Speedway Starts
By Steve Haire

Further to my article 'Old Chestnut, who's the best' and pointing out Mauger's ability to psyche people out at the start thought it was a good idea to start a debate on which is better, allowing tape touching or not.

Years ago non speedway supporters would claim speedway was "first out the gate wins", and back then it would probably been largely true. The rules allowed a rider to push the tapes and they wouldn't be excluded unless they broke them (when did 'excluded' become 'dissqualified', another topic maybe) although if they did it too many times they could be excluded for 'delaying the start'.

Now Ivan Mauger was the master of pushing the tapes. At the time of his peak he had averages of 11 plus and if memory serves me right for two seasons he went about nine meetings without dropping a point and I think both times it was at Kings Lynn against a Geoff Penniket, not a heat leader, however don't quote me on that.

Dave Pickles seems to think