

https://movingimage.nls.uk/film/5853 Glorious footage.

Despite the claim of BV to a world class venue - mainly true - the highly visible sight of cars parked around turns 3 and 4 does it give that 'track in a field' look which doesn't do much for the image and status of the place. If not terracing, it desperately needs something to block out those cars. Even advertising boardings would look better.

Will this be the first year in Belle Vue's entire history when no racing will take place?

Just watched an old meeting from the dog track - BV v oxford 1988. Does anyone know when the stand on the back straight was demolished and why was it demolished? Possibly an illusion but the clip appeared to make the place look like a top class venue.

Great film of Middlesborough here. http://www.yorkshirefilmarchive.com/film/middlesbrough-speedway-1979-1981

It reminds me in some way of the Titanic, a once great and glorious thing, now resting and rusting at the bottom of the speedway ocean!

Remember him circling the track on the Halifax tractor during his time there. RIP.

The drone work on this is excellent, and personally I find the content to be both compelling and gruesome at the same time.

Sadly, they wouldn't. Belle Vue sees racing like this (and much better than this), every week on the best track in the UK but the crowds are not returning to the terraces in any significant numbers.

Surprised (but pleased), to see it on sale in a branch of WH Smiths yesterday. I thought Smiths had long since stopped selling it.