Jeff.

By 1985 Halifax's crowds had gone well under a 2000 average. The wooden stands were not a factor in the move in any way, it was purely a cost thing The extra costs were to pay for the necessary track alterations and as you say Odsal was a better option at the time. Crowds at Odsal dropped alarmingly when they lost Carter which would have happened even if they had been at the Shay.

Someone is responsible, that someone is obviously Ole Olsen. You suggest discarding years of experience in lieu of 1 cock up! Strange man. 1939 was called off with just 1 week to go. I think the FIM instigated the war so that the didn't have to run that Final. They knew the public were against the bonus point system in operation at the time and feared no one would turn up. There were no repeats scheduled on Pathe News either, what more proof do you need

The Valley Parade disaster only happened in May of that year Andy. I don't think the implications of the Popplewell Enquiry were known before the move to Odsal was announced. The Shay continued in it's same state for a number of years as home to Halifax FC It was the new SCB regulations that spelled the end of racing at the Shay

You don't remember the fan who jumped the fence grabbing the hose in an attempt to be able to see some of the racing Ask Peter Collins, I am sure he remembers it!!! Ironically the man to benefit from that farce was none other than Ole Olsen, although to be fair he was a more than worth winner anyway.

Nonsense, at that time Wembley was still used at least annually with World Finals, Inter Continental, European and Worl Team Cup Finals, not to mention the Daily Mirror Series Final. Wembley was not temporary in the truest sense of the word, in the main it was just hidden beneath the turf making the job much simpler than Gelsenkirchen. Len Silver was preparing the track for all those meetings, not to memtion preparing Hackney on a weekly basis. Why then were there not the cries for him to resign after the Fiasco in 1975, why no witch hunt trying to discredit the whole World Final system. Quite simply it was accepted as a mistake, albeit one of monumental proportions, and lessons learned from it, none of this current trend of a frenzy of internet fuelled hype demanding a resignation, although that seems to be the way of the world these days.

By the end of 1985 the Shay did not comply with new regulations re the 2 mtr exclusion zone around the track. The cost of the alterations (floodlights etc) was the crux of the problem and with a ready made replacement stadium ony 5 or 6 miles away the dukes left the Shay and moved lock stock and barrel into Odsal

Did Len Silver lose his job preparing the Wembley track after 1975, (an even bigger farce than Germany by the way) of course not, truth was he was still the best person for the job and learning from past mistakes went on to produce two of the best ever world final tracks

Why? those riders all had well documented problems, ignoring it doesn't make it not true. Personally, although I too would not contribute to any fund, it saddens me that the Morans ended up like they have. The pair of them lived for today, ignoring tomorrow, and however sad this scenario was entirely predictable

Indeed Jim all 4 are Kelly Moran, Shawn wasn't in the USA team that day, the team was the 4 in the photo plus Greg Hancock.

1984 Overseas Final from Belle Vue? Shawn was third, went on to win the Inter Continental Final and the flopped badly in Gothenburg

Sadly Jim they are not the first, and probably wont be the last, former riders to succumb to the evils of alchohol. Soren Sjosten was always fond of a drink but the death of his brother sent him into downward spiral, eventually dying little more than a tramp in his native Sweden. Chris Pusey was another who died young, very young in fact, only in his fifties, through alchohol. And coincidentally all 4 rode for the Aces

Been on the vino again Jim?. "He may be dead"? where on earth did that come from, Spin King simply wished him a happy birthday. Don't think it is Spin King living in "la la land. Kelly has long had a problem with the booze, even during his racing days, anyone remember him being withdrawn from a meeting at Hyde Road by the track doctor on some made up grounds. The truth was he was pissed, almost staggering round the track walk. It was largely covered up at the time though. Shawn, although fond of a drink, managed to avoid addiction for a while longer but it appears that he has now spiralled as low as Kelly. Although probably not destined to reach old age both Shawn and Kelly are still with us and so a belated happy birthday for yesterday to Shooey.

If you think Shawn worthy of a collection that is fine, no doubt countless others will too. I don't mind you saying so Jim, it wouldn't be much of a forum if everyone agreed on everything would it. For the record I would number both the Moran's in my top 10 of all time favourites, they were riders you hoped would miss the gate and fight their way from the back.

