fatface

I worked at Tesco's for 4 years as a student. Can you believe they won't let have free food now? There's a difference in your comparison. No one would question the right for PC to enter for free as a lifetime guest of honour. But riders who were paid for their time back in the 80s and 90s....Mark Crang, Bernie Collier, Barry Ayres, Paul Embley and hundreds of other wannabees, why should they get lifetime passes - that's the issue.

I think you misunderstand me. I'm talking about investing in it as a business. not whether you buy it. No worries. Yes, the paper quality has notably dropped too. You will see other areas of quality rescinding in due course. The market is shrinking and so too is the demand for the product as it is. Hence the cutting of overheads, rather than a rethink of the product. Which is madness really. Quite simply, there is no scenario where Speedway Star's business will pick up in its current model. So, change or die. I have always admired some of the work of the folk behind the Star, particularly the work that goes into the foreign news and Peter Oakes' excellent pages. But that work badly needs redirecting to reflect a modern media platform and the demands of consumers. And that does not mean a Pdf of the pages.

And would you invest in a print-only media title? The demise of regular print is a reality every media platform has to confront and those who stick their head in the sand die. Send me a letter and we can continue the debate

Harsh but fair. On a more serious note, I - like many - on this forum have a life-long affection for Speedway Star, so I say the following in kindness and with a little expertise in the sport media landscape. It needs a completely refreshed approach to survive in the modern digital era, otherwise it is heading for oblivion. When other specialist publications like The Ring, Running Fitness, Athletics Weekly, Boxing Monthly, Trail Runner magazine are falling by the wayside or prioritising digital, the writing is on the wall for weekly print. And they are in sports where the audience is growing or relatively large. Here's five things I would do: Change the printed magazine to monthly and focus on quality features, interviews and photography and broaden your emphasis to the international scene Use your vast library of heritage to produce themed specials and more digital visual content Modernise your website and prioritise daily news and set up a subscriber system for exclusive video content - use your black book of contacts! Use your social channels for behind the scenes video content - audiences are thirsty for this type of content, go live at press conferences etc. They are not thirsty for a jpg of your latest magazine cover Employ some translators and get the website live with Polish and Swedish versions - you are scratching the surface of an already small speedway market in the UK only All of the above will offer a better experience for subscribers/readers, hold more appeal for advertisers and get your fresh international eyeballs on your product. Over the years, plenty have taken bites out of what should be your market...and Speedway Star has let it happen. Fair play to Tony and Backtrack, but the Star should have been owning that space, same with podcasters, YouTubers...they are taking bites from your market. Even this forum! None of these have the potential reach of Speedway Star, none of the existing content, none the network of reporters, none the contacts across the sport. Use what you have, get a clear vision and modernise your product!

Never easy when comparing eras and I think this is one of those where its an apples and pears job. For Mauger and the like the British League title was the second most important competition of the whole season behind the World Championships, just as it would have been for Tony Rickardson had he shared the same era. Fast forward to Rickardson's era and you think Mauger and Olsen would have put as much emphasis on success in the British League had they been competing? Truth is they would have been prioritising bigger money in Poland and each GP far above speedway in Britain, if they would have bothered with Britain at all.

Probably my favourite "Did you know" of speedway history is that. Probably those mentioned above are the only others who ever had a chance of emulating that. I don't know the year, but I know even Ivan Mauger had a crack at Ice Speedway once and wasn't at the races.

To be honest - and risking the wrath of a few folk - I always found watching league racing at Odsal a bit of an unsatisfactory experience. The place was just too big. To borrow a Jasper Carrott gag, I said to the bloke next to me "OI!" Much preferred The Shay.

I stand corrected (maybe). The point I'm making (admittedly clumsily) is that Hyde Road (1929-1987), Brandon (1929-2018) and Plough Lane (1929-91) are venues that were primarily renowned for speedway racing first and foremost over a long unbroken period. Wembley and Odsal, impressive as they were, are more closely associated with football and rugby league.

I'm talking venues where speedway was the main sport and had decades long histories of hosting league racing. Not sure Wembley or Bradford had that.

