TonyMac

I interviewed Phil Crump today for the next issue (80) of Backtrack. One of the subjects covered was his current role as an engine tuner. He is currently tuning engines for the following: Chris Harris, Danny King, Sam Masters, Justin Sedgmen, Josh Bates and Jake Allen.

If you want to check out the most comprehensive, unrivalled collection of speedway images sourced from numerous different photographers through the ages, then look no further than John Somerville's superb site at http://www.skidmarks1928.com/v/photos/john-somerville-collection

Someone mentioned John Hipkiss in a previous post. John took some excellent pics at Cradley, Wolves and Birmingham (his regular haunts) in the late 70s and throughout the 80s and supplied Speedway Mail on a weekly basis. He is still producing good work for Speedway Star today. Of course, when comparing photographers, you have to bear in mind the circumstances (and in some cases) restraints in which they worked. Wright Wood and Alf Weedon operated for decades at very poorly lit tracks using archaic camera equipment, whereas Patrick and those who followed had the benefit of more advanced cameras and improved track lighting, as well as being allowed to snap away using flash. Without being disrespectful to current snappers, it's much easier taking speedway pictures today compared to the pre-digital age when old-fashioned film (or glass) were used. Auto-tocus, much faster shutter speeds, better track lighting, the option to choose from many frames of more or less the same image . . . how Wright and Alf would have enjoyed that luxury.

Ken was a very fine photographer, technically very good - he even taught photography at college where he lived in Sheffield. It was because of the superb quality images he produced and the reliable service he provided that we took the plunge and decided to add full colour, glossy covers to Speedway Mail in 1987. But what I loved about Ken, too, was his humility and lack of ego - unlike one or two snappers who think they are God's gift. He always remembered that the riders were the 'stars' and he was just there to photograph them. In his trademark hat, he snapped away for the Mail from 1982 until the mid-90s. Quiet, unassuming and simply doing his job. He and his wife emigrated to one of the Greek islands some years back but he still keeps in touch. And I'm delighted to say, his brilliant photography still adorns the pages of Backtrack and most books we publish at Retro Speedway. Another part-time snapper, who could also churn out many words for the Mail, was Coventry-based Bruce Grainger, who sadly died of a sudden heart attack at home in the 90s. Bruce liked to puff on his pipe and had a laconic, unflappable way about him.

Thanks for your kind comments. Don't know if anyone will be prepared to pay the ridiculous asking prices on eBay but I can confirm the eBook version of Tragedy has sold well (as has the update of Simmo's book). And there are no plans to publish a third print edition - there wouldn't be sufficient demand. In the course of time, we intend to convert most of our previous print editions to eBooks for the Kindle market - it is growing in use and popularity.

"Yan-Sash"

Brilliant idea, Dave. Please keep us all informed of your findings - and good luck!

Good point. I'm not saying COMPLETELY forget about trying to attract a younger audience - just don't waste money the sport doesn't have on what will largely be a futile exercise. What I should have added to my previous post about luring back the retired oldies with disposable income is that, by doing so, tracks might also welcome new, much younger, supporters at the same time. It's the way of the world now that many grandparents are saddled with their grandkids for days and weeks during school holidays, when their offspring are working. So there would be a chance for them to treat the grandkids to a night or day out at the speedway. I agree with what you say about the best way to appeal to kids is to let them have a 'skid' themselves, ideally on scaled down bikes of much lower cc, as they do in Denmark. But how many tracks, especially those who rent their stadium, can offer such opportunities and facilities?

