Bruiser McHuge

They certainly did count as a ride and in the averages ...that year affected Gundersen badly...he usually suffered one tapes exclusion a meeting but usually scored 9 from his other 3 ..it did affect his average though, but he soon came to terms with it and never got many exclusions after that.

I think Carter was certainly the best visiting rider I saw at Hyde Road...until Gundersen maybe.....firstly it was Olsen, then Carter came along, then Gundersen.....they were definitely the best 3 visitors to Hyde Road in their eras in my view. I agree that the tape touching rule accounted for Lee though...he was a super fast rider, he could definitely pass, but some of his starting was basically cheating, but that was the era I suppose..but he was worse than most I think .....the final straw was that Test match on TV against USA when Frank Ebdon stopped every start Lee did causing Lee to storm out of the meeting...I do wonder if he'd stayed around whether he'd have mastered the new starts like Gundersen did....I'm sure with his talent he would have done but there were other things going on in his life as well I suppose.

Riders are no worse now than back then....there is no reason that a top rider is worse than a top rider from back then, and those riders wouldn't have had those averages under current race formats with fixed gate positions and top scorers races etc.....a top rider could take the same gate 4 , 5 or 6 races in one night...they could basically spend a whole night going off one favoured gate, and I saw that happen numerous times.. Now I certainly think that for numerous reasons speedway was a far better sport for league racing back then but comparing averages doesn't mean anything and I certainly don't think the top riders were generally better than today's as riders.

Well I've been watching the building of the new FC United stadium and it's made me realise more than ever how long a process this can be....that took ages to get off the ground and then they said they would definitely start this season in in....no chance....then they said hopefully the end of November....well when I drive past it there is no chance of being in there this season I would say...so these things certainly take time that's for sure When are Belle Vue aiming for ?.....it's 2016 isn't it ?...

I would say there is no doubt that had Bast come to England at his peak then he would have made a real good go at it and would have become one of the better riders in the league.....he would have had the backing, the bikes and the package to do well and you certainly can't look at one Inter Continental Final as evidence that he wouldn't as I would say it's an almost impossible situation to come over in his position and compete in a one off meeting at that level.....I would think that given a season or two full time over here then he could have competed well in meetings like that. But like it's been said he had a decent lifestyle over in the USA and was making good money.....in 1979 he was supposed to have offered to give up his Inter Continental final place to Kelly Moran in return for 8 grand so it shows he had a taste for money !.......he ended up dropping out for nothing though. As it stands I don't think you can put him as one of the best Americans let alone riders but I certainly think he could have been...I also think Mike Faria could have been a far better international rider had he come to England earlier....he came too late in his career I think but he was an excellent rider.......and anyone know why Chris Manchester went from a 10 point rider to a poor second string almost overnight ?....he looked really class at one point for a very short time.

Even if he maintains it wasn't rape the way he actually treated and behaved towards the girl was vile and disgusting and he should show remorse for that alone....he really is a loathsome individual regardless of the outcome of the case

As it stands Ched Evans is a convicted rapist showing no remorse whatsoever...as such Sheffield Utd should have left well alone , especially knowing there is going to be an appeal and possible review of the case....if that review then brought a not guilty verdict and over turned the original conviction then I don't think people could have the same concerns about Evans being signed.....he would certainly be an odious individual but an odious individual not guilty of rape..and nothing could really stop Sheffield Utd signing him .....they have committed an awful PR act by inviting him to train before the review conclusion and the petition signers, the patrons , Jess Ennis and the sponsors deserve praise for their stance and Sheffield Utd deserve all the backlash as a club..

Yes, she's said they have to remove her name from the Jessica Ennis stand if Evans signs.....but I suppose she's only doing that to further her career !

Dinosaurs roam this forum obviously......it's no wonder the average age at a speedway meeting looks like it's about 70 plus judging by the attitudes displayed on here... Charlie Webster is right...the other 3 patrons who have resigned are right, including a male, the sponsors are right....And especially since the Ched Evans media release Sheffield Utd are wrong... And Charlie Webster is currently at the 02 doing interviews and features with the tennis players at the ATP finals...her career is already going ok....I think she's better off without speedway and its supporters to be honest.

Ched Evans has never once shown any remorse , never once apologised, never once mentioned the girls family, or the girl herself.....that is more as to why people are against him playing again If he had actually shown some remorse and been apologetic then people may have supported him in an attempt to play again....the fact he hasn't is quite appalling and that is why most people are against him playing again.

