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Mike Lee in Speedway Star


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Some people can take any drug and be okay, others should never go near 'em 'cos they can't handle it. If you can't eat one Malteser without going thru a whole boxful, then you should leave 'em alone.

I've seen some very paranoid cannabis smokers indeed and know many very smart professional people who do that and more.

 

Should ANY pro sportsman smoke?? I'd be sad if my kids started to but so many riders are seen smoking in the pits aren't they? Shall we tell them off too? Its the most addictive damaging drug.

 

Now Mike Lee was/is VERY single minded and a bit wild from a young kid.

Maybe they are the very qualities that meant he could be a WORLD CHAMPION and other "nice guy" riders weren't.

He used to drive a brand new 3 litre JPS Capri with a bike on he back to train at Lynn and Mildenhall when he was 16 and 17- yes no licence!!

He bunked off school before to ride before that.

Who pulled him up then??

He had a famous dad who owned a motorbike shop and who indulged his son so my theory is Mike didn't have many good friends and was envied by many more.

He was an original golden boy who could have gone either way.

 

Speedway riders have got to be a bit different to take the risks and do what they do anyway. Andrenaline seekers and all that. Teenaged lads who come alone from half way across the world with no care for where they end up and putting their life on the line at places like Wolverhampton on a dark cold weekday night??

 

Are we then surprised or outraged some of them take other risks and get criminal records?? Well, we shouldn't.

 

Plenty of todays riders have be in more or as much bother as Mike Lee but don't get the publicity or boos.

 

Promoters boosted their gates with Lee's image. Fans loved to hate him. Others loved him.

He wound them and other riders up with all the back and forth and tricks to be last up to the tapes. But he was BLOODY good.

 

And underneath it a nice bloke. The Mike Lee who took the piss out of us for following a particular rider in a M-way services one night on the way back from a British semi was the same bloke who rang me up as British Champion when I'd smashed myself up after a motorcycle crash on the way home from the British Final.

He didn't know me from Adam but as my bike was being repaired at his Dad's shop in Cambridge, someone there told him and he rang me to ask if he could do anything at all and asked to visit me in hospital.This when he's riding just about everynight. There was no publicity in it for him, just Leo being a good guy.

Whatever in his life followed, I remain impressed.

 

His "sins" are less than some others. Be grateful for what we saw.

 

Maybe his involvement preparing engines and helping out young riders gives him focus now.

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Should ANY pro sportsman smoke?? I'd be sad if my kids started to but so many riders are seen smoking in the pits aren't they? Shall we tell them off too? Its the most addictive damaging drug.

I remember going to the speedway with my yougner sister in 2000 (so she was only 11 at the time). We went around to the pits and as we were looking in, Colin White started smoking, my sister looked at him in dis-belief, within minutes there were 6 riders, wearing Arena-Essex* race jackets all smoking. She turned to me, while these riders were all about 10 yards away and said, "They're smoking!? They shouldn't do that they're sportsmen and it's like taking drugs". Fair play to Jan Pedersen, he heard this and instantly stopped. :D I remember being reall embarassed at the time but she had a very valid point and she was an 11 year old girl.

 

I think smoking should be banned in the pits, you have the image it gives off, I'm not niave enough to think footballers, F1 drivers, rally driver etc don't smoke, they're human. However, when was the last time you saw one of these guys smoking at a game, race or rally? It just doesn't happen, it makes them look better, they've banned cigarette adverting for a start so if a competor was seen smoking I'm sure he'd get into some serious trouble, so how do speedway riders get away with it? When at the track they are in work, if the promoters want to stop them from smoking they should, after all, I can't smoke in uni and I was never allowed to smoke in school(even when old enough) or in work. Every time anyone I knew who moked had to leave the grounds of the building to smoke, speedway should be the same. If nessecary let the riders go and hide behind the pits or something.

 

I've managed to go off on a tangent of the original message but I don't care :P

 

BTW, I agree you family, friends, media etc DOES effect what you do, however, we all work in different ways, so some people rebel against the strict parent and take drugs, smoke etc while others accept it. Some people who have easy going parents and for that reason take the drug etc as they see no wrong in it, others feel they have no need. Michael may have resented his parents interfearing and took drugs even more.

 

 

*I've seen riders from all teams, Arena-Essex just happened to be the team my sister saw that day.

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I think it was a great interview in an excellent winter series of articles. He may not come across as the most articulative of people but he still made some good points and seemed honest.

He has always appeared to be a strong minded person, highly sensitive to others who tried to tell he what to do, and so easily gave a reaction.

If his father or people like Martin Rogers and John Berry couldn't always influence him then I doubt that even godalmighty could!

He has always been his own man and he said himself that when he was banned, it was a slight against him that he could not forgive and his heart went from speedway never to fully return. That reaction was down to him and his personality.

