What do outsiders think of speedway – well this is what one columnist thought of speedway and its fans……..

“As I bring you this missive of malcontent from the Western Mail newsroom, a constant droning fills my head.

Surprisingly, this is not as a result of yet another Stella Artois-induced hangover, but the dulcet tones of speedway emanating from the nearby Millennium Stadium. Yes, it’s that time of year again when the British Grand Prix hits the glorious capital of ours and you can’t go about your business without a bloke who looks like a member of Eurovision winners Lordi blowing a horn in your ear.

For the uninitiated, speedway attracts the strangest bunch of followers of any sport known to man. Expect a plethora of heavy metal fans in full leathers, despite the temperatures being in the 90’s, with tattoos saying stuff like, “Speedway freaks do it incredibly noisily.”

They are usually to be seen waving flags and roaring like Worf off Star Trek after he’s hit his thumb with a hammer. More often than not they’ll be accompanied by a woman in a baseball cap.

Speedway itself remains a mystery most of us can’t be bothered going to explore, a bit like, why Rebecca is Loos on our TV screens?

I’m no speedway expert, I do know that speedway bikes don’t have brakes and personally, I wish they didn’t have throttles either. Despite my ignorance, I think I’ve hit upon a sure-fire way of winning all the time in speedway – get the inside lane at the start. It always works, with over-taking opportunities virtually non-existent. If you’re in the inside lane, you’re going to win, job done, can we all take our earplugs out now please?

One thing that always gets me about speedway, well, any motor sport really, is its intrinsic association with scantily clad women. Whether it be speedway, superbikes or even Formula One, no event seems to be complete unless you’ve got a gaggle of models hanging around in outfits so tight they have to surgically removed at the end of the day. It just seems like the laziest cliché ever:” Man, I like bikes, I like fast cars, ergo, I like looking at chicks with boobs almost as big as my personality disorder.” Just go to a newsagents and checkout some of the magazines, they’re basically porn mags for geezers who can’t be bothered reaching up to the top shelf. Man, I’m no prude, just drop the pretence. Get rid of the motorbikes and cars and let’s get some proper action going.

So if you were planning on doing some shopping in Cardiff City centre today, just give it a miss, eh? It’ll be like a convention for extras from the Mad Max series and not one who looks like Mel Gibson amongst them. Me? My head is splitting, I’m off for a lie down in a darkened room and, no, I won’t be taking a bike magazine with me.

Steve Turner column Western Mail 3rd June 2006

Did either John Postlethwaite or Ole Olsen read the above on the morning of the 2006 British Grand Prix and if so hopefully it didn’t spoil their breakfast too much. If they did, did either of them speak to someone at the Western Mail and give an alternative view of the sport and its fans or offer the Sports Editor or any of his staff a few of the thousands of free tickets issued at Cardiff each year to increase the attendance so that they could form their own view of the sport and its fans?

After all the speedway’s image as described by Mr Turner hardly fits with the image of the sport that BSI are trying to promote to the sponsors and TV companies.

It would be interesting to see the profile of the average speedway fan based on of the questionnaire organised, in their usual slapdash fashion, by the BSPA in 2005. The results of which we don’t believe have ever been made public. Could the reason be that the questionnaire didn’t produce the answers that the BSPA were looking for ? The sad fact is that it does not matter that speedway is one of the most watched sports on Sky, TV companies are just as interested in the type of viewer that is watching, as the number. This clearly affects the advertising rates they can charge, and in advertising terms speedway may be perceived as more Lidl than Fortnum and Mason, speedway may be box office but it is not cash office.

While to some extent we can take Mr Turner’s jaundiced views with a pinch of salt, after all being controversial and attempting to be funny apparently sells newspapers, there are some issues raised that are so old they seem to have their roots buried in folklore. The first turn matter for instance.

Judging by his comments on “scantily clad women” – an issue we here at speedwayfan have no problem with at all, it seems that motor sport generally does not light his candle. So why bother taking any notice at all – well the fact that such comments are even being thought of suggest that the sports image makers have a lot of work to do and lets face it this guy hasn’t even heard of the tactical double points rule !!