Post by Administrator on May 23, 2010 9:17:22 GMT
Have you seen the new issue of Backtrack magazine – now in full colour throughout!
Look what’s in Issue 38...
KELVIN TATUM – exclusive interview
England’s last World Cup-winning captain on pressure, regrets, coping with autism and much more.
The former Wimbledon and Coventry star and now SKY Sports TV commentator lifts the lid on his eventful career, which also took in later spells with Berwick, Bradford, London Lions and Arena-Essex.
He talks about his youthful naivety when starting out at Wimbledon in 1983: “When I signed for Wimbledon in 1983, I had no idea how much money speedway riders earned. I first rode for 4 and 8 - £4 per start and £8 per point - and was paid nothing upfront. I remember Maido telling me what they were offering and I said to him: ‘Really? What, you’re going to pay me?’”
Read about his mixed experiences with Coventry, were he won back-to-back league titles in the late 80s, and his uneasy relationship with Bees’ boss Charles Ochiltree: “I knew where I stood with Ochiltree. He always favoured Tommy Knudsen and I knew it would be a struggle to have any influence at the club. We were two No.1s on 10-point averages and banging heads. We weren’t mates but our rivalry inspired each other and it was also good for Coventry.”
In only his third season of racing, Kelvin rode in all three World Championship finals – individual, team and pairs – which brought pressures he now admits he found very difficult to handle: “I was hugely nervous and worried quite a bit. I’m quite a twitchy character when I’m under pressure and 1985 ratcheted it up massively. In hindsight, if I’m being selfish, I needed more time out of that limelight before I was genuinely ready for it. Mentally, I wasn’t strong enough to cope with all that.”
The 1989 World Team Cup-winning skipper recalls the difficulties of leading the national side: “The BSPA were short-sighted. A successful national team would have brought the sport more national publicity and led to more people coming through the turnstiles. If they had just dipped into their pockets a little bit and given more help with things like hotels and travel, it would have made a difference.”
He admits, too, that he was never the most popular or charismatic rider in the eyes of his fellow riders and supporters.
“I definitely wasn’t well liked by my fellow England riders but they respected me. I wasn’t in the clique and I think they saw me as being different from them – public school educated, slightly posh and a bit up himself.
“They (the fans) probably found me a bit miserable, a bit distant and a bit arrogant maybe. I was there to do a job to the best of my ability and that didn’t always make me the most approachable human being in the world. A lot of supporters probably looked at me as just a miserable bugger.”
Kelvin also talks candidly about the struggles he and his devoted wife Debbie have had bringing up their autistic son, Oliver, now 19.
KELLY MORAN REMEMBERED
Following Kelly Moran’s sad death on April 10 after his long battle against lung and liver disease, more of the Jelly Man’s former team-mates, rivals and friends pay tribute to him and recall their favourite stories about the hugely popular American who leaves behind a rich tapestry of memories.
BRUCE PENHALL COLUMN
BP is back with an emotionally poignant piece about Kelly Moran and spending time with his former USA Test team-mate in his last days and hours in California.
SIMMO’S COLUMN
In typically forthright style, the former England No.1 expresses his personal view that what the fun-loving Americans brought to the party was not always a good thing for British speedway.
BILLY SANDERS REMEMBERED
On the 25th anniversary of the former Australian star’s death, our lead columnist John Berry – the man who brought ‘The Kid’ to Ipswich in 1972 – writes about the impact Billy’s suicide had on him and others, and also explains why he has decided to abandon thoughts of writing a book on Billy.
STAN BEAR – exclusive interview
We track down the former Weymouth and Poole star in his native Brisbane, where he looks back on his brief but successful time in England in the mid-80s.
WORLD FINAL FLASHPOINTS
To coincide with the rlease of our new World Finals of the 70s DVD, Peter Collins looks back at the first of our ‘flashpoint’ moments from past finals when he recalls having a ‘grandstand view’ of Heat 19 of the 1973 World Final, and why he believes Zenon Plech was robbed of a place in the run-off alongside Jerzy Szczakiel and Ivan Mauger.
WILKIE AND IVAN BOOK EXTRACTS
We’ve an extract from the new Alan Wilkinson book, including a heart-rending account of the Belle Vue skipper’s heroic battle to cope with his disability. Plus, Ivan Mauger recalls some unusually barren years in an excerpt from his forthcoming book, The Will To Win.
RADFORD TRAVELS
Our intrepid scribe reviews past trips to Reading, Rochdale, Romford, Rybnik, Rye House, San Bernardino, Scunthorpe, Sheffield, Skien, Smederna, Stoke and Sunderland.
Plus...
We’ve Q&As with Duncan Meredith and Gene Woods, we find out what happened to Vic Cross, there’s a look back at England’s 1980 World Pairs victory, plus your letters and even more besides.