Not sure the move to the hounds was in his thoughts at all. Never heard any suggestion of that before. The rest I agree with though. For the six years he ran it, he upgraded the track and stadium and always invested heavily in the team (not always successfully). The end was always inevitable given the Bradford City fire and the scale of redevelopment required of a wooden stadium, the value of the land in Manchester and the relatively limited income potential of running a speedway/stock car venue. I also understand he had a divorce from Pat to pay for? Hyde Road, Plough Lane and Brandon are the nearest the sport has had to iconic venues....and they were all allowed to slip into the wrong hands and outside of British Speedway's control. The sport never has had any vision or long-term coherent strategy....hence its lost its most cherished assets. It's still a miracle the new Belle Vue got built. Chris Morton and David Gordon deserve a medal for that at the very least.

I think its doable assuming a similar stature. I know Chris Morton was influenced by Soren Sjosten for example....and whilst he adapted it, it wasn't a bad starter point for the similar stature he was. On the flip side, I'd say guys like Andrew Silver and Simon Stead were unduly influenced by trying to copy an American-style Kelly Moran/John Cook approach and I think it held them both back. Both were unafraid of going full throttle, but at top level, they over slid around the corners, lost speed and couldn't step up. Kelly in particular could get away with it because he was a real natural and could carry the speed using incredible balance....but its not a style that just anyone should copy. Not everyone is Kelly Moran.

Yep. It's my local track now. I've been a handful of times and can't really recommend it. Far too small, the riders never seem to get going, minimal overtaking. It's a novelty track, but no more.

Agree with that summary. I would love to see Joshua win and go on to fight Fury. It's possible. But my head rules my heart on this one. This is one of these sporting contests were the mental aspect is so, so prominent. Joshua is bigger and stronger, but I don't think he knows whether he's a boxer, a puncher or what. He seems quite pre-occupied with his image and pleasing others. Usyk on the other hand exudes utter certainty in who he is and what he is doing. That's why, come the fight, he'll be able to better execute than Joshua. Usyk in 9....I think?

Bright as a knife too. RIP. A great age nonetheless and someone steeped in speedway history.

I say this as someone who has lived in London and has great affection for the place. Wembley (the area) is a sh**hole and the stadium is soulless. It's a place trading on its name and very little else. Its not even the best venue in North London, never mind the UK.

Interesting read and probably a fair summary. I have been to about 80% of the Cardiff GPs and enjoyed the weekend regardless of the racing. Some has been great, some pretty good, some poor. But either way, it's a fantastic stadium, a brilliant city and great to spend time in pubs with people from all over the UK (and beyond) talking speedway. It's the right place for a Speedway GP...it would be lost in London...and Belle Vue can't bring the prestige. But the track issue needs nailing. I didn't go this year and really, its down to cost. In previous years its never been a cheap weekend, but I would swallow it as a treat. In today's climate, with bills and petrol soaring, every bit of spend is much more considered. And with young mouths to feed and an uncertain winter, I just couldn't justify a few hundred quid on a weekend at the speedway. There will be others like me making the same calculation.

Not particularly a fan at all. I just like to see someone given their fair due. Hence, I can't really accept him being labelled as not world class or other riders 'destroying' or 'easily' beating him in a year when the facts indicate he was damn close to being, if not THE best rider in the world. Going forwards I can't think of any other rider who had as much control over a speedway bike as Hans Nielsen. But if I was to identify a chink in the armour, I think his nerve and judgement wavered a bit more than it did for other greats when it came to the very sharp end. He lost three run-offs for the World Title and let the 96 GP title slip when well within his grasp. And I think the clashes with Knudsen and Ermolenko (although he got away with the former) showed rare misjudgement.

And yet, despite that. I reckon Carl Blackbird could and should have gone on to a better career. He had talent and could ride all types of tracks. But even when he was signed by Belle Vue and broke into the England team, he still only had one bike strapped onto the back on his car. Never seemed to give it a proper crack.

Definitely interesting and sometimes revealing, but not always presenting an accurate picture. For example, Gundersen has an 8-3 head to head comparison with Nielsen in World Finals and I think that does reveal something of a psychological edge he had over his rival. On the flipside, Carl Blackbird bagged a few wins against Nielsen, but I can't put that down to anything more than a quirk.

Louis and Larry Ross were engine room pair that probably won the Aces the title in 82, coming up with important points when the mattered. Both dipped a bit in 83 and with that, so too did the Aces.

