TonyMac

Joe - just to let you know, we've just published Simmo: The Whole Truth as an updated e-book and it's available now to download from the Amazon Kindle Store for just £4.99. http://www.amazon.co.uk/SIMMO-Whole-Truth-Malcolm-Simmons-ebook/dp/B0149H2FSY/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8

SIMMO: THE WHOLE TRUTH is our latest e-book to become available to download from the Amazon Kindle Store for just £4.99. Malcolm Simmons was one of the finest speedway riders of the 1970s and 80s – England captain, British Champion, World No.2, four times a World Cup winner and three times World Pairs champion, he is one of the most accomplished all round motorcyclists Britain has ever produced. He started racing on the shale in 1963 and was still going strong nearly three decades later. A legend at Poole, ‘Super Simmo’ first hit the international; heights with King’s Lynn after learning his trade with London tracks Hackney and the treble-winning West Ham in the early 60s. His career also took in spells with Wimbledon, Swindon and an ill-fated return to King’s Lynn as co-promoter of the company that went bust. No, it wasn’t all glory. In this refreshingly honest account of his life on and off the track, Simmo lifts the lid on what really went on behind the scenes in speedway during his illustrious career. For the first time, he admits his own involvement in race-fixing, how he beat a Control Board ban when he feared he would lose his racing licence, why he was thrown out of the sport for defrauding his partner and a number of other admissions that will shock – and probably sadden – his legion of admirers. Former team-mates and rivals will also be amazed by the revelations that will have everyone in speedway talking ... The product of a broken home, Simmo also reflects candidly on his sad childhood, his split from his parents, the break-up of his marriage, how he squandered everything he ever earned from this dangerous sport and the brushes with the law that led to his imprisonment for six months. We don’t promise that you will like everything Malcolm Simmons, the super stylist, has to say in Simmo: The Whole Truth, but we guarantee you won’t be able to put it down. Simmo said: “I came into speedway with nothing and left it with nothing.” ‘Explosive...it will send shuddering reverberations through the corridors of speedway power.’ - Speedway Star This book, originally published in traditional printed format in 2006, has been updated with three additional chapters, including tributes from former riders, managers and supporters following Simmo's death in May 2014. Here's the link to the Amazon page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/SIMMO-Whole-Truth-Malcolm-Simmons-ebook/dp/B0149H2FSY/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8

A REMINDER that a brand new DVD with special appeal to Bandits followers will be launched at their home Premier League match against Workington on Saturday, August 29. Retro Speedway is producing a six-hour DVD set titled MEMORIES OF BERWICK SPEEDWAY. The triple disc set costs just £16 – and Berwick Speedway will benefit by £6 from every copy sold at Shielfield Park, so by buying the DVD you will be directly helping the club. The same bonus for the Bandits will also apply to any other Retro Speedway DVD sold at Shielfield Park on the night. Every person who buys a DVD will also receive a FREE copy of Backtrack magazine (RRP £4), featuring strong Berwick content.

Many thanks, much appreciated. We've almost just finished the three additional, updated chapters to our Malcolm Simmons book - Simmo: The Whole Truth, which should be available from Amazon within the next week or so. I'll let you know when it's there.

Many thanks for your kind comments. When you get a few spare minutess, would you mind please doing a copy-and-paste job by reproducing your above words in the form of a review from you on the Amazon page of their site? That would be very much appreciated. Thank you. Tony Mac

JOHN LOUIS BOOK - your memories, please! JOHN Louis, Ipswich Speedway's greatest servant, is writing his amazing life story and his publisher is inviting supporters of the Witches to contribute to what promises to be a must-read book. Retro Speedway will be publishing John Louis: A Life in Speedway in October. In the meantime, they would like supporters to send in their own personal memories of 'Tiger' from his time in the sport as rider, promoter and team manager - an illustrious career spanning from 1969 until the present day. Perhaps you have a personal story about JL, or recall a favourite meeting or race involving the 'Tiger'? The best contributions will appear in a 'Tributes' section at the end of the book itself. Even if you write just a few words or sentences, no tribute will be too small. Please email your comments to publisher Tony McDonald at editorial@retro-speedway.com (or simply post them on here) before September 1, 2015.

