Before Air Fences (Speedway) DVD Trailer

Crashes and injuries are part and parcel of being a speedway rider and the brave participants know and accept the risks before they set a wheel on track.
Luckily, the vast majority are able to walk away from even the most alarming spills with barely a scratch and a few bruises. But plenty sustained broken bones and a number suffered career-ending injuries that left them paralysed.
Tragically, too many paid the ultimate price.
This four-hour double-disc DVD compilation is not intended to glorify crashes or trivialise their seriousness. It is to illustrate the extreme risks riders undertake every time they go to the start-line to try and earn a living and, in the process, entertain supporters.
In particular, we salute the courageous men who put their necks on the line in the 20th century - long before air fence barriers - when lethal metal lamp posts and solid wood, steel and even concrete fences were a serious threat to life and limb. We re-visit Exeter, Romford, Arena-Essex and many other venues to remind ourselves just how primitive so-called safety standards were back in the day.
Inevitably, some dramatic incidents provoked heated, occasionally violent, scenes on track as well as in the pits. Matousek v Wilson; Tilbury v Luckhurst; Garrett v Collins. And of course, the infamous Kenny Carter-Bruce Penhall feud in the early 80s put speedway on the back pages of the national press. Their skirmish in LA in 1982 is still the subject of forthright online debate today. Did he fall or was he pushed? Have another look, then decide for yourself.
• Includes contemporary interviews with . . . Lance King, Nigel Flatman, Frank Andersen, Roman Matousek, Sean Wilson, Rob Tilbury, Kenny Carter, Bruce Penhall, Hans Nielsen, Jeremy Doncaster, Bob Coles, Alun Rossiter, David Walsh, Craig Hodgson, Ray Morton.
• More recent interviews with . . . Erik Gundersen, Mark Loram, Malcolm Simmons, Barry Thomas, Simon Cross, Len Silver, Eric Boocock.