His point about speedway just being run and not actually promoted is a valid one and that Benfield Sports have improved the sports profile globally, but this hasn't dramatically increased domestic attendances.

Its great that he is still involved in speedway because in his heyday he was a personality that got people talking about our sport and his brilliance was quite rare.

Edited by mark cox
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Although he is guilty of bad judgement, which he has dearly paid for, and outside of the fact he was one of the all time great talents, from what I gather, he is really a nice person. I think that counts for something. I too was fortunate enough to see him ride at 16, he was worth the price of admission even then. My opinion, although it doesnt count for much I know, he was good for at least another one or two titles had he not gone off the deep end. ;)

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While we are on the subject of Michael can i ask about the`77 world final,heat 18 :o .Michael is waiting for the race to be re-run ,Olsen and Mauger are on 2 minutes and when the time is up Lee is still the only rider on the track :blink: I don`t know the rules that well but surely when a ref starts the 2 minute warning ,that is that.If the riders are not excluded you are surely putting the rider waiting(Lee) at a distinct disadvantage :o

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While we are on the subject of Michael can i ask about the`77 world final,heat 18 :o .Michael is waiting for the race to be re-run ,Olsen and Mauger are on 2 minutes and when the time is up Lee is still the only rider on the track :blink: I don`t know the rules that well but surely when a ref starts the 2 minute warning ,that is that.If the riders are not excluded you are surely putting the rider waiting(Lee) at a distinct disadvantage :o

I don't know if you remember Gothenburg 77 but it was possibly the worst conditions ever where a meeting continued.

Referee Kittilsen used common sense by making allowance for the dreadful conditions and cancelled the two minutes, which in reality he should not have put on anyway. It would have been extremely unfair on Olsen who had to lay his bike down when Boulger fell.

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Boywonder you have a such a way with writing there, I must admit that is probably one of the only long posts (oh and Tabby3's :wink: ) I have ever read all the way through.

 

Like I've said before Michael Lee was my hero (BL anyway :wink: ) back then, I've read a lot of stories over the years from people who weren't even around back then so how they can comment I don't know. There is a forum member that knows quite a bit of what went on back then and it has been hinted at before on here. Maybe if the SS was to interview a few more from that era the squeeky clean images of a lot more riders would disappear and all of our memories would be in tatters.

 

Michael Lee was good enough and open enough to be interviewed and put his side across regarding his life on and off the track. I say 10/10 to him doesn't make me like him any less than I did all those years ago.

 

Oh and one more important thing just because my hero took drugs didn't make me do it either!!

Edited by shazzybird
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Mike was my hero too, nothing will ever take away the enjoyment I got of watching him race on track. At the end of the day, as speedway fans, that's all that we should be concerned about.

 

As for drugs, my drug was/is watching exciting speedway :D Young people these days just accept that others are taking them, surely they should be telling the authorities what is going on to help stamp the problem out?

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Shazzy,

Thx (I thnk)

 

A good biographer should do a no holes barred book on Mike Lee's life and times.

A la soccer's Franks' Worthington or MacAvennie or Tony Adams.

It would appeal to many o/s speedway who've never heard of him or the sport.

Sportspages would sell van loads.

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Shazzy,

Thx (I thnk)

 

A good biographer should do a no holes barred book on Mike Lee's life and times.

A la soccer's Franks' Worthington or MacAvennie or Tony Adams.

It would appeal to many o/s speedway who've never heard of him or the sport.

Sportspages would sell van loads.

Yes it would be a good read, not sure that we would be able to understand it all, I come to the conclusion that Michael had everything to early in his career, like alot sportsmen/ women who are talented from an early age they soon finish up throwing it away. But like I say Michael was probably the most talented British Speedway rider wew have ever had.

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Probably three quarters of the way through writing a new book on the Life and Times of Michael Lee.

Well, he has got the week off work. :D

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Michael is his own person and regrets what he did at the time anyone would think he was a big time drug user.

 

Were you a Wembley 81? Lee was booed on parade - a British reigning world champion booed - and why because he took the urine out of speedway so they 82, 000 took the urine out of him.

I was there, I remember booing him too, but for other reasons...... well I was only 15 at the time :P:lol:

 

As Trees said earlier, (he was a hero of mine too) nothing will take away the memories of him racing when he was at King's Lynn......we all make mistakes in life, unfortunately some of us more than others :blink:

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Young people these days just accept that others are taking them, surely they should be telling the authorities what is going on to help stamp the problem out?

Ha, we're discussing Mike Lee back in the days when he was young taking drugs and you start on the youth of today. We're no worse now than people were back then.

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Guest Sir Lunchalot
It's a definite worth thinking about. ;)

 

Actually I am going to speak to the sports editor at Tempus just after Easter to discuss a future programme of books, so any suggestions would be wecome...

Speedway In Australia :D

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