HA - but doesn't this relate back to my earlier comment about today's promoters focussing on trying to lure back yesterday's older fans - through local media targeting their catchment area? I think it would be a massive mistake to dismiss the value of enticing along new senior citizen supporters and focus most energy on trying to attract a new, younger audience that isn't interested in speedway at their current stage (they may grow to try it in later life, though). Remember, many men, women and couples who have reached retirement age have spare time, large disposable incomes, good pensions, that youngsters do not. Saga is a thriving concern, the 'grey pound' is flourishing. And many of these seniors will have attended speedway in their younger days, probably when the sport was enjoying a relatively boom period, and so they have happy memories of childhood days at their local tracks. Let's try and rekindle those memories. As we know from the way our own business has evolved, an increasing number of over-65s are discovering the Internet and using social media. You only have to log on to Facebook to see a myriad of different pages with a retro speedway theme and how people like to 'chat' among themselves. Twitter, too, is gaining more and more older users. We are welcoming new, over-65, subscribers every week, so the interest is out there. So why don't promoters reach out to the older generation who, for whatever reason (starting a family, divorce, change of jobs, house moves, etc) stopped going years ago, but might be tempted back. Before anyone points out that focusing on the older generation will result in most of today's customers all being dead in 20 years from now, remember that today's 40-year-olds will be the next generation to keep the speedway turnstiles clicking . . . 'Oldies' are the future.

I agree. I was just trying to make the point that local papers will publicise speedway if you are proactive enough and feed them info on a plate, especially if (as we did) you throw in a competition for their readers to win something for free. Last week, we also got a full page in the Bradford Telegraph & Argus, who were interested in the Odsal-related content in our new Backtrackin books. We simply sent them a copy of the book, highlighting the possible Bradford angles, and the Features Editor (a lady) emailed back to request pictures to accompany the words. I most definitely don't include Mike Bacon in this generalisation but, from past experience of working in offices shared with local sports journos, they are intrinisically lazy and love having all the leg-work done for them. Steve Roberts mentioned John Gaisford, who I remember as a great friend to Oxford. He had a brilliant working relationship with Bernard Crapper and John Payne and John G was a regular at Cowley on race night. The same situation was replicated up and down the country . . . Elvin King (Evening Star) at Ipswich; Tom Johnston (Express & Star) at Cradley & Wolves; John Hyam (South London Press) at Wimbledon; Don Allen (Ilford Recorder) at Hackney; Ben Findon (Argus) at Eastbourne; Frank McLean (Manchester Evening News) at Belle Vue; Gordon Sampson (Evening Courier) at Halifax and many others whose names elude me at this moment . . . they were genuine speedway supporters who wrote with passion about their local teams. The guys who wrote for the nationals in the 70s and 80s: Dick Bott (Sunday Express), Phil Rising (Daily Mail), Peter Oakes (Daily Star), Dave Lanning (Sun), Graham Baker (Daily Mirror) and Kier Radnedge (Daily Mail) . . . most of them were/are big fans of speedway who utilised their vast contacts and knowledge to push it at every opportunity in Fleet Street. While speedway's own self-inflicted problems, and decline in popularity are the main reasons why the sport has fallen off a cliff as far as the nationals are concerned (with one or two notable exceptions), it's no coincidence that the column inches dried up with the retirement (and in some cases death of) these knowledgeable media speedway drum-beaters, and I wonder if that's happening too now with regional papers? I hope not, because from a local journo's perspective, speedway does offer a lot that other more popular sports do not. For a start, reporters enjoy very good access to the competitors which simply is no longer the case in football at Premier League and Championship (second tier) level, and even many League One and League Two players have become prima donnas. When I started covering my team, West Ham, players were happy to give out their home phone numbers and for me to call them at more or less any time. It was the same with most other clubs too. Brilliant. An exclusive one-to-one and no fee payable. They trusted you not to stitch them up or fabricate quotes. What they said was 'off the record' remained so. But players and managers don't trust the media anymore. Nowadays, the press have to go through a club's precious media dept to try and arrange interviews, which are often refused on the flimsiest of excuses. Contrast that with speedway, where members of the press can just walk into the pits and approach a rider, team manager or promoter directly for quotes after racing. And 99 times out of 100 they are delighted to talk. And let's face it, while football is my other main sporting love, it's very fair to say that, generally speaking, speedway riders are far more interesting, as characters, compared to footballers. What's more and most importantly from the media's point of view, they are allowed to express their opinions much more freely. When was the last interesting interview, filmed or in written form, you saw involving a current footballer? They are now media-trained to give mundane, predictable answers to gentle, non-probing questions: "We'll take the positives from the game (a 4-0 defeat!) and move on to the next one. It was great to do it for the fans. There are no easy games in this league, blah, blah (yawn, yawn)." So my point is, speedway DOES have some good things going for it that other sports lack. It's up to the promoters and PROs to get busy and spread the word.