Well as much as I liked Shawn Moran I certainly wouldn't contribute to any fund. Lets face it Shawn was the architect of his own demise and I can think of thousands of causes much much more worthy of fundraising than Shawn Moran. Alan Wilkinson, Joe Owen etc etc. guys in a terrible way through no fault of their own, are the type of people worthy of collections.

I believe it is some sort of primitive device for recording TV shows, long since obsolete!!!!!!!!

Well you really missed out not seeing Shawn in his prime. For Shawn, and to an even greter degree Kelly, there was always a lot more to life than speedway and so his application wasn't all it could be. Kelly in particular was the greatest natural talent, Craven apart, who ever sat on a speedway bike but his lifestyle prevented him from properly using that talent to its full potential Personnally I feel they both wasted their opportunity in Speedway, I am sure they feel they got what they wanted out of their careers, the truth is probably somewhere in between

Taken from roughly where the changing rooms entry was ? What a superb venue, and although I don't recall the Shay having a bad accident record those floodlights were mighty dangerous. Coupled with an unforgiving steel fence it was not a track for the faint hearted.

If a conference league reserve was given a place in a world final would you consider his odds of winning to be 15/1 Good job you are not a bookmaker

Well there is merit in that, but who are the "new blood" riders you would like to see. Sadly speedway is at such a low ebb that there is simply no one better to replace the "ageing line-up" The 12 qualified and seeded riders are probably the best 12 around at the moment, (Chris Harris?) the qualifiers are a bit ropey but those aside who would you like to see in there.

There have been dozens and dozens over the years of a similar standard in world finals. Strangely Rob seems to think that because the odd one of these managed a reasonable performance on the night, one even won with a million to one chance performance, that this justifies the old system, personnally I think it only adds weight to the reasons for ditching a tired, failing system. Just think, to go with Szcackiel in 1973 we could nearly have had Rembas in 1978, Handberg in 1992 or even Viktor Kutnetsov in 1986, what a worthy bunch to describe as world champions. The sooner the GP is all invitation, the better. Do away with the no hopers the qualification systen constantly throws up

It was in response to Rob Peasley's ridiculous statement about any one of 16 being capable of winning a world final when the truth is nothing like that

The Brits qualified direct to the World Final from the British Final in 1978. The picture is from 1979 The full line up was Michael Lee Peter Collins Finn Thomsen Dave Jessup Ivan Mauger Ole Olsen Kelly Moran Billy Sanders John Titman Larry Ross Kai Niemi Gordon Kennett John Davis Bobby Schwartz Hans Nielsen Malcolm Simmons Jan Andersson Mike Bast

I do remember thinking either George Hack or Makael Starostin would win in LA in 1982. If not one of them then the ageing Peter Collins was a likely winner. Maybe it would be Verner or Kai Niemi, Maybe even Edward Jancarz or Jiri Stancl. Yes World Finals were certainly very competitive in them days. Course that wasn't just a rogue year, lets go back to 1976, I thought PC would have his work cut out by the likes of the Gordeev brothers, or even Jerzy Rembas or Marek Cieslak, Jiri Stancl was another in with a big chance. It was hard to rule anyone out in those days wasn't it. Ales Dryml, Jiri Stancl, Egon Müller,Zenon Plech, Petr Ondrasik were all likely winners in 1980 The list just goes on and on.

Eriks fear of flying stems from a near miss one Easter when travelling back to the UK Erik, Ole Olsen and Tommy Knudsen were on a small plane that developed problems abd looked likely to end up in the channel at one point, miraculously the plane limped to an airfield where all three continued their journeys to meetings that same hight. Such crap isn't even deserving of a response but I will respond anyway. Nielsens best years were 1983 to 1989, during his long running battles with Erik. Quite the opposite of your version is the truth and Hans actually lost some edge after Erik's accident, althogh still a potent force for 10 more years

You are so dramatic, you have applied that statement to almost every update of the SGP website. I actually don't think Harris worthy of another wildcard but there are still a maximum of two possibly better options. What needs getting rid of is the ridiculous qualification process, that is what clutters up the GP with no hopers, the same as it did with the old World Championship. By the way the lingering sickness came on in 1983 and lingered on for 12 more years before the World Championship regained it's once proud status