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About a month or so after my book, Speedway in London, came out, I looked in on Sportspages (a specialist sports book shop) In Charing Cross Road to see how it was selling. They told me that it was going quite well and that Mark Loram had been in and signed all the copies they had, which had helped sales. I had no idea he had done this. We never spoke about it, he just did it. I thought, as Terry said, what a great bloke. There was nothing in it for him; it just helped me.

No doubt he is working – it's a job which puts the food on the table.

The regulations provided that a decider would be raced if the riders were level after two heats, but in this case they were not level, the score was 1.5-0.5, so there was a clear winner.

It really is interesting reading differing opinions and the conclusions each have, some more obvious then others.. Following Lee from the beginning, it was amazing to see him develop from an utter novice into the world class performer he was. those first years were unbelievable, each week beating established stars and breaking new ground.. The effect of his inclusion at saddlebow road was said to add at least 1000 on the gate each meeting... He must have been a promoters dream when considering the amount of appearances he was able to fix into a heavy schedule. Winning the world title 1980 should have been the start of a new chapter, where he would go from strength to strength. But unfortunately it wasn't the way it turned out. We must remember this was also the time when the presence of his dad, Andy stood down from being ever present thus allowing Michael to be his own man and do as he thought best.... Thinking as World Champion he would be earning big bucks, he became disillusioned with the sport when he was force to ride in nothing meetings in this country when he could have been earning lucrative contracts abroad had he been able to do so. He became unhappy with the way the sport was run especially when he was being expected to ride for little earnings... It was during this unhappy time he mixed with the wrong sort that did him no favours at all. As a fan and a friend , I could see the effect this was having on his behaviour . His mentality may have changed but fortunately his riding was usually unaffected... The issues that been stated about Ipswich and the Poole meeting were laughable, if they weren't sad. They were both bourn out of personable grievances from a certain referee that got out of hand. It was a situation Mike was always going to lose. Sadly it was the fans who lost out the most... I feel very privilege to have witnessed those amazing early years . It was such a pity there faded away so quickly....

https://youtu.be/tfv6MmlW_W0 Some interesting stats from the Office of National Statistics...

That's irrelevant. Surely all sports are to be treated the same. You can either have 1>2500 spectators or you can't. Elite or amateur is neither here nor there.

Why are we discussing this Lets make it simple touch tapes your out It worked years ago I say bring it back

Could not find his 3mm drill bit.

The first race was the dead-heat with Bo winning the second race. You're right though, if Mort had won a third race it would have been 1.5 each, and as he'd already beaten Bo 2-0 at Belle Vue he would've been the winter holder. I'd honestly never thought about that before.

A few riders went out to find work to bring in some finances because of their outlay last winter. Some work for their sponsors & some even work for delivery firms. It was only because of the suspension of racing that this happened. As some riders have come out and said that they will not be racing in a one off meeting because of lack of practice, being a danger to themselves & others & if they have mechanical issues, further finances to find or have an accident, their income is suspended.

With Covid it was obvious that a number of riders would not be available for whatever reason. We have the best available line up for tonight and hopefully supporters will still tune in and pay for their pass. Best of British luck to all riders including all of the Aussies who are on an ACU licence.

That's correct, we are LIVE tonight.

We have all heard what our so called experts say in their Sky commentrey. But the one thing they have all negleted to spot is that the rules state that all riders must line up a maximum of 10CMs from the tapes & remain stationary until the tapes are released & there is only one person in the stadium that knows when the tapes are released & that is the Referee. Transponders would be a good idea for start line discipline. But like in F1 Moto GP & Drag racing all competitors would be required to line up at a staging point prior to the tapes are released, This could be difficult as in the other sports the cars/bikes are staggered or within a controlled lane. Drop gates as used in Moto X could not be used as the race has to go over the start line every lap & it would cause delays as the gates would need to be cleaned after each start. You also have to factor in the tractors & the equipment they pull going over them. The thing's that really annoy me is allowing the race to go on to its finish then warning a rider that moved at the start. But worst of all it's Messers Tatum & Pearson saying a rider has not gained an advantage, The whole idea of the sport is to accumulate as many points as you can so if a rider moves at the start & is in a point scoring position he has gained an advantage

Think you just summed up longtrack perfectly.

One that sticks in my mind was Nottingham's trip to Middlesbrough's in 1980,mike Sampson scored an 18 point maximum in a 50_28 defeat.

The whole situation regarding crowd levels at events is a complete farce.Logic says every event or no events should have a crowd. IMO.

Also led to believe that the stock car drivers pay to enter, I think this could be their way round the covid ban on crowds as competitor pays and fan pays, so a win win for the promotion who also own the stadium and bars etc so win,win win again !!

off to Bydgoszcz Poland v Russia on Tuesday

Mark was such a down to earth bloke, everybody liked him, fans, fellow riders. He never changed from that 15 year old mascot having after meeting rides in 86 til the day he retired. (Such a shame it wasn't on his terms.) I remember the 75th anniversary meeting at Rye House. He and Ove Fundin had a match race with Mark on an old bike and Ove on a modern machine - just like Jack Parker and Simmo at Hackney in 78. Ove led until the last corner before suffering an engine failure. Mark didn't take part in the meeting so he was chatting away with fans in the bar, and I was chuffed when he told me he remembered me from the Saturday afternoon training schools which I used to help out at...As I said, a great bloke.

Last three letters were right, first two should have been S and H.

Perhaps the title Elite has come back to bite the authorities on the bum after them claiming the top division was the ELITE league a few years ago when in all reality it was not much better than the second tier due to about 85% of rider doubling up?

I was replying to a post , so if you think that makes me bigoted and stupid thats up to you. Simple solution is if you dont like what i post dont read it.

I must admit I'm in the if you haven't touched the tapes then let it go camp. If you don't have the technology to check for jump starts and 99% of tracks don't then one Refs perspective of who's gone too early will differ from the next. Some riders seem to be able to predict when the tapes will go up better than others and sometimes they will demolish them when exclusion is the punishment they will get and deservedly so. If the sport had something like the motor x barrier system I've seen elsewhere they certainly wouldn't be trying to get a flyer and risk getting seriously injured. I think the powers that be just need to make their minds up on a system or a ruling to sort it out once and for all!

It’s very noticeable in slow -mo,regarding slack in tapes so is he really jumping the start at times,as Saturday proved when he done a perfect start and was brought back.

Or we could just have the radical idea of you're only exclude if you touch the tapes?!? Speedway doesn't & has no real need for transponder technology. With regards to Madsen, he just has exceptional gating ability. What needs to be worked on is the slack in the tapes. Noticed many times that riders were accused of jumping when in fact the outside of the tapes are released. Theres a split second where the centre of the tapes are still in a stationery position & if you're on gate 2 or 3 & make a perfect start it looks far worse than on gate 1 & 4.