Exactly. Which is why I suggested much earlier in this thread giving up on trying to appeal to a youth market that will never be interested in a sport such as speedway. Three hours to run a meeting? Most youngsters (generalising here, but true of about 90%) just don't have the attention-span to concentrate on one thing for three minutes. As you say, if they are not staring at a small screen and pushing a keypad of an iGadget, they're not interested. Not even sure that massive TV exposure would even do the trick, because less people are watching TV now. They would notice and possibly follow a 'celebrity' but, as said earlier, riders first need to become one and that's not going to happen in this sport. When I took my three kids (then aged under-10) to Arena-Essex in the 80s, the highlight of their night was the sweet stall on the first bend. They also wanted to see "more crashes". See, give up on 'em!

But even if those things in your second paragraph didn't deter a new, younger audience, there are a multitude of others aspects of speedway that are so fundamentally wrong that they would soon turn their back on the sport anyway. Guests, the escalation and farce of doubling-up and the interminable delays between races being just three. First they have to become a 'celebrity'. If any of the current GP lot walked down any high street in Britain, I seriously doubt that ANYONE would recognise them. You say that, but we (Retro Speedway) had virtually a full page of editorial coverage in TWO of today's Ipswich papers - the Ipswich Star and East Anglian Daily Times, in which their correspondent Mike Bacon reviewed two of our latest DVDs. Why? Because Mike is pro-speedway and we work hard to nurture relationships with influential media men like him who have space to fill. Naturally, we are very active on Facebook and Twitter, re-tweeting Mike's announcements of his reviews accordingly. As a result, we have had a very good response. Regional press, especially in the towns and cities where tracks exist, still have a massive part to play in speedway's recovery, but how much effort - if any - do promoters make to get their team noticed and talked about?

Unaffordable or uninteresting? What is the adult cost you refer to - £16? Are they spending whatever they used to pay to get in on something else now?

Our brand new BACKTRACKING (Vol 1) book is reviewed in today's Speedway Star (w/e Dec 10). To quote editor Richard Clark: "If you don't want these in your Christmas stocking, you're not a speedway fan. "Only in speedway can you get such a colourful cavalcade of characters all so willing to talk open and honestly about their time in the sport." www.retro-speedway.com

It's not just the product that has caused a continuing fall in attendances. We know from talking to our Retro Speedway customers that many speedway fans, either unemployed or part-time employed, have had their state benefits cut in the past couple of years. People are picking and choosing more, and in many cases have given up completely, because they have reduced disposable income and simply cannot justify the cost of attending tracks. And then, because of the age demographic, some are simply dying. Hear what you're saying about engaging with a younger audience through the use of technology but aren't Apps very expensive to develop? Certainly way beyond the financial limits of what the BSPA and certainly individual tracks could ever finance? Besides, the truth is, many clubs don't even have a Facebook page or a decent Twitter feed, and their websites leave a lot to be desired too, so how do you visualise them coming up with an App that is sufficiently impressive to grab and sustain the attention of a younger crowd who already entertain themselves from the comfort of their bedrooms (not a dark and dingy, cold speedway stadium) via an untold multitude of different and much more sophisticated Apps for games, which are coming at them from every angle? My last word on the 'kids' debate. Forget them. They are not, and never will be, interested in speedway as it exists.

