In Twenty Years ?

Thirty years ago when British Speedway was celebrating its Golden Jubilee London Weekend Television published a souvenir booklet detailing the history of the sport in Britain. It had a feature which tried to look 50 years into the future and see what major changes would have taken place by the year 2028. How many of these changes have occurred in the last 30 years and how many are still 20 years away? Can you remember 30 years ago when you watch speedway on the TV simply by paying your TV licence.

- The appearance of African, Arabic and Far Eastern riders onto the international scene.

- Standardisation of machines.

- Handicapping and classification according to weight.

- Standard track lengths.

- All speedway held in indoor arenas.

- World wide TV coverage.

- A world club league

- Improved medical facilities at all tracks.

- Improvement in protective equipment.

- Women riders competing equally with men.

- Minimum age limit at 12 years of age.

- Computerised stating gates.

- Growth of schoolboy/girl racing.

- A world cup every four years similar to football.

- Marathon races of 50 laps or more.

- Speedway regarded as an Olympic sport.

- Totally silent engines.

- Everlasting tyres.

- The decline of Eastern European as champions.

- A return to amateur speedway on a ride for fun basis.