chunky

Go back to the 1980's, and who would have ever thought that France would get a 5-1 over USA??? Steve

OMG! Cook edgy at the tapes...

I thought he was Frenish???

It didn't seem that long to me, but perhaps it was! Thing is, with none of them ready, that should definitely have been a re-run. Steve

Nobody was ready. Even Iversen wasn't 100% ready, and you can see Lebedevs on the inside was totally taken aback also. No idea why, though... Steve

So I see! It looks like dart players are keeping speedway alive in Britain! Steve

Don't forget that we have Mid-America Speedway in Indianapolis too! As is standard over here, it features flat-track and quads too, but we do have a number of riders in the Midwest. Sadly, I haven't been able to make it there (despite constant promises to myself), but I am not sure if Anthony Barlow and James Mann are still racing. Not sure, but I wonder if the demise of the British speedway scene has had a negative impact on the number of Americans riding abroad? Perhaps Poland doesn't have the same appeal, I don't know... Steve

The post I referenced stated that the results were taken from Speedway Mail, so I would tend to go with yours. There were probably quite a few of us forumites there at that final, but it's crazy to think of it being 37 years ago... Steve

Just found this on the BSF from 9 years ago! Final was Schwartz, Knudsen, Dryml, Maier. 71.4 Nothing for the years though... Steve

Dammit! I still have the prog from the WTC, but it's in storage 400 miles away. Sorry... Steve

You sure that wasn't the Isle of Dogs???

Don't know if you remember, Bob, we did have a thread about Gil on here a few years ago, started by Gil's son Mark? Well, Mark did confirm (on the Speedwayplus website) that he did sadly take his own life. Unfortunately, I don't know any more than that. Steve

Hey, you've got nothing to feel bad about; you asked a legitimate question. Steve

Who invented the internal combustion engine? Was it Porky the pig?

Specifically, a higher plane than the average BSF poster!

It's been proved that ants are highly intelligent with a well-ordered society. The last thing they'd go to would be discos... Steve

Why wouldn't you take 'em to speedway? I'm sure they would like Dean Barker, Tai Woofinden, Terrier Betts, and the like. Not forgetting Lassie Bjerre, or most of the Great Danes, actually... Steve

But did they pee and poop where people were walking???

Wow! Hey, I wouldn't part with that either!

I got my copy on Amazon. Cheaper for me to get books and dvd's from Amazon.co.uk and get them shipped over, than to buy them on the main American site! Steve

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean! Thing is, it wasn't just the size; it seemed so open compared to the confines of the basically enclosed Plough Lane. Of course, I could say the same about most tracks, other than Wembley! Back to Hackney, and one of the things I will always remember was getting a stick of rock at the end-of-season Bonanza Best Pairs! Like E I Addio said though, while we had our allegiances, and obviously our opinions of other tracks, I would give anything to have those tracks back now. Not just that, I would love to have them back just as they were back then... Steve

Nah, I just didn't want to include too many Poole riders! Steve

The format was just a standard best pairs featuring some pairings from BL teams. The pairs were : Kelvin Tatum/Tommy Knudsen, Jan Andersson/Mitch Shirra, Jeremy Doncaster/John Cook, Hans Nielsen/Marvyn Cox, Kenny Carter/Larry Ross, Jan O. Pedersen/Alan Grahame, and Neil Collins/Shawn Moran. Doncaster and Cook won, and there is some footage of the meeting on YouTube. Steve

You got me beat there, but I went to the World Finals in 69, 78, and 81, the 66 European Final, and the WTC Final in 70. The old Wembley really had such a magical feel to it... Steve

I even thought of making the non-world finalist world final a little more specific, and narrow it down to riders of a specific year. Good to see some names already mentioned, but leaving out the 70's and 80's, let's look at riders who were active in1969 who never made a World Final (reserve spot included). 1 - Tommy Roper 2 - Dave Younghusband 3 - Garry Middleton 4 - Sandor Levai 5 -George Hunter 6 - Bob Kilby 7 - Odd Fossengen 8 - Roy Trigg 9 - Geoff Mudge 10 - Chris Pusey 11 - Charlie Monk 12 - Jan Holub 13 - Tony Clarke 14 - Norman Hunter 15 - Bruce Cribb 16 - Oyvind S. Berg I would pay to watch that line-up today... Steve