Mr. Clemens

The way I have read it is that Rickardsson was cutting back his committments by not riding in the UK in order to spend more time with his children. Also that he cut back his backroom staff from 12 to 2 people. The indication being that he was 'winding down' and taking a more relaxed approach to his riding overall. This is not to imply that he wasn't and isn't interested in equalling or overtaking Mauger's record. Just that he might well have realised that the 'harder' he went at it the less likely it would happen. Taking a relaxed approach towards reaching his goal might pay totally unexpected dividends, which it has. The result, a more relaxed rider riding for the sheer joy of it finding himself riding better than he has done previously. Tony has been a joy to watch and it's not his fault others can't keep up with him. Off gate 3 in heat 9 TR was behind the other 3 riders cut up the inside as they drifted towards the fence and was gone!! Brilliant. As for the clash with Nicky the ref called it 'all 4 riders in the rerun'. The track was choppy early on in the meeting so he might or might not have lost some control of the bike at that time. Either way my view of Pedersen is that in due course he too can become a multiple world champion. What he has to do is concentrate on racing in a manner where he will win races and GP's. As Uncle Sam has said, in effect, that Nicky concentrates more on baulking other riders to prevent them winning rather than riding the race to win it himself. If that is true or not is the great debate. I think the decision on the Lindback / Pedersen clash was clear cut and was surprised that there was debate on it on TV and that excluding Lindback was a 'controversial decision'. As for Crump, right from the off in the 1st GP it struck me that 'the crown sat uneasy on the head of the king'. Perhaps being world champion wasn't what he thought it was going to be. I also think that Crump has issues with various folk in speedway for reasons I, and I think 'we', don't know about. In all of the GP's i have watched I thought that when he was in a leading position the way he rode was more conducive to not winning the race than it was to winning it. This is not to judge Crump harshly as he is 'my kind of rider'. I just think that he's not a 'happy chappy' at all and hasn't been from the start. I would go so far to say that he is disenchanted with speedway. I would even take that further and suggest that Crump might pull out of the GP's much in the same manner that Loram and Hamill have previously. Crump in my opinion could in fact retire from speedway altogether at some point not too far away in the future. Was it an 'omen' of things to come when he fell off of his bike riding round the track in 2004 when he realised he was in fact world champion? And yes I think that this has been a dull series of GP's I was less than thrilled watching the 1st GP despite TR's brilliant 21 point maximum. It's up to those who organise the GP's to get the formula right to ensure a competitive series. All the same look out for TR being just as dominant in 2006 as he is now. My reading of the scores thus far is that Crump can only score up to 166 points. With TR being on 145 then if he wins the next GP Tony will be world champion.

