Speedway legend Ivan Mauger was a surprise guest at the Monarchs' Press and Practice day at Armadale on Friday. The Australian based New Zealander who has won more World Championships than most care to remember is on one of his regular visits to the UK. He is to be the major draw at the Glasgow Speedway opener on Sunday.

Ivan was accompanied by the father of Glasgow promoter Stewart Dickson. During his visit, Ivan gave an exclusive interview with this website, although he wasn't aware of it at the time!

Ivan felt that speedway in the UK was experiencing a major resurgence. He said that it was noticeable to him as he only visited Britain twice a year. Regular attenders of British Speedway, he suggested, might not notice the gradual improvement in profile. Sky coverage undoubtedly played a part in this revival. On the question of local tracks, Ivan was impressed with the shape of the tracks at Glasgow and Armadale.

When the conversation came around to Peter Carr, Ivan mentioned what a great grass track rider Peter was when he rode for Ivan in France.

Christian Henry was well known to Ivan who is based in the Gold Coast area of Queensland. He felt that to date Christian had looked better suited to racing long track and on the Harley Davidson flat trackers. Ivan felt that Christian had some weaknesses to iron out that restricted his progress in speedway. Racing long track and flat track was more forgiving. He did feel that Christian had the talent to make it to the top and more importantly he had the will to win. Ivan argued that a rider without talent with the will to win could be coached to make it but without the will to win, no amount of natural talent would suffice. He felt that one area that Christian needed to improve on was on the mechanical side.

Ivan had not seen a great deal of Ben Shields but felt that he had the makings of a good racer. He was particularly interested in watching Ben in action in the practice session.

Ivan had seen Rory Schlein in action on the 125cc bikes in his Under-16 days and was very impressed. Since turning 16 and moving up to 500s, Rory had written off a couple of bikes but had little opportunity to get experience in Australia. His family had already moved from Darwin to Adelaide to get more outings and now on to Scotland.

Ivan will be running a one day school of excellence for riders at Ashfield on Saturay prior to the Spring Trophy against Edinburgh on Sunday. He will be doing a few laps of the Ashfield track himself.

Ivan was a very welcome visitor at Armadale and impressed with his all-round knowledge of local Premier League riders. We wish him well for the remainder of his visit.