Post by admin on Jun 27, 2007 11:04:46 GMT
"The Edge - there's no honest way to describe it, because the only people that really know where it is are the ones that have gone over." - Hunter S Thompson.
Kenneth Malcolm Carter, you sense, knew the exact location of the edge.
Carter burst onto the speedway scene in 1978 with the Newcastle Diamonds in the old, much missed, National League, whilst also making appearances for parent club the Halifax Dukes. In 1979 he'd moved into the British League with Halifax fulltime and his career was up an almost vertical trajectory upwards. But by 1986 Carter was dead.
On the track, Carter will best be remembered for his celebrated feud with the Americans and in particular the sport's "glamour boy" Bruce Penhall. The feud came to head at the World Final in 1982, held in Los Angeles. When Carter and Penhall met, the racing was fast, furious and left an equally furious Carter down and out. I suppose as long as the sport exists, people will debate who really was to blame for the crash that night 25 years ago. But the result was a second title for Penhall and retirement to a largely unsuccessful career in film and television, while Carter continued to race, but as history would show, his career had already passed its high tide.
Carter made his last appearance in a World Final in 1983, but he was a marginal figure as Egon Muller thrilled the German crowd at Norden with a largely faultless performance to claim the crown. The next two years saw a brave Carter battle against injury, but ultimately fail to make the World Final. And then in 1986 he was gone, for good.
And, somewhat sadly, Carter's leaving of this world will dominate the memory.
Last year Carter's memory burst onto the speedway scene again, as the pundits ridiculously tried to compare the apparent feud between Scott Nicholls and Hans Andersen with that between Carter and Penhall. Sorry folks, but Andersen's no Penhall and Nicholls is definitely no Carter.
A new book has been published telling the Carter story and no doubt it will rekindle memories of the man who was, in spite of world championships for Havelock and Loram, Britain's last truly great speedway rider.
Kenneth Malcolm Carter, you sense, knew the exact location of the edge.
Carter burst onto the speedway scene in 1978 with the Newcastle Diamonds in the old, much missed, National League, whilst also making appearances for parent club the Halifax Dukes. In 1979 he'd moved into the British League with Halifax fulltime and his career was up an almost vertical trajectory upwards. But by 1986 Carter was dead.
On the track, Carter will best be remembered for his celebrated feud with the Americans and in particular the sport's "glamour boy" Bruce Penhall. The feud came to head at the World Final in 1982, held in Los Angeles. When Carter and Penhall met, the racing was fast, furious and left an equally furious Carter down and out. I suppose as long as the sport exists, people will debate who really was to blame for the crash that night 25 years ago. But the result was a second title for Penhall and retirement to a largely unsuccessful career in film and television, while Carter continued to race, but as history would show, his career had already passed its high tide.
Carter made his last appearance in a World Final in 1983, but he was a marginal figure as Egon Muller thrilled the German crowd at Norden with a largely faultless performance to claim the crown. The next two years saw a brave Carter battle against injury, but ultimately fail to make the World Final. And then in 1986 he was gone, for good.
And, somewhat sadly, Carter's leaving of this world will dominate the memory.
Last year Carter's memory burst onto the speedway scene again, as the pundits ridiculously tried to compare the apparent feud between Scott Nicholls and Hans Andersen with that between Carter and Penhall. Sorry folks, but Andersen's no Penhall and Nicholls is definitely no Carter.
A new book has been published telling the Carter story and no doubt it will rekindle memories of the man who was, in spite of world championships for Havelock and Loram, Britain's last truly great speedway rider.
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