Grachan

In which case I won't bother to ask it!

Aha! Would that be why he wasn't in the 1966 World Final then? Or is that too obvious a question?

Just been reading about Ove Fundin not riding in the British League in 1966 due to a ban. Anyone know why he was banned? Something to do with being a Johnny Foreigner perhaps? Seems to have been quite a lot of resistance to overseas riders at that time.

Wasn't there a general superstition about not wearing green as it was supposed to be unlucky - hence Wiggy being one of only a few riders to wear it?

If I remember rightly they used the running track, which would presumably make it 400 metres.

Swindon's track record in 1975 was around 69.4 I think. I remember Martin Ashby getting the track record at 69.6 in the first ever meeting I went to. It's all a bit vague, but it was around that mark.

I agree. All the problems we are getting now are due to the demise of the monkey mask. It was always quite a moment when a rider (usually Dave Jessup) pulled it down around his neck after a race or (in the case of Jessup) an engine failure. I remember Norman Hunter doing it once. A moustache-tastic moment.

I was wondering when riders stopped wearing black leathers as the norm and started wearing different coloured leathers. I'm guessing that black was still normal when Mike Broadbank(s) and Nigel Boocock wore red and blue respectively, otherwise they wouldn't have been given the nicknames "the red devil" and "little boy blue". Maybe they started the trend though. I've seen a picture of Barry Briggs from about 1968 with stripes down the arms of his leathers. Pretty unusual for the time. And what about leathers outside the boots instead of inside? I seem to remember John Davis doign this when he first rode for reading and causing a bit of a stir. Here's another one. Who was the last rider to still wear a monkey mask rather than full face helmet?

Oh yes!!!

And Johnny Marr of The Smiths is in fact a fan of Belle Vue. Morrisey later wrote a song about him called "Speedway".

That's the seventies one, Moxey. I used to be able to recite that off by heart like the Lord's Prayer.

So, were 6 & 7 still reserves or was it just no 7?

Oh for heaven's sake everyone. This is like one of those Christmas quizzes. Bob Paulson is my guess.

Canterbury 1974 Canterbury/Weymouth 1975.

Well, you both put the same thing so I reckon you must be right! I nearly had it. Got the home team right, but had heats 12 and 13 down as 3/5 and 3/4 but knew it couldn't be right! So number 7 did only have 2 rides then. That confused me a bit too. Thanks.

It's 13 heats, 7 per team. Possibly no 6 having 4 rides and number 7 having 2 rides? Can't be sure though.

Does anyone know the 13 heat race formula for the sixties. Looking through old Speedway Stars it looks different to how it was in the seventies. Yes, I know I could probably work it out for myself by going through the heats but I tried that and got all confused.

Not very well disguised - those hints. Sussed out immediately who you meant. I think it would be a good thing if a rider was openly gay as it would break down a barrier that exists. People say it doesn't matter, but to a lot of gay people it probably does. To have a gay role model would be both good for them and for the sport as it wou. ld probably publicise it to a whole new community. Unfortunately, you only have to look at the type of abuse that gets posted whenever such a topic is brought up to understand any rider's reluctance to do so.

Chris HARRIS GREAT BRITAIN Andreas JONSSON SWEDEN Krzysztof KASPRZAK POLAND Frederik LINDGREN SWEDEN from www.speedwayworld.tv No real surprises there then.

I don't see what the problem is with drawing for gate positions before the run-off. They all finished level. Perfectly sensible way of doing it, as was having a run-off for the final qualification place. Speedway gets things wrong sometimes and deserves criticism, but if people are just going to complain about everything, then when there are legitimate things to complain about how can you expect people to take any notice?

Christ! That's a bit of an eyeful. I tried to read it but it turned into a 3-D picture of a dog. The racing in the GPs is normally pretty good to be fair.

I thought they made far too much of the $100,000 dollars last night. Personally I was no more than mildly interested in the amount of money that the winner of the meeting won, yet all they kept on about all evening was this $100,00- dollars. Great for the riders to try and win. From a fan's perspective - who gives a stuff. Would much rather they used the money towards getting a half decent track rather than one that tried to kill Hans Andersen. Were my ears deceiving me, or did Keith Huewen say near the end that it was one of the greatest sporting occaions of all time? And did they keep saying that the half empty stadium was a "packed house"? A very strange meeting for me, with a very flat atmosphere as far as the TV was concerned. I hoped to see Leigh Adams finish off with a win, but he fluffed it by trying to anticipate the start. Can't blame him, though, with the amount of passing the track produced. Worth a shot. Scott Nicholls definitely should have been excluded in the run-off, but to say he did it deliberately would surely be wrong because, under normal circumstances, bringing someone off deliberately would get you excluded. He was lucky to get away with it. A bit dull really. I alternated between speedway and rugby, and rugby won the day most of the times. And I don't even follow rugby.

There are more hints of Leigh possibly retiring in the Swindon Advertiser HERE. The Australian has seen his future in speedway discussed at length throughout the season, and he admitted that, at 36-years-old, he could be tempted to retire from Grand Prix racing after tonight. "I need to cut back somewhere but haven't decided where that would be. "So this could be my last Grand Prix.

My 6 year old daughter pointed to the cover of this month's Backtrack this morning. Having recently lost a few of her own teeth, she pointed to the picture of Mitch Shirra on the cover and asked: "Are those children's teeth or grown up teeth?" When I said they were grown up teeth as he was a grown up, she said: "It looks like a child."

Well, the 1982 World Final in the USA wasn't well attended. People were moved around the stadium to be in position for the TV camera's according to my parents, who went. Then there's the 1987(?) Amsterdam final, for which the attendence was embarrasingly bad. I know. I was one of the few there. Give me a choice between the 1981 world final and the GPs I'd take the World Final anytime. Give me a choice between Amsterdam World Final and I'd take the GP every time. I think that as soon as the World Final moved away from the Sweden, Britain, Poland roster then its days were numberd to be honest.