"What a fantastic time we had back in 1968, us lads at the then Canterbury Motor Cycle Club were commandeered to help build the fence round the track. I can remember nailing the boards to the posts and then painting them white. and how lucky I thought I was to be asked to stand behind the bikes at the start of each race ( all old Japs at that time). I remember one evening when Ken Vale had a problem with his clutch, he shouted to me "quick hold on on to my bike and let me go as soon as the tapes go up". I must have got it right as he won the race and gave me the thumbs up as him came by. WONDERFUL GREAT MEMORIES."
"Yes I remember you Shelley, my Dad was friends with your Dad, we have been to many away days together. I started going to Hackney back in 1975 when we were the Hawks, those were amazing days - Dave Morton, Keith White, Zenon Plech (RIP). One thing always reminds me of those days - every time I hear the magnificent seven play."
"Great article as always Tracy but we should mention Viktor Kuznetsov's brilliant 1986 World final effort of 10 points and 5th equal. Outscoring the defending champ Gunderson, Shirra, Morton and Ermolenko."
"I used to Love the Speedway In Norwich. My friends farther used to take me as I had no Dad to go with. We stopped going when it moved to Kings Lynn, and I now live in Australia and still remember those Saturday nights, the noise, smells and excitement. Sometimes I wish we could go back to those days. I used to hear the bands playing in the clubhouse after the racing,and it gave me a taste for playing guitar, which I do now in Australia and I've had some success with a band we formed here in Australia.When I was young, I wanted to either be a Speedway rider or a Rock Star, I guess I managed to achieve the latter!"
"I appreciate some Speedway is better than no Speedway but the viewing at this track must be terrible. The fans must surely feel somewhat removed from the action?"
"Glen - spot on re landlords and the lack of foresight by promoters back in the days. I worked in the City for a good many years, and well remember in 1975 at the bottom of the market then after over two years of decline, that shares in the GRA could be purchased for just 16p each. They owned not only Wembley, but Harringay and White City, and a few other provincial stadia.
Speedway was booming at that time, and it wasn't beyond the realms of reality that the most successful promoters, or indeed the BSPA as an entity, could have got their heads together and started buying stakes in certain stadiums, as it was property investments that collapsed the most between 1972 and 1975. All hindsight now of course, but what a firmer footing it would have put the sport on."
"Speedway in the U.K. has been held back by being at the whim of private landlords. Community owned stadia such as in Poland, Sweden and Denmark you see a totally different approach to the sport which is there for the benefit of all. Our boom times were never transferred into property ownership as promoters were happy to take money out of the sport and could operate meetings with little investment. Maybe it gave us here a false sense of quite how big the sport was back in the 70's but as times changed so did people's expectations and sadly those that ran the sport didn't or couldn't adapt."