She's a speedway person and it's posted in the speedway discussions bit so it's in the right section I would say I think she's very good outside of speedway and actually gets far too much stick when she's doing the speedway.....I think she might move on from speedway now as she has plenty of other things going on... Sophie Blake appears to be getting more air time again and she'd be a good replacement wouldn't she ?....if they need one

To be fair to Peter Johns I think he's more than a fad...he was doing bikes for riders like Todd Wiltshire and Craig Boyce about 25 years ago ..so a long fad ! Seriously though , there are fads and if something is seen as successful then others want to try it and tuners come in and out of fashion... I remember Carl Blomfeldt being the man when Ermolenko was at the top...everybody wanted Blomfeldt tuned engines..there was a fad for using German tuners...I think even riders who knew their stuff , like Sean Wilson used Lattenhammer.....the cost must have been horrendous and by all accounts it's still going on...

I remember as a kid even world champions turned up in cars, the Citroen Safari seemed to be the car of choice, with a bike strapped to the back and all the tools and accessories in the back......imagine that now !...that was only in the late 70's and early 80's. I think the only van I ever saw was Ivan Mauger's and the kids loved it....a van !.....all sign written as well...brilliant Then Kenny Carter had that huge massive motor home that could never fit in the pits...sponsored by the Ham brothers I think before they took over Bradford....that was a huge thing and must have done about 2 miles to the gallon !! ... When was the last time you ever saw a car with a speedway bike with name cover on the back.....

£400 to paint a helmet !.....some riders don't half waste money.. I can't see a standard engine ever being brought in worldwide....most professional sports get dictated to from the very top and there are too many vested interests involved for that to be brought in....these GP riders are running 9 or 10 bikes , all professionally tuned...they aren't going to give that up easily regardless of whether the sport as a whole would benefit.. I've always been amazed at the money some riders spent which never needed to be spent....going back to when my brother in law rode he did a full British League season on one bike and one engine...it didn't look fancy and I saw him hammering rocker arms straight in my garage to save a few quid...he drove a knackered old van to meetings that riders took the Mickey out of...he did all the bike maintenance himself.....at the same time I saw junior riders getting engines back from Otto Lattenhammer at ridiculous expense, wear the flashiest of leathers, the smartest looking bikes....I cringed at their outgoings and their was no real need for it at their level at the time I do think costs need to be cut but while the GP riders are earning what they earn and run 10 bikes at the same time then they will call the shots and nothing will really happen

I remember Carl Fogarty winning his first World Superbike title in Australia, in the last race of the season.. I've no problem with the last race being there...Melbourne is a great sporting city, I've been to the Etiihad and its a great stadium and the pricing for tickets looks really good...they could turn this into a fantastic spectacle to crown a World Champ and the whole stadium and city and the whole package can only be beneficial to speedway as a knock on down the line. I think with that pricing and with lots of local advertising then they can get a crowd that will at least look good on TV and anything that LOOKS as if it's popular on TV always has a chance of creating new fans.. As for the GP's impact on British speedway...I don't think they have had a major impact at all....when my brother in law rode in Britain nobody rode in the Polish League and very few in the Swedish League...everybody rode in the British League...the Polish League was just opening itself up to the world and started paying silly money and riders started to go....the foreign leagues have grown incredibly since and it's those leagues that have stopped riders riding here.....if it was just the GP's on some Saturday's then I think all of them would be riding in England....but it's not , it's the GP's, the Polish League, the Swedish League....plenty of money to be made and unfortunately Britain suffers, but that's more due to the growth of the other leagues than the GP's which remain a great advert for the sport.

I don't know what the answer is , but for a play off semi final to be run with 7 guest riders has to be a farce... I am a big fan of play offs in principle....I have been to an AFL Grand Final in Australia where a team finishing 8th can be the champions...but it's the best day in Australia...it works.... People who have been to Old Trafford for the Rugby League grand final tell me it's a fantastic day...the NRL in Australia works...the Super Bowl....Rugby Union.....play offs work... But I'm now not too sure about speedway and play offs...whereby the other sports have play offs competed for by the squads who have played the whole season speedway is so open to injuries and the weather that it doesn't seem fair for a semi or a final to be competed for with teams full of other teams riders who have played no part in getting that far and often on a track totally unfit for racing...other sports with play offs don't have these problems and so while I love the idea of play offs in speedway in principle I don't think that practically they work I have defended play offs in speedway but , especially after the past week or so, I am changing my mind

You're on a hiding to nothing if you totally ignore the views of people who don't actually attend in person....if you don't you are just preaching to the converted and the problem is that the converted are becoming less and less each year... The sport should be looking as to why crowds are declining..looking as why previous diehards have stopped coming and not just dismiss their views...all this as well as actually trying to attract new younger fans as well.... There are hundreds and thousands of ex speedway fans out there,many ex Belle Vue fans and their views shouldn't be dismissed as counting for nothing..they stopped coming for reasons If Belle Vue get this right they can attract many old fans back out purely of interest and curiosity and if the track is good and the product is good and speedway gets its house in order format wise then many might stay...it's a big chance, certainly for Belle Vue......one they wouldn't get at Kirky Lane......but it also needs speedway to get its act together around the country as well.