Offensive? Obviously, I'm talking youngsters and young adults in GENERAL. There are always exceptions to every rule. Anyone who thinks there are thousands of under-35s out there just waiting to be told about the fine arts of British speedway is delusional. Look around the stadium the next time you are at a track and count how many teenagers are there - and I mean those who have paid to get in and not youngsters who have been taken (dragged?) there by their parents. On a normal race night you will see hardly any. It's very obvious from speedway's age demographic that the die-hard adults (the 40-plus bracket) have not been able to persuade their offspring to follow them to speedway on a regular basis, in any great numbers. So if the people who love the sport can't get their kids, or younger family members (grandkids, nephews, nieces, etc) interested in attending on a regular basis, then what chance promoters sourcing new, untapped support from the youth market? To attract a SIGNIFICANT number of the youth market would take a radical and very expensive national marketing/advertising campaign that the sport in its current depleted state cannot afford. Although I have no interest in stock cars, banger racing, hot rods or whatever it's called these days, but I understand from those who do that attendances for cars at Arena-Essex are far in excess of those turning up to watch Lakeside Hammers. Is this also the case at Ipswich? Are there any lessons to be learned there? Are the fans paying to watch the cars much younger than speedway and how does the cost of admission compare? Perhaps someone on here can confirm.... The key to short-term SURVIVAL - apart from the move to semi-pro, as covered in my first post - is to work much harder to keep the interest of those growing steadily disillusioned and win back the support of those who have been disaffected in the past 5 years. But, obviously, you need to give them a good reason to give the sport another chance.

Last season the team manager of a Premier League club confided that he is paid nothing to do his job - only travel expenses to away meetings. Even then he often had to share his vehicle. I'm sure this is the case at numerous other tracks. Track staff also work for nothing. And yet riders are still paid way beyond the revenue taken at the turnstiles. No wonder the sport is heading for oblivion. For now, and in terms of pure short-term survival, promoters should largely forget about trying to entice a new, younger audience and focus all their efforts on trying to win back those who have deserted speedway (for whatever reasons), because they know and understand the sport, and keeping the customers they are still clinging on to. Youngsters will NEVER be interested in speedway in any significant numbers, so efforts to lure them in are futile.They simply don't have the attention span or interest to suffer the interminably long delays between races, the many boring 'races' where there is no overtaking, and the hours it sometimes takes to run a complete 15-heat meeting. And that's without even considering poor stadium facilities at many venues.

