Issue 23

[TonyMac]

Issue 23 is now on sale and (Christmas post permitting) all subscribers should by now have received their copy.

 

Look what's on offer this time...

 

MAIN MAN – ERIK GUNDERSEN

He nearly died on the track after crashing in heat one of the World Team Cup final 18 years ago, but Erik Gundersen is alive and well and talking to Backtrack from his lovely farmhouse home in Denmark, where editor Tony McDonald recently flew to exclusively interview the three times World Champion.

 

Erik, a one-club Cradley Heath legend, gave us his most candid and heart-warming interview ever.

 

Now 48, he recalls:

 

*The accident at Bradford’s Odsal Stadium in 1989 that almost killed him and left him partially paralysed, and how he has learned to cope with those disabilities.

 

*How living among the local Black Country community shaped his British League career and gave him the inspiration to become a Heathens hero. What he thought of promoter Dan McCormick and Bruce Penhall, his predecessor as No.1 and skipper at Dudley Wood.

 

*The real inside story on his intense rivalry with fellow Dane Hans Nielsen – and how Erik was inevitably caught in the crossfire once Ole Olsen became his personal mentor. ‘Gundo’ now admits that it was wrong of Olsen to manage the Danish team AND him personally simultaneously in the mid-80s – the relationship that only deepened the rift between Erik and Hans.

 

*Read Erik’s astonishing admission that he believes Hans Nielsen was a better all round rider than him.

 

*But how psychology played such a huge part in helping him to win his long-running battle with Nielsen on the biggest occasions.

 

*And why Denmark’s domination of world speedway in the 80s was “boring” and bad for speedway as a whole.

 

*What Kenny Carter did that shocked him.

 

*Plus much more from this ever-popular Dane who has shown such remarkable courage to earn the right to enjoy what he calls his ‘second life’.

 

BOB KILBY

One of the most consistently successful Brits of the 70s, Bob recalls his starring roles for his home-town team Swindon, plus Exeter and Oxford. The fast-starting former Robins flier, the Wiltshire town’s best-ever speedway product, hits back at those who questioned his trapping technique. “I didn’t used to cheat,” Bob protests.

 

He explains his reluctance to move from Swindon to Exeter, and why it turned out for the best, and then his dislike of Ivan Mauger that led him to leave the County Ground for Oxford.

 

He ended his career back at Blunsdon and Bob names his all-time Swindon Top 7.

 

Now 63, he also talks candidly about his serious health battles, which have included three heart operations and a stroke.

 

JIMMY McMILLAN

One of Scotland’s all-time greats, Jimmy Mac looks back on the days when his small nation were an international force in the World Pairs, as well as being represented in the World Team Cup.

 

Glasgow legend Jimmy admits that, in the interests of his career, he should have moved south earlier than he did when he became Hull’s first BL No.1, before spells with Wolverhampton, Belle Vue and Berwick, but he still enjoyed 20 proud years in the saddle.

 

Jim, who is now technical steward for the British GP and plays a key role in the Coventry pits on race nights, also gives his assessment of all four Glasgow home tracks on which he has led the Tigers.

 

PETE SMITH

Another loyal, one-track man, Pete Smith was part of the furniture at Poole throughout the 70s, when he celebrated a well-earned testimonial before retiring to run the thriving family car business he still has today.

 

We talk to ‘Pirate Pete’, Poole’s first championship-winning skipper, about his career at Wimborne Road and the fellow stars he appeared alongside on the south coast, including hard men like Reidar Eide and John Langfield (who he once punched in the pits) and stylish Malcolm Simmons, who succeeded him as the club’s top man. “Simmo was crapped on by the management,” says Pete.

 

RICHARD KNIGHT

One of the rising England stars of the 80s, Richard talks about his emergence from National League Mildenhall to star status with Ipswich, then King’s Lynn, before a brief spell in the sun with ambitious Berwick, where his son Jake began his own speedway career in 2007. A World Team Cup finalist in 1985, Richard also made it to the big one in 1990, but he admits now that he didn’t invest enough in his machinery before the Bradford World Final.

 

ZDENEK KUDRNA

Mad? Dangerous? They are just a couple of labels attached to Czech star Zdenek, a former daredevil who rode in Britain for Exeter and Birmingham before his tragic death in 1982. Zdenek’s widow, Jirina, provides an interesting insight into the caring husband she lost and the multi-talented tracksport star known in his homeland as ‘Demon’, while fellow Czech legend Vaclav Verner adds his views.

 

ROD HAYNES

The former Scunthorpe and Sheffield teamster with his first column – Life and Times of a 70s Racer, reflecting on his struggle to get practice and second-half rides in the north, including his first forays at ‘dusty’ Doncaster.

 

WIMBLEDON

The latest in our Defunct Tracks series, the once dominant Dons deserve their four pages of nostalgia, as we recall the highs and lows of speedway at one of the sport’s greatest venues.

 

EASTBOURNE in PICTURES

Soaring with the Eagles in a pictorial review of the 70s and 80s at Arlington, where the academy produced England discoveries such as Dave Jessup and Gordon Kennett, who went on to become World No.2s.

 

STEVE BAST

Memories of the former American ace who sadly died recently in his native California.

 

Plus..Your letters and more great pictures that just ooze nostalgia...

Edited December 20, 2007 by tmc

[AndyP]

An excellent edition and a great interview with Erik.

 

Gundersen is one of my favourite non Reading riders of all time. I must also say that his accident and subsequent injuries back in 1989 probably affected me more than any other rider I've seen injured during my time as a supporter.

 

My enthusiasm for the sport was truly tested at the time.

 

A great rider and by all accounts a top man as well.

 

Well worth a read.

[lucifer sam]

Read the Erik interview last night... very interesting stuff.

 

I don't think Ole Olsen (boo! hiss!) has been the main man yet... Tony, did you manage to interview him as well whilst in Denmark?

 

All the best

Rob

[TonyMac]

I don't think Ole Olsen (boo! hiss!) has been the main man yet... Tony, did you manage to interview him as well whilst in Denmark?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I'm as disappointed as anyone that Ole hasn't been featured before now. We'd love to interview Ole but he has not yet responded to any of our three email requests for an interview.

 

I accept that he is ultra busy with the GPs throughout the season, but our first request went to him last January.

 

I'm now going to post him a copy of the latest issue and see if that has the desired effect.

 

Perhaps we've upset him, although a simple 'bugger off' would at least let us know where we stand. I can't believe that OO would have good reason not to share his thoughts on his brilliant career with Backtrack readers.

 

Watch this space!

Edited December 21, 2007 by tmc

[Dean]

Great interview with Gunder the wonder. Fantastic rider and sportsman, still remember that race in 85 when he blasted around Shoey and Lance King to force the run off. Legend is a word often overused in my view, however thats definatley not the case with Erik, a true speedway legend.

[spin king]

It does make you wonder how far Electric Erik would have gone in his career as it was cut off in his prime, I reckon another two World titles could have been there for the taking.

[hiley]

Tony

 

The best issue for a while. Excellent piece on Erik Gundersen and the articles on Bob Kilby and Pete Smith were terrific, plus John Berry's Wimbledon history.

 

Well done!