Grachan

How about Leo Sayer? He could sing: 'I won't let the show go on', and everone will go home because they'll think the rest of the show's not going to go on. Then they could do the 'Speedway' rap record, and when it says: 'I'm a player. I'm not Leo Sayer' he could grab the mic and say: 'Ah, but I am' and we could all cheer like crazy kids.

Alright. The bloke who did Errol Brown then. Did you know he actually ended up as lead singer for Hot Chocolate? What about Natilie Casey? She could do 'Chick chick chick chick chicken. Lay a little egg for me.'

I'd prefer to pay £30 and her not be there. Can't they get the bloke who did Chis De Burgh on Stars in their eyes. He'd be good.

Why, the Budge of course.

It's a rocking good way to start the GP. Maybe she'll get Shakey up on stage with her. If they are looking for a Welsh act they should have gone for Budgie. It would have probably emptied the stadium, but I'd have enjoyed it!

More than Briggo did by the end of the night.

You know how it is. You have to keep an open mind on these things.

The reasons he wasn't excluded was because it was on the first bend and the ref was an idiot. One of the most blatent pieces of dirty riding ever and it ended Briggo's career as a World Class rider.

This one from 1950 on ebay. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SWINDON-v-TAMWORTH-6...1QQcmdZViewItem

I couldn't bear to see an 'edit' note on a one line post. It had to go!

Dunno. (Just so you don't think people are ignoring you!)

I saw Swindon beat Halifax 61-16 in 1976. David Ashbby had a last place and Geoff Bouchard had a third if I remember rightly. Other than that it was all maximums, and after 8 heats Halifax had just 7 points!

Article and pictures here: http://www.diamondsmcc.org.uk/profilesoffroad.html Also, get a load of this from http://www.motorcycle-uk.com/vsm/jessie.html Fay Taylour, of course, persisted and became very good, racing successfully on two wheels and four. But how did she get her rides if, as Jessie insists, she was disliked so much by 'The Boy's'? According to Jessie she was not above using her womanly whiles - her sexuality? - to get bookings. 'She always used to be at all the parties - she was a favourite at all the tracks,' says Jessie. What sort of parties, exactly, were those, then? 'Well,' says Jessie, 'after a dirt-track meeting there was all sorts!. It was the Roaring Twenties, you know!' But both Jessie, and Bill Douglas, of the famous motorcycle manufacturing family, deny that Fay used out-and-out sexual favours to get rides. 'She didn't mix with the riders,' says Jessie, 'they didn't like her. It was the bigwigs, the owners of the stadiums, and people like that, she used to mix with. They were the people with the money.' Ooo-err!

Canada - Shawn Venables

I've read quite a lot about her over the years. As soon as I saw the title I though it had to be a Faye Taylor thread! It seems she was the one female that has actually been on a par with her male compatriats in Speedway.

Worth getting. People say the 1981 World Final was special, but watch out for the 1972 Final! Very dramatic! I went to the 1975 Final too. Was devestated that Martin Ashby didn't get a ride when Ray Wilson (I think) touched the tapes. I also remember there was a bomb scare which everyone ignored and I recall being right at the back of the stand on the 3/4th bends and being unable to see anything. I sneaked round and into the seating area on the back straight and perched on the end of a bench for a whie before sneaking right down to the front in the aisle. Nobody stopped me. Another amazing thing if you watch those old finals is how often the referee keeps the race going despite a rider (normally Ivan Mauger!!) lying prostrate on the track.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WORLD-INDIVIDUAL-SPE...1QQcmdZViewItem

For me it's GB all the way. For example, in the World Cup I never for a second wanted Leigh Adams to beat any British riders. In the World Championship, though, I feel differently. It's an individual thing, and in a GP I'd pick Adams over Nicholls any time. It's just how I feel. Follow your heart. That's all you can do.

Not sure what sort of crowd they'll get, though, on a Tuesday night sandwiched between Reading home and way.

Or click HERE.

They are 650cc bikes and have no brakes. Also, the track is oval, similar to our racing. It is, effectively, their version of Speedway. They used to have conventional speedway but this is the way it has evolved.

Just click on a race number to watch it - eg 1R is race one, 2R is race two and so on.

Loose dirt tracks were actually banned in Japan in the 60s for being too dangerous! Amazing when you watch some of their game shows. I've been to a couple of meetings in Japan. The Stadium in Kawaguchii would be brilliant for a GP, but the tracks are pretty long and very wide. I think, if they could get to host a GP there, it would be a massive success. The Japanese love everything Western. All they'd need is get a few riders on the telly and the Japanese girls would be screaming their heads off at them when they arrived at the airport! You can read my own little account of my Autorace vistis HERE.

Taken from here: http://speedwaybikes.fortunecity.net/cole.htm 'Howard Cole Senior had produced a number of mini-speedway bikes for his motorcycle mad son, Howard Cole Junior. The first of these, produced in the 1940s, was a perfect scale replica of a post-war speedway chassis, right down to the miniature Webb forks. The most interesting feature of the bike though was the "lay-down" engine, a good forty years ahead of its time. Howard Junior was the mascot at Birmingham and Wolverhampton speedway in the 40s and 50s, and would ride his mini-bikes wearing full leathers and a helmet bearing his initial "GHC" (his full name was George Howard Cole). Howard junior progressed to full size bikes and actually took to the track at the age of 15 under the assumed name of "Kid Bodie". '

My mum, dad and brother went, but I went to Reading Festival and Betamaxed it off World of Sport while I was there. Then watched it when I came back and had the house to myself for the best part of two weeks.