Great. Always interesting to see head to heads. From the year we are debating would certainly be interesting. Just to flag though, their two meetings in the World Championship were both won by Nielsen. Yes, I can see that 8 points from 6 is a poor return from Nielsen in this one test you seem so interested in. Then again, it does better the 3, 4 and 4 posted by Lee in in the USA tests that season, albeit around a decent 12 pointer. Sorry to hear that Nielsen and Gundersen were so awful that night at Hackney with Lee and Carter having the beating of them. Below par they may have been, but the records show that Nielsen actually beat Carter in both their meetings and Gundersen also still got the better of Lee once....not bad for "awful". 3rd Test at Hackney 8th JulyHt 1: Carter, Olsen, L Collins, Knudsen 62.0 4-2 4-2Ht 2: Lee, Nielsen, P Collins, Thomsen 61.4 4-2 8-4Ht 3: Ravn, Morton, Jessup, Gundersen 61.8 3-3 11-7Ht 4: P Collins, Lee, Olsen, Knudsen 62.7 5-1 16-8Ht 5: Jessup, Morton, Thomsen, Nielsen 62.7 5-1 21-9Ht 6: Carter, L Collins, Gundersen, Ravn 62.5 5-1 26-10Ht 7: Morton, Olsen, Jessup, Knudsen 63.0 4-2 30-12Ht 8: Nielsen, L Collins, Thomsen, Carter (ret) 63.2 2-4 32-16Ht 9: Lee, Gundersen, Ravn, P Collins 62.4 3-3 35-19Ht 10: Carter, Olsen, Rasmussen, L Collins (f) no time 3-3 38-22Ht 11: Lee, P Collins, Eriksen, Nielsen (exc) 63.1 5-1 43-23Ht 12: Jessup, Gundersen, Morton, Ravn 63.4 4-2 47-25Ht 13: Lee, Olsen, Knudsen, P Collins 62.3 3-3 50-28Ht 14: Thomsen, Morton, Jessup, Nielsen 63.2 3-3 53-31Ht 15: Carter, Ravn, Gundersen, L Collins 63.3 3-3 56-34Ht 16: Morton, Olsen, Jessup, Knudsen (f exc) 64.2 4-2 60-36Ht 17: Nielsen, Carter, Thomsen, L Collins 63.6 2-4 62-40Ht 18: Gundersen, Lee, P Collins, Ravn 63.3 3-3 65-43

Agreed. Would have been a lot of GP winners. Mort started the season on fire, Lee and Carter picked it up late season. Gundersen, Sigalos and Sanders all had their moments. But out of all them, they were all prone to a bad night here and there. That hardly ever happened with Nielsen.

...and I bet Louis Carr "absolutely destroyed" Mike Lee in heat 10 And who would've thought Andy Campbell would be the Aces' star signing two years on? Thanks. Here's a beaut of a picture from heat 1..

Hmmm...ok. Either you form an opinion based on credible evidence and facts or you don't. Waiheke1 had already mentioned Andy Smith beating Lee in 83. And I'm sure there are other examples of lesser riders beating Nielsen that year. But the bigger picture and the facts show Hans Nielsen consistently scored more points than any other rider that year and finished it as the BL no1, Intercontinental Champion, Nordic Champion, WTC winner, World Pairs bronze. Mike Lee had a very good year. But he won nowt. Worth a look at a title deciding big race between the two in 83....if there is any "blowing away" to be done, Nielsen is not the one on the receiving end.... For what it's worth, I think the bigger loss to the sport post 83 was Dennis Sigalos....a real class act. With a 10.75 average, second only to Nielsen, he was nearing his peak. And unlike Lee, his loss to the sport wasn't self inflicted. I think he had the skill, talent, professionalism to be in there with Nielsen and Gundersen fighting for the big prizes throughout the 80s, had he not suffered a career ending injury.

You say that....but... Nielsen topped the averages with 10.82. Lee was 6th with 10.16 and third Englishman. Nielsen won the Intercontinental Final. Nielsen would have been in a run-off for 2nd in the World Final with Sanders had he not packed up in the final race whilst well ahead making Lee 4th. Nielsen won the World Team Cup with Denmark, dropping only 1point through qualifiers and final. I think that clearly trumps anything achieved by Lee, who finished the season very well, but was actually pretty poor in test series against USA (for example). Nielsen actually won things that year and finished as the top rider in the British League. It's easy to fall into the trap of overestimating a performance of a rider on some cherry picked meetings, but ultimately they are deemed pretty irrelevant in a wider scene. I think I have said on here before I saw Chris Morton single handedly blitz a field of Nielsen, Wigg, Moran, Gundersen, Pedersen, Knudsen, Tatum at the British Open Pairs at Sheffield a week before the 86 World Final. I was convinced he had a huge chance of being World Champion a week later. But the natural order resumed when it really mattered and Mort finished down the field.