I thought that Mauger was a 'self interested' rider. His comments in the Sun newspaper indicated that he didn't think that Rickardsson had the opposition to test him as a rider in this Grand Prix series. I am sure that presented with such an argument Mauger would have said 'you can only beat those who are on the track'. I recall a 'celebration dinner' of some sort being advertised in the Speedway Star at a hotel, I believe in Manchester, back in the 1970's probably. We bought tickets to go there and on our arrival with a number of other supporters we were informed at the door it was a private function to which supporters were not invited. We were allowed in however as it was shown that we all had a 'right' to be there. It was evident, however, to all of us that we were not really welcome. It was obvious the riders in attendance thought it was supposed to be a private function. At a certain point in the evening we were invited to speak with the riders who were sat at a long table. As we walked down the line eventually I was face to face with Mauger and said to him 'though I am not a fan of yours I wish to compliment you on your successes in speedway that I think are well deserved'. I might as well not really have bothered as Mauger had beforehand fixed his gaze somewhere in the distance and made no reaction to my comments, so i moved on down the line. I noticed everyone else got the same response from him too. The other riders though not 'best suited' that we were there spoke to the supporters and responded to what was said to them. This incident 'confirmed' to me that Mauger was a man of single minded purpose determined to achieve goals that he had in mind. There is nothing wrong with this as everyone has a 'game plan' but for me his way of achieving his goals were in contradiction to the ethos of speedway being a 'family sport'. My impression was that Mauger's attitude was 'what can speedway do for me rather than what can I do for speedway. In other words Mauger wasn't the kind of rider who most people naturally wanted to support. A Sheffield supporter I knew always insisted on pronouncing Ivan's surname as Moger instead of Major, despite the fact that I pointed out to him that it wasn't spelled as Moger either. I would also go as far as to say that Rickardsson is more aware of how to present himself to the public. He always comes across as magnaminous in victory and defeat. Willing to talk to the public (not during racing at Grand Prixs which I for one think he has every right not to do so) and comes across as a genuine lover of speedway as a sport. I agree with those who said Mauger was great from the gate which no one can deny. I saw him in one British League Riders final, I don't know what year it was but I do recall that Jack Parker was sat 2 rows behind us on the back straight as the stadium announcer pinpointed where he was sat. In one race Mauger ducked down as the tapes went up and was on the first bend before the other 3 riders had moved off the line. This goes down as the finest example of gating I have ever seen. As for rolling at the gate everyone was at it in those days. We christened one certain rider 'Rolling Rider Eide'. I also agree that when he missed the gate that Mauger didn't find it easy coming from the back as low scores in various prestigious meetings indicate. You often drew the conclusion that if Ivan wasn't winning he wasn't interested. As for the argument of how many titles a rider would have won if they had have rode in another time period etc, and therefore who is the 'greatest rider'. I was discussing this with my nephew and we agreed that it's an argument that can never be proven. My conclusion was that whichever period the world champions had rode in Mauger would have won 6 titles Fundin 5 Rickardsson 5 (thus far as nothing is certain till it's all over) and the rest down the line. I recall going to Sweden in 1977 and the general opinion was the Mauger had no chance of winning that year. He had not won since 1972 and looked to most a 'hasbeen'. Nevertheless I said to those on our coach that my gut instinct was that he would be world champion at the end of the evening. My instinct was that Mauger was quite happy that each and all had written him off as a prospective world champion. Very much in the same manner that in the 1972 world final Mauger wore black leathers (a pair he bought off of Eric Boocock if memory serves me correctly) to blend in with the east european riders who were regarded as also rans in that final, he was happy to be regarded as an also ran in the 1977 world final. If you like Mauger or you don't his achievements demand respect and he has mine whether it is a grudging respect or not. Whichever way you want to look at it 'fate' dealt him 6 world titles. Fate appears to be handing Rickardsson number 6 too. I like Rickardsson and acknowlege him as a great world champion which he is. In his own way Ivan Mauger is a great world champion too. In this speedway 'town' there is room for 2 great world champions. In fact there is room for all the great world champions and the not so great too. All of them in fact.

I was an active follower of speedway between 1972 - 1987 attending meetings on a weekly basis at Halifax and Sheffield Speedway tracks. Since watching sky sports my interest has been rekindled (though it was never lost) and in recent months I have begun attending meetings again accompanied by my nephew. We consider ourselves as trackless supporters visiting tracks and meetings as the mood takes us. Having never seen conference league racing and with Scunthorpe within 1 hour of our home town we decided to pay the track a visit. We enjoyed our first meeting and decided to go see the under 15's riding there today 3rd July. Being aware of the importance of young riders coming through the various training courses and succeeding as professional riders was our motivation to go watch these young people ride. The reason I was motivated to join this site and make comment was that we were priveleged to observe what we thought was a most impressive moment which took place this afternoon and for my nephew and I the highlight of the day. In the first race the rider in green named Witman happened to fall coming out of the first bend the rider in blue immediately behind him Brendan Johnson laid down his bike instantly. I observed to my nephew that the way he laid down his bike was has expertly done in a manner has to rank with any laying down of a bike that I had seen in all my time watching racing. This event brought to mind an incident at Halifax where the leading rider fell and one after the other the 3 other rides laid down their bikes in a manner reminiscent of synchronised swimming. What you might call 'poetry in motion'. An unforgettable moment that for us was Johnson's achievement this afternoon and as I said the highlight of our day out. I read in the speedway star in the last year or so that one columnist stated that it seemed that the art of laying down a bike seemed to be lost to this generation of riders. In the opinion of myself and my nephew Brendan Johnson certainly understood that art. It is not unreasonable to say that if Johnson had not laid down his bike instinctively and instantly that he would have most certainly run into Witman, something that I think Johnson was fully aware of himself hence his expert laying down of his machine. We then decided that Johnson was the rider we were going to support this afternoon. Unfortunately he didn't score in his first 3 races but managed 2 second places. Overall we were very impressed by the young riders on show. We had to keep reminding ourselves that these lads were under 15 because when watching them ride it was natural to see them as aged 17 +. Josh Auty was flawless in his performance and Jarvis, Hopwood and Ben Taylor performed well as they got used to the track and there was some genuine competitive racing taking place as the meeting went on. Ben Taylor had an impressive style indicating that he knew how to move his body around on the bike when entering particularly the third bend (we were stood in the middle of the back straight). The fact that we were given a fine dusting of shale every race didn't detract from our enjoyment of the meeting. This was our first visit to see under 15 racing. Kudos to all the riders they did very well and we would have no hesitation in going to see them again at some point.