ISSUE 69 (JULY - AUGUST 2015) OUT NOW! If you haven't already got your copy of issue 69, here's a glimpse of what you can expect to find. To order this issue or subscribe for as little as £22 a year (UK), phone Susie on 01708 734 502 or visit www.retro-speedway.com LANCE KING INTERVIEW When Lance King suffered a neck injury in the same race that ended the career – and almost the life – of his friend and former team-mate, and then had another fortunate escape in Australia a few months later, he knew it was time to quit speedway. The Californian reveals to Rob Peasley the background to all the major moments and decisions that saw him move British League clubs (Cradley Heath, Bradford, King's Lynn) and go so close to fulfilling his World Championship dream. PLACES & FACES with MARTIN ROGERS In the first of his series of stopping off points across the landscape of British speedway, our new columnist begins his long tour not too far from his Essex roots, in East Anglia, at Boston, Peterborough and Norwich . . . BRYAN SEERY INTERVIEW Bryan Seery managed the BSPA office for four years during the sport's last golden era. Tony McDonald went to rural Kent for a rare interview with the sport's first leading statistician and the man behind one of the most popular, important and enduring columns to feature in Speedway Star. LOU SANSOM INTERVIEW Lou Sansom almost ever joined Workington, where he became a legend, and the woman he met my chance in a pub knew nothing about him or speedway. Andrew Skeels reveals how a fateful meeting changed both their lives. KING'S LYNN: 50 MEMORABLE MOMENTS As the Norfolk venue celebrates its 50th season of speedway, we look back at how one of the greatest racetracks in the world evolved from little acorns in a near-deserted field and produced all-time Stars favourites such as Terry Betts, Malcolm Simmons, Ian Turner, Michael Lee and Henka Gustafssson. STEVE BASTABLE INTERVIEW Stevie Bastable had his fair share of clubs in a good career that spanned 15 seasons. The 1981 British Champion began and ended his career with Stoke and in between he had spells with five other teams: Cradley Heath, Birmingham, Swindon, Coventry and Bradford. But as Backtrack discovered, 'Stevie B' would happily have spent all his racing days in the green-and-white of the Heathens, where his father Harry had ridden in the 50s and 60s. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO . . . GEOFF CABLE? Martin Neal tracked down once promising Hackney junior Geoff Cable, who also had loan spells with Rye House and Crayford, but who now teaches photography and numbers calendars for some of the world’s most famous classic car marques and being the official snapper on the X Factor Live tour among his high profile commissions. ON TWO MINUTES WITH . . . JOHN ROBSON We catch up with former Sunderland and Teesside rider John Robson, who spent eight seasons in the 70s racing for two North-East clubs. OPENING TIMES - Bristol, 1977 Bristol was all too briefly one of the best supported venues of the sport's last golden era. We recall that eventful first night in 1977 when a huge crowd packed Eastville Stadium and interview former Bulldogs No.1 Phil Crump and Peter Thorogood, who had the unenviable task of preparing the much-maligned racing surface. STEEN MASTRUP INTERVIEW Steen Mastrup knows he was not among the most dynamic Danes to grace the BL scene but as Vitek Formanek reports, he still has fond memories of his time in England with Swindon and Leicester. PETR VANDIREK INTERVIEW The 1989 Czech champion Petr Vandirek tells VITEK FORMANEK about his acrimonious exit from Red Star Prague and why he loved Exeter. WHAT'S IN A NAME? Doug Nicolson, known as 'Nicky' during his announcing days at Glasgow’s Blantyre tracks, looks at riders' nicknames and asks: What's in a name?' AUSSIE LEGENDS John Chaplin reviews Peter White’s latest book, 100 More Aussie Legends Of the Speedways, featuring former British-based riders Steve Regeling, Troy Butler, Mick McKeon, Dave Mills and Glenn Doyle.

From memory, think it was 'B4' - or 'American B4' - size. The thinking behind it was, it would usually be placed in front of the Star in newsagents and in track shops. Obviously worked a treat!