To subscribe in the UK for just £17.50 a year (6 issues) or £24 (Europe), £32 Rest of World, go to:
www.retro-speedway.com
Look what’s in Issue 38...
KELVIN TATUM – exclusive interview
England’s last World Cup-winning captain on pressure, regrets, coping with autism and much more.
The former Wimbledon and Coventry star and now SKY Sports TV commentator lifts the lid on his eventful career, which also took in later spells with Berwick, Bradford, London Lions and Arena-Essex.
He talks about his youthful naivety when starting out at Wimbledon in 1983: “When I signed for Wimbledon in 1983, I had no idea how much money speedway riders earned. I first rode for 4 and 8 - £4 per start and £8 per point - and was paid nothing upfront. I remember Maido telling me what they were offering and I said to him: ‘Really? What, you’re going to pay me?’”
Read about his mixed experiences with Coventry, were he won back-to-back league titles in the late 80s, and his uneasy relationship with Bees’ boss Charles Ochiltree: “I knew where I stood with Ochiltree. He always favoured Tommy Knudsen and I knew it would be a struggle to have any influence at the club. We were two No.1s on 10-point averages and banging heads. We weren’t mates but our rivalry inspired each other and it was also good for Coventry.”
In only his third season of racing, Kelvin rode in all three World Championship finals – individual, team and pairs – which brought pressures he now admits he found very difficult to handle: “I was hugely nervous and worried quite a bit. I’m quite a twitchy character when I’m under pressure and 1985 ratcheted it up massively. In hindsight, if I’m being selfish, I needed more time out of that limelight before I was genuinely ready for it. Mentally, I wasn’t strong enough to cope with all that.”
The 1989 World Team Cup-winning skipper recalls the difficulties of leading the national side: “The BSPA were short-sighted. A successful national team would have brought the sport more national publicity and led to more people coming through the turnstiles. If they had just dipped into their pockets a little bit and given more help with things like hotels and travel, it would have made a difference.”
He admits, too, that he was never the most popular or charismatic rider in the eyes of his fellow riders and supporters.
“I definitely wasn’t well liked by my fellow England riders but they respected me. I wasn’t in the clique and I think they saw me as being different from them – public school educated, slightly posh and a bit up himself.
“They (the fans) probably found me a bit miserable, a bit distant and a bit arrogant maybe. I was there to do a job to the best of my ability and that didn’t always make me the most approachable human being in the world. A lot of supporters probably looked at me as just a miserable bugger.”
Kelvin also talks candidly about the struggles he and his devoted wife Debbie have had bringing up their autistic son, Oliver, now 19.
KELLY MORAN REMEMBERED
Following Kelly Moran’s sad death on April 10 after his long battle against lung and liver disease, more of the Jelly Man’s former team-mates, rivals and friends pay tribute to him and recall their favourite stories about the hugely popular American who leaves behind a rich tapestry of memories.
BRUCE PENHALL COLUMN
BP is back with an emotionally poignant piece about Kelly Moran and spending time with his former USA Test team-mate in his last days and hours in California.
SIMMO’S COLUMN
In typically forthright style, the former England No.1 expresses his personal view that what the fun-loving Americans brought to the party was not always a good thing for British speedway.
BILLY SANDERS REMEMBERED
On the 25th anniversary of the former Australian star’s death, our lead columnist John Berry – the man who brought ‘The Kid’ to Ipswich in 1972 – writes about the impact Billy’s suicide had on him and others, and also explains why he has decided to abandon thoughts of writing a book on Billy.
STAN BEAR – exclusive interview
We track down the former Weymouth and Poole star in his native Brisbane, where he looks back on his brief but successful time in England in the mid-80s.
WORLD FINAL FLASHPOINTS
To coincide with the rlease of our new World Finals of the 70s DVD, Peter Collins looks back at the first of our ‘flashpoint’ moments from past finals when he recalls having a ‘grandstand view’ of Heat 19 of the 1973 World Final, and why he believes Zenon Plech was robbed of a place in the run-off alongside Jerzy Szczakiel and Ivan Mauger.
WILKIE AND IVAN BOOK EXTRACTS
We’ve an extract from the new Alan Wilkinson book, including a heart-rending account of the Belle Vue skipper’s heroic battle to cope with his disability. Plus, Ivan Mauger recalls some unusually barren years in an excerpt from his forthcoming book, The Will To Win.
RADFORD TRAVELS
Our intrepid scribe reviews past trips to Reading, Rochdale, Romford, Rybnik, Rye House, San Bernardino, Scunthorpe, Sheffield, Skien, Smederna, Stoke and Sunderland.
Plus...
We’ve Q&As with Duncan Meredith and Gene Woods, we find out what happened to Vic Cross, there’s a look back at England’s 1980 World Pairs victory, plus your letters and even more besides.
To subscribe in the UK for just £17.50 a year (6 issues) or £24 (Europe), £32 Rest of World, go to:
www.retro-speedway.com