What's the giste of it ?

To be fair I hardly ever buy the Star these days as I don't go to speedway and am not involved at all so really no need to buy it.. But I must admit to flicking through it in WH Smith and I think the quality of its production is good and the £2.90 price is pretty good for a magazine these days and the fact it is still there when hundreds of magazines have folded is great credit to all concerned and seeing it on prominent display each week in WH Smith is still a good advert for the sport.

I don't think Speedway Star wants to be too upsetting to,promoters in the fear of being banned from being sold at tracks whereby I assume a good amount of sales are still raised...hence it tends to be reporting based rather than opinion based and I like to read opinions to be honest. My old gripe with the Star was that it was always a bit too Southern biased and that certain riders were very close to them and got a lot of publicity and everything whereas riders who weren't in the Star's " clique" barely got a mention....that's a long time ago so no idea if it's still the same so I can't comment on that. The Speedway Mail certainly didn't have the same quality about it but it certainly never had the same southern bias or clique of riders the Star had....having a northern based photographer in Ken Carpenter helped in that regard for sure. Having said all that you have to congratulate the Star for still being here as virtually every magazine I've liked has folded alongside many others

Ward's a knob.

Probably a lot of the Eastern European riders from that era were never as highly regarded worldwide as they maybe should have been, in total contrast to today and the totally open speedway world we have.... For instance I only saw Glucklich ride once live in one of my early matches at Hyde Road.....for Reading ?......and he didn't score a point and I never saw him again...or thought of him again to be honest until this thread.... He was obviously one of many East European riders never really allowed to thrive on the world stage but quite a handful in their own backyard....how times have changed now RIP

Whether it's a game or a sport is open to debate but in my opinion it is far more entertaining and watchable than present day speedway ...it's a fantastic game to play and to watch, either live or on TV and I can't always say that about speedway these days

If it's just about a racing incident then there was certainly no need for I'm clean comment at the end of it....too cryptic and full of innuendo for me .... I remember rumours for years about certain riders doing the rounds but that was before Twitter etc ..it's so easy to pop a comment on Twitter now without any thought...not always healthy in the heat of the moment..some rumours I heard years ago were so far off the mark it was ridiculous but at least there wasn't twitter for them to get out of hand... I do remember Rob Pfetzing's wife being hysterical in the bar once about her husband being constantly targeted for drugs tests ...she was irate in a very American way, quite funny...don't know if he was targeted because of gossip like she said but I don't think he ever failed one did he

I honestly don't think I would have become such a speedway fan if Hyde Road wasn't the track that I started going to as a school kid...that was the only track I knew for a good while so I didn't know any different and thought all speedway tracks were like that....it was a good while later we started going away and soon realised I was spoilt by watching speedway at Hyde Road every week .. It was a great track when at its best, although there were plenty of dreadful races as well when you look back, especially when some of the smaller tracks making their annual visit came to town....they just didn't have the speed to compete and it led to many one sided affairs Even top riders sometimes took a while to adjust and quite often started the meeting well but faded badly as the track took it's toll on their engine, but good riders soon learned it and their battles with the likes of Collins and Morton were memorable.. Hans Nielsen always rode too much of an inside line for ages at Hyde Road and would always be picked off with ease...later on he completely mastered the track and became almost unbeatable there.. Kenny Carter 's visits were always a highlight...Halifax were generally pretty poor but Carter wasn't and he was fast...and he usually won....great atmosphere though Erik Gundersen in many ways was the most spectacular there as I have never seen a rider ride Hyde Road so wide...he usually did it from the front though but he looked like he was shaking hands with the crowd he was so wide....and he was in the last ever race at Hyde Road,,but he didn't win it as fittingly Chris Morton did... Ole Olsen's visits were a highlight..he was fast and the crowd used to love to boo him...all except Soldier Boy who loved Olsen as I recall...I remember Olsen winning a second half final and coming over the crowd to give Soldier Boy his trophy.....great days Oh..and I remember visiting Belle Vue zoo and a monkey nicking my dad's glasses off his nose through the bars and running off with them...when the keeper got them back they were a mangled mess.....happy days indeed ...