lucifer sam

I thought everyone was already aware, but this was the third attempt to hold this meeting. The original date was at Leicester a day after the British Grand Prix, which was an ideal date, but it was rained off. Shame about the arrival of the rain last night - there had been some cracking racing and it was building up into an exciting climax.

Good luck tonight, mate. If I wasn't leaving the house at 7am tomorrow to get up to Scunny, I would have gone tonight. Good luck Tigers!

A very simple solution would be the GP winner gets 21 points and then everyone else scores as present. Then the winner always scores more points than anyone else, while every point on the night is still vital.

That was bizarre. Without an injury in 2014 (although all the top guys suffered at one point or another that year) he could have been World Champion, as it was he finished second and won three rounds - and then the next year he was awful.

Got an answer: all new subscriptions start from the latest issue, so if you've just taken out a sub, it will start from Issue No 94.

Issue 95 will have something of interest for the Cradley Heath fans as well - working on it at the moment and all will be revealed soon!

Have passed on that question for you - will let you know the reply.

It is Tom Young at No 13.

It's subscription only - announcement here: http://retro-speedway.com/news.php?extend.93 Sadly, the current state of British Speedway and catastrophic closure of tracks such as Coventry has even had an affect on the retro magazines. I always read Backtrack cover-to-cover (well, apart from the pieces I've contributed - no need to read those!), and I would suggest the £25 subscription price is well worth it. In particular, you don't want to miss the Guglielmi interview, which is candid, revealing and very sad in places.

I realise I'm biased as a contributer to the mag, but what a compelling and candid interview with Gary Guglielmi in the latest Backtrack. Read it tonight - he was completely and open honest about matters when Tony McDonald interviewed him.

No problem. It was just an idea that Wikipedia might accept a link to a website such as the Defunct Speedway website.

Gustix, any chance you could please arrange to add something to the Harringay page of the Defunct Speedway page (the track he was most synonymous with), which could then be used as a reference?

Remember that - that was an absolutely appalling decision by Graham Flint.

Iris. I came to the sport a few years later than you, by which time PC had almost god-like status. What he achieved in speedway was fantastic, and he probably was the best rider in the world circa '76 and '77. For me, Tai slightly edges his achievements, even though Tai hasn't finished yet. There's occasions such as the 2018 Speedway Of Nations where Tai just wasn't simply the best rider in the world - he was on a different planet to every other World Class rider. Also, the following should be pointed out: * PC started 1978 by riding in meetings in US, which gained him a ban that led to his absence to the 1978 World Pairs semi-final (with Berry subsequently deciding to show faith in his semi-final pair and not include PC in the final). * PC gave British Speedway a miss in 1981, riding in continental meetings (mostly West Germany). Partially due to an injury sustained towards the end of '80 at Cradley Heath - partially through choice. Not for a moment do I hold the above against PC, but it's an indication that place him in the same times of Tai and he may well have made the same decisions as Tai.

Wolves looks like it might get on tonight, but Swindon has little chance tomorrow and then it seems to be raining until around Tuesday.

Greg is amazing, but he's go some to catch up Posa Serenius. World Champion for the second time at the age of 54, and eventually kicked out of the series at the age of 61, after needing beta-blockers to keep on going and they're on the banned list. And yes, there is yes less depth in Ice Racing, but to beat the top Russians on their sponsored machinery at the age of 54 is still amazing. So maybe Greg's not quite finished after all I agree the only really contentious wildcard is Lindback. That seems daft based on the 10 Grand Prix from this year. It's not like there isn't already another Swede in the series. I don't think he is amongst the best 15 riders in the world - the Polish averages posted seem to confirm that. Drabik and Michelsen have had more successful seasons and one of them should have been given the opportunity.

The big surprise has to be Lindback, simply because of the 13-point chasm between the riders in the eleventh and twelfth places. In short, Lindback was an also ran for the majority of this year’s series. Excluding Greg (out the whole year) and Woffy (injured and then coming back from injury), Lindback was the second worst rider in this year’s series, ahead of only Kolodziej. Odd that he’s been included, ahead of the likes of Drabik and Michelsen, who clearly showed better form in 2019. With 14 of the same permanent 15 riders as 2019, the GP is in danger of becoming a closed shop. Even “the new face” (Fricke) rode in half of this year’s series as second reserve rider. It needed at least one fresh face. Drabik or Michelsen would have provided that.

I suppose a quite different list would be which of the eight riders had the most potential. Looking at the way that Michael Lee strolled to his first World Championship at the age of 21, he might be No 1 for that one. At the time, it was mentioned that he had to be a contender to go on to match or surpass Mauger. Instead it turned out to be his only title.

It's not about needing another Pole. It's about having the best 15 riders in the world (or as near as possible) in the series. None of the alternatives are as good as Drabik.

Woffinden Hancock Laguta Drabik

I thought the discussion might be more on whether I'd actually placed Jack Parker high enough The winner of the sport's premier event in both 1934 and 1947 (including toppling the "unbeatable" Duggan in the '47 final). One of the top riders for a long, long time. Made the Match-Race Championship his own personal property for a number of years.

Cheers Norbold!

An excellent summary, which matches my reckoning as well. Price's overall record was superior to that of Williams, and was a class act over a long career. I do count the 1946 BRC - which was the equivalent to the World Final. Parker, Farndon, Langton and Frank Charles also won such meetings, and also factoring them in: 1. Peter Craven 2. Tai Woffinden 3. Peter Collins 4. Jack Parker 5. Michael Lee 6. Tommy Price 7. Eric Langton 8. Tom Farndon (sorry Norbold, can only judge him on what he won, rather than what he might have won) 9. Mark Loram 10. Freddie Williams 11. Frank Charles 12. Gary Havelock Bottom two are interchangeable.

Lee may well have surpassed Collins, but we'll never know. As it is, PC's accomplishments are above those achieved by ML. I've said PC, PC and Woffy are my "big three", there's a possibility that Lee would be fourth. He's certainly above Havvy and Mark Loram. The latter was a real favourite of mine, but he would have to come towards the bottom of the list. Actually, let's have a go at a list (with the proviso that the top three are interchangeable): 1. Peter Craven 2. Tai Woffinden 3. Peter Collins 4. Michael Lee 5. Tommy Price 6. Mark Loram 7. Freddie Williams 8. Gary Havelock.

Sid, the power of DVD/video is that many of PC's finest moments are captured for posterity. And he was obviously an incredible speedway rider. Plus he won 10 FIM Gold Medals and no other British rider can match that (and he was at the forefront of many of those triumphs e.g. his unique hat-trick of WTC maximums). As I said, PC, PC and Tai stand above the others. Well IMO, anyway.