This was before the benefits of DTP had really kicked in. And besides, we had no capital to invest in new equipment at that time. So we gambled. The costly leap from tabloid newspaper to full colour gloss early in the 1987 season turned out to be an expensive mistake, because the sport was about to fall into another sharp decline, resulting in the closure of tracks like Hackney, Wimbledon, Canterbury, where we sold a relatively good number of copies, and others over the next few years. In hindsight, instead of trying to compete with Speedway Star by going A4 (ish) and looking more colourful on the outside covers, we should have retained the original cheap-and-cheerful format, or perhaps improved the feel and look of the paper in a less expensive way (coloured newspaper?). In might not have been the long-term answer, but it would have kept us in business for longer. Higher bank interest rates and soaring mortgage rates in the early 90s was another massive blow to a tiny independent publisher. Our £20k overdraft (to help fund the production upgrade and extra staff) was withdrawn overnight, the rug pulled from under us, by an unsympathetic new bank manager. My partner John and I (foolishly) had given personal guarantees to the bank, so had to pay back to them £8k each after being forced into liquidation. It sounds a paltry amount now but it wasn't in 1990, with young kids, a wife and mortgage to support. I don't want this to look like a sob story, I'm just pointing out circumstances as they were largely dictated by speedway's decline around that period. in truth, we could see the writing on the wall for speedway and I'd lost a lot of enthusiasm for it. In the late 80s we diversified into football and contract publishing, producing official publications for West Ham (we launched Hammers News in '87), and also the newsprint editions of Ice Hockey Today and The Jewish Tribune, with the Mail only covering part of our overheads. Even some 10 years before the Internet, there wasn't a market for two weekly trade (printed) publications in British speedway and I can't imagine there ever will be again. I don't recall being banned by any tracks over any criticism in print (well, not for long, if at all), and I'd always encourage Tony Barnard, in particular, to be forthright, probing and inquisitive of the powers that be. As well as being a 'voice of the people', if you like, I think he gained a lot of respect from many people inside the sport for taking that approach, while others were more elusive, which suggests he must have been probing uncomfortably in the right areas! To be fair to the Star, they were very critical of the way the sport was run for many years. If you care to dig out old issues going back to the late 70s, and throughout the 80s and 90s, they repeatedly questioned the actions (or inactions) of SCB, BSPA, FIM, etc, and many of their most strident editorials back then could be re-hashed and still hold the same validity if re-printed today. Both trade publications would regularly bang on about farcical manipulation of the rulebook; over-use of guests; points limits; more and more meaningless FIM meetings decimating the British fixture list; British riders treating big UK meetings with disdain; lack of a structured youth development programme; rising equipment costs; no possible solutions to rain-offs; too many foreign imports, promoters' lack of foresight and investment . . . we could go on and on - and we did. All of which underlines how speedway has failed to learn from its historical mistakes and, also, some of the thinks it did get right. (Hey! have we just stumbled on an idea for Backtrack!) Perhaps, like many of us, they became fed up banging their heads against the wall?

Actual (as of July 17) 1-Carter (50% more than BP) 2-Penhall 3-Moran 4-Sanders 5-Lee

That's OK, it's all about opinions and taste. Just for fun, and to satisfy your curiosity, why don't you have a go at listing the 1-to-5 in our 'Racing Series sales league table' and I'll respond with the latest confirmed positions. It might surprise a few. Reminder, the table so far includes: Lee, Sanders, Carter, Kelly Moran and Penhall.

Thanks for cheering me up! I can foresee the day when we print six copies of Backtrack and all the speedway fans just share them around. Wouldn't half save a fortune on printing. This is from a man, Britain's former top referee Graham Brodie, who thankfully didn't borrow a copy from his library... Tragedy – The Kenny Carter Story I first read this book eight years ago when it was first published and when author Tony McDonald told me that it had been revised, updated and issued as an e-book I thought that it would be a good move to read the story again. I never knew Kenny well; as a Referee you have limited opportunities to socialise away from the track, but I had been present at many of the occasions referred to in the book. The cancelled Internationale, Wembley 1981, Los Angeles 1982, the broken leg in Vetlanda and the 1986 Pairs meeting in Lonigo all feature in my own memories of the man. He was brash, outspoken and proud of his Yorkshire and British heritage but until I read his story I had no idea of the extent of his personal troubles which ultimately led to his tragic end. Tony took upon himself a very difficult task but skilfully has managed to put together a very readable account of Kenny’s life on and off the track. It is a harrowing story particularly when its horrific climax has already been chronicled elsewhere but despite its second reading I still found it hard to put down (or switch off in this case) and it has prompted me to dig out brother Alan Carter’s later book from my bookshelf to read again. Frankly, at £4.99 this e-book is a bargain download from Amazon to read on your iPad or Kindle. I thoroughly recommend it. Graham Brodie

The DVD launch date at Shielfield Park is Saturday, August 29 (Bandits v Workington).

No Humph, I wish I could blame the Mail's demise from the early 90s on being critical of the sport's hierarchy. Alas, the main factors were: 1. The closure of key tracks (especially in the south), which resulted in a large loss of track sales revenue. 2. A steady erosion of attendances in general (same result). 3. Ever-rising production costs that caused us to downgrade production quality. 4. Poor management (letting our hearts rule our heads for too long by investing in a publication that was doomed to struggle in a declining market).