There are so many things that need to be done to secure the sport's future in Britain, but the starting point has to be an immediate acceptance and realisation by all promoters and riders that it has to go semi-professional or amateur. That applies to ALL THREE divisions. The simple fact is, the vast majority of promoters cannot afford to pay the riders as much as they are getting. Whether some of those who do are doing it as a tax dodge, or ego, or both, I don't know but it's plain to see that, with the possible exception of Poole and one or two others, most tracks actually run at a financial loss. And that scenario can only end badly. I was staggered to read in Speedway Star the other day that Plymouth (were they Premier League last season - sorry, it's far too late and I don't have the inclination to check right now?) went bust owing almost £300K. How can that happen if their riders are paid in accordance with turnstile revenue and other income, such as sponsorship, catering, bars, progs, souvenirs. etc? Belle Vue have gone bust despite producing a winning team (yes, I know there were lots of problems at the NSS from day one but the Aces still proved successful over the EL season and had some exciting riders to watch). And there the mess at Leicester, another top flight club in crisis. So what hope the rest? Riders (and, indirectly, their multitude of mechanics and tuners) are bleeding the sport dry in many cases - and it has to stop. Now. Tell the riders currently racing in GB that the game's up, the party's over. Common sense has broken out at long last. "Yes, Torben, Dragobowski and Fritz, I'm sorry chaps, but you are going to have to go out and get a part-time job from now on. I'm sure with your skills on a bike you'll have no trouble becoming a pizza delivery man." Sure, they won't like it and some obviously won't accept it at all. But they can't all jump ship to Poland, Sweden, Denmark, etc and earn more than they do here. The sport needs to cut its cloth, now more than ever. To deal with the inevitable shortage of riders whose egos and wallets won't accept semi-pro status, reduce teams from seven to six riders, or even five if absolutely necessary. Denmark used to run their top league on a 4TT basis, so even that is a possible last resort. It's not as if there are many more 'stars' left to lose anyway. Riders, ideally young, hungry and British, should be made to accept that they have to combine riding with a 'day job', like many did back in the day. Instead of running three or four bikes and two mechanics, run one or two bikes and one part-time mechanic, or a mate to dope and oil. Ah, you say that some promoters will not adhere to amateurism and will break ranks to pay their star names 'under the counter' to get round the new set-up. As if! OK, so the way to shut down that loophole is for the BSPA, or ideally an independent governing body, to administer the sport from a central office, from which all riders' BASIC wages are paid and contracts are registered and held. If any promoter is found guilty of making a cash payment, or getting round it via a 'sponsor', then their team may be deducted points, fined or relegated, and that promoter's licence revoked. As for personalities, promoters need to create new stars, who are very willing to engage with the public both before and after the meeting. And fans need to be given better access so that they can fully engage with their heroes. Speedway has always been better at doing this compared to most sports but more can - and should - be done to rebuild those bridges between the men, women and kids on the terraces and the riders whose wages they pay. I cannot understand why promoters shell out ludicrous money - hundreds of thousands a year - to run a team and accept such little in return from the riders whose pockets they line. To me, a rider is only worth the amount of revenue he (and his team-mates) generate. So if only 1,000 people come to watch them, they should be paid in accordance with those gate receipts, or whatever other additional income is generated. There is nothing to stop a promoter offering riders an incentive and paying them a bit more if, and when, attendances increase. But they shouldn't be paid 'X' regardless of how many fans pay to see them. It makes me laugh when people bang on about needing to come up with new ideas in order for the sport to flourish. Yes, a fresh approach is all well and good and should be encouraged but they should start by learning from history - the good and the bad. There is not much that has not been tried at some point since 1928. Of course, the above is a very basic ideal and the details would need to be ironed out to make it work. By cutting their cloth, promoters can then lower admission prices to around the tenner mark, to make watching speedway a more affordable and attractive proposition again. Given the collective will of promoters whose main interest is to safeguard the sport, it can definitely be done. Drastic situations require drastic measures. It's time for those who govern the sport to wake up, accept they can't go on paying out money they don't get in (or not in a growing number of cases) and be bold, in harmony, and to act for the common good. How and where to display posters around the locality, school visits by riders, freshly cut grass on the centre-green, a good announcer, nicer toilets, tastier burgers, more colourful programmes, far more attention paid to the use and exploitation of social media . . . yes, they are important, but secondary to my fundamental plan. GO SEMI-PRO.

We're not ignoring the eBook option - our Kenny Carter and Simmo books are already available in Kindle format via Amazon and I'm in the process of converting many of our other speedway and football titles for Kindle, too. We get it that people, like yourself, are on the move and it's an easier way to transport the books you want to read while 'on the go'. Just saying, personally, I would always prefer a printed book and hope the day never comes when traditional printed books become obsolete. Last year we published a lavishly illustrated 'coffee table' style football book and never in a million years will it look anywhere near as impressive as an eBook, but, nevertheless, to meet market forces, I am converting the text for eBook, to include a relatively small number of the images used in the original print version.

Possibly, but why not buy the real thing? For me, eBooks will never replace the feel of traditional printed books.