Night all. Have done enough banging of head against brick wall.

No, but it's a bloody great barrier to NEW fans getting interested in speedway. Come on, guests and doubling-up have gone through the roof, off the radar, compared to years past.

Speedway and TV has two fundamental problems. 1. Speedway is not a sport well suited to live coverage In general (and there are many reasons for this) too many televised meetings produce little passing and excitement and the racing is therefore boring. Too many domestic meetings drag on far too long, with ridiculous delays between races, riders delaying the start, unnecessary reruns, 'gardening', track grading, etc, all making it unwatchable to a casual audience. And as you allude to, the sight of acres of empty terracing and grass banking would put off would-be supporters and sponsors alike. 2. Sky are only interested in live sport. The second point is a great pity, because what speedway really needs to best showcase the thrills and spills, the most thrilling races, the moments of controversy, and the characters who are good in front of a camera when interviewed . . . is a half-hour to 40-mins HIGHLIGHTS package. This would ideally be a round-up of the week in British speedway, including a few interviews with the people in the news, plus edited clips from around British venues supplied (in return for an agreed fee) to the various companies who film at the tracks each week for the purposes of their DVD sales. Wouldn't it be great to have a small studio, where a knowledgeable presenter, the anchor man (or woman), introduced various clips and interviews from around the tracks - maybe separate segments on EL, PL & NL - and a studio guest to debate the latest big talking points? I'd have a Crashes of the Week segment - whether you like it or not, if you want to lure new fans to the sport, especially youngsters, they want to see dramatic crash sequences. It's part and parcel of the sport and the danger element is an important edge that speedway shouldn't shy away from. You'd finish the show with a look at the following week's fixtures, so it would be in the interests of all EL, PL & NL tracks to co-operate fully. I have considered putting together a proposal package along these very basic lines, with a view to getting BSPA/Go Speed approval - if not for screening on a TV channel, then as an online highlights show accessed via the web - perhaps even a pay channel (charging only a small seasonal subscription fee) that all of British speedway benefits from. But, obviously, the above dream scenario is a no-go while the BSPA/Go Speed contract is in place.

Perhaps 'ex fans' still care about a sport they have gradually fallen out of love with and expressing views on the forum is one way of offering possible solutions to problems that need to be addressed if the sport in the UK is to have a future. By the way, there seem to be more than enough current fans around here 'running the sport down'. The powers that be could do a lot worse than listen to what ex-fans have to say and learn a thing or two from people who have witnessed good times and bad. After all, there are often good reasons why they have become ex-fans. Or we could all just bury our heads in the sand and pretend everything in the garden is rosy.

Spot on.

Most advertising would be a very expensive waste of money - the cost of local paper advertising is exorbitant in relation to how many people it will bring in. National advertising is not even an option. The weekly write-up (with pic) each track receives by way of local newspaper coverage is, in itself, an 'advert' for the local speedway. Meetings are previewed, forthcoming fixtures and start-times published. Do you think there is anyone living in relatively small towns such as Berwick, Scunthorpe, Workington, King's Lynn, Swindon, who aren't aware that they have a speedway team on their doorstep and have done for many, many years? Does anyone who reads, for example, the Sheffield Star not know that the Tigers race at Owlerton and have done on and off since 1929? I can see the sense, though, in distributing fairly cheap-to-produce flyers in towns where speedway is staged, especially those who are lucky enough to be able to draw on tourist visitors. Perhaps 'kids go free' offers would bring a few newbies in, if only for a week or two. Again, a poor comparison. Football clubs tend to loan players for the whole season, or half a season, and occasionally for a month or two. Footballers stay with one club for a certain period. Those players don't flit from one team to another, as speedway guests rider do from one night to the next.

It would be interesting to look at a 'league table' of guests usage over the course of a season in both the EL & PL . . . which teams use the most and the fewest, and which riders get the most guests bookings. Also, while we're at it, a table highlighting all doubling-up activity, showing which riders ride for two teams the most in one season. Maybe Speedway Star could get one of their stattos to compile these tables for them and update them on a weekly basis. It will take some keeping tabs on, mind. A full-time job, probably. Most of us agree that guests are a joke that speedway needs to rid itself of one way or another, or at least start to seriously reduce the dependency on guest riders, but such a table would help to focus a few minds in the BSPA and, dare we hope, hasten some kind of solution to an age-old problem. John Berry will be spinning in his grave.