You've made some valid points, but there is far simpler reason why there are no books published on modern speedway riders: they are just not commercially viable. By the time the rider took his cut in royalties (albeit a very small one), the 'ghost' writer received a few quid and the bills for print, paper, distribution, delivery are met, there's very little left in the pot unless you are a well-known 'celebrity' or 'famous' sportsperson. And when the book is finished and ready to be sold in bookshops, the retailer (WHS, Waterstones, or Amazon online) swallows up around another 50% of the cover price. Tempus (or whatever they are now called) churned out quite a few historical-type speedway books but I very much doubt that any sold more than 1,000 copies, and in many cases nowhere near it. Apart from ourselves at Retro Speedway, no other publisher will touch speedway books with a bargepole (and we have rebuffed quite a few approaches, including one or two books mentioned on this thread). I guess that is the point I was trying to make in the original post. Yes, I'm blowing our trumpet in a biased way and I'm very grateful for what business we do generate, but it's a sorry indictment of the sport that we now stand alone in speedway book publishing. There is very little profit in it, because current riders are not even known, let alone well-known or famous, in a general sporting context, so obviously books about them won't sell in sufficient numbers to warrant the investment from a publisher. Woffinden has won two world titles, but he has yet to put out a book in his name. Twitter? Nothing to do with it. I've no doubt Woffy has a good, interesting story to tell (if the right ghost writer can prise it out of him) but I very seriously doubt if sales would measure up to his and the publisher's expectations. For the same reason, this is why there is only Pinegen (Speedway Star) and ourselves producing quality, value-for-money magazines on the sport. It is what it is.

Thank you for trying volume one - hopefully you will enjoy it. As you say, better than storing all the mags and thumbing through 77 back issues. As well as appealing to existing readers of the mag who like the book's handy format (who remembers an interview that was published some 8-10-12 years ago?), we're hoping non-Backtrack readers will try the books and be interested in subscribing to our bi-monthly magazine. None of our Opening Times pieces feature in the books, as they are a fairly recent addition to the magazine and we deliberately wanted to avoid reproducing relatively 'fresh' content in the books. For that reason, everything in them would be at least a couple of years old (bearing in mind Backtrack was launched 12+ years ago, so there is a lot of editorial to choose from). Yes, of course, Jeff Scott deserves credit for his books on modern speedway. It's obviously true that meetings in the 70s and 80s were watched by more fans than the numbers attending league speedway today but finding them is not easy. We do a lot of PR work on here and also on Facebook and Twitter (and occasionally via regional press) but what about the tens of thousands who have turned their back on the sport and cannot be reached? Most of the GPs attract big crowds and yet no books have been produced on GP riders since Crumpie's came out some years back.

We're very glad they do!

IF you're a fan of modern speedway in Britain and like to read a new book on your favourite sport at Christmas, tough luck! As far as we can tell, only three new speedway books have been produced for the 2016 Xmas market. There's a very niche one on the Wembley Lions which (obviously) only covers the history of that famous old club. And then there are our two new books, BACKTRACKING Volume 1 & 2 - a collection of some of the best interviews and features we've printed in our retro Backtrack magazine over the past 12 years, plus many new pictures that didn't appear with the original editorial. At £16, we believe they are good value. www.retro-speedway.com None of the current GP stars, or any of the clubs operating in the three tiers of Britain, have got anything out there in print. Is there a lack of interest among supporters, or are publishers now too reluctant to take a punt on a sport that is losing support? So what does this say about the current state of speedway? Are supporters more interested in reading about past favourites than the current lot? Our books on Kenny Carter, Michael Lee, Malcolm Simmons and those written by the late John Berry all sold relatively well - in excess of 2,500 copies each. But we don't see books in the name of Greg Hancock, Tai Woffinden, Nicki Pedersen, Chris Holder, etc. It's a far cry from the days when, as a kid, I badgered my mum to write off to Eddie Toogood and order the latest books from Peter Collins, Ivan Mauger, Barry Briggs and John Louis. A sign of the times.

Thanks Steve. While today's team kevlars bring a uniformity to the sport, it has been at the expense of individuality. Many riders were most easily identified by their leathers and it would be interesting to see how many changed their set from one season to the next in the era when multi-coloured leathers became fashionable. The team was always identified by its racejacket and emblem. If you rode for Belle Vue or Wimbledon, the famous ace of clubs or yellow star said it all, regardless of the design or colour of the leathers riders chose to wear underneath it. Today, all the riders in a team basically look the same.