Yes, of course very few newcomers will bother to ask about the intricacies of speedway on their first visit - as you say, initially they will hopefully be captivated by the thrills and spills and enjoy the friendly atmosphere generated by a family community. But . . . . once they have been two or three times and decide they would like to follow their local team as a regular supporter, can you not imagine how dismayed and totally bemused they quickly become when they find out their new hero can't ride for his team that night, because he is riding elsewhere for another team? And that his replacement is a guest from another team. And the opponents of the new fan's team are also using one, maybe two, guests to cover their missing riders? I'll leave you to explain it all away to them as they scratch their heads and decide speedway is too amateurish and a nonsense to them... Your point about other sports is totally invalid in this case. Yes, all sports have their silly rules and idiosyncrasies. But no team sports played in the UK adopt a guest system as ludicrous as that which has blighted speedway for far too many years and continues to undermine it on a daily basis.

Or merge them, so that riders only ride for ONE club. Is that far too simplistic? I tried telling John Berry that but, as you can imagine, old JB wasn't having it! That's far too sensible a plan to ever be taken up by the powers that be! Seriously, though, as you say, the BSPA should merge the two top leagues, then regionalise them. To reduce guests and doubling-up/down, come up with a revised meeting formula for 6 or even 5-man teams. Why do teams have to be made up of 7 riders anyway? We've had 6-man teams in the past. If 6-man teams were adopted now, with 21 clubs in existence, that effectively does away with the need for 21 riders - or 42 if you went down to 5-man teams. That in itself should significantly reduce the reliance upon guests. If riders say they can't afford to ride, then so be it. Tell them to cut their costs (less bikes = less spent on engine tuners and no full-time mechanics). Many will have to supplement their speedway earnings with a full or part-time job. Promoters should never pay out more than they ever receive in gate revenue and from other small revenue sources (sponsors, progs and souvenir kiosks, etc). My suggested revamp would follow something similar to the Major League Soccer (MLS) set-up in the USA, which is split into two divisions called Western & Eastern Conference (10 teams in each), culminating in knockout play-off matches involving the top 6 teams in each section. That's 12 teams with prolonged interest beyond the main league season. In speedway terms, the geographical split would be fairly straightforward. Assuming all current 21 EL & PL teams keep going, the two regionalised leagues could look like this: NORTH (11 teams) Belle Vue Wolves Leicester Coventry Edinburgh Glasgow Workington Berwick Newcastle Redcar Sheffield SOUTH (10 teams) Poole King's Lynn Swindon Lakeside Ipswich Scunthorpe Peterborough Rye House Somerset Plymouth Obviously, each team in the North group would have two matches more than the South group, due to the 11/10 imbalance. Your suggestion that a team from one regional section can only use guests from the other section (and vice-versa) would be a small step in the right direction but I'd hope that by reducing the number or riders per team, use of guests would be drastically cut - and perhaps only be allowed to replace a No.1? If such a shake-up meant a surfeit of riders left without teams, then how about that group (or as many who wish to be included) forming an independent 'Guests Pool', from which only guest replacements can be selected? You'd have to grade them according to their last official average in order to determine who is eligible to replace who. But the Guest Pool riders would have no attachment to any of the 21 clubs but could (if guests continue to be commonplace) end up getting a lot of bookings - almost as many as if they were permanent team members. This would help the credibility factor, because riders won't be regularly turning out for the same 2 teams, as many of them do now. And of course, the Guest Pool riders would be first in line to receive long-term call-ups to replace injured team members on a permanent basis. OK, so the above is not perfect, but then we don't live in a perfect world.

Another satisfied customer has emailed us today, to say: Hi Tony, I have just finished your book on Kenny Carter on my Kindle and am writing to say how much I enjoyed it although it was very harrowing at times. I read it over a course of several days as it was thought provoking and had to be taken in. Well done on your writing and it will stay with me for a long time. I have bored my husband to death with it as I needed to talk about it to someone. Wow what a story and despite all I love Kenny but not the way it ended, so tragic. Is Alan's book on Kindle yet? Thanks again Regards Shirley.

It's great to be working closely with the nice people of Berwick Bandits Speedway Club Ltd on our forthcoming Memories of Berwick Speedway DVD. The Border country club, like most other tracks, is finding it tough going (see other thread in PL section), so we'd urge you to do all you can to support them between now and the end of the season - and beyond. It's a very well established track that was in at the beginning of the old BL 2 in 1968 and the sport can't afford to lose them. Susie and I are really looking forward to our first visit to Shielfield Park for the DVD launch on Saturday, August 29 (v Workington Comets) and it will be good to meet new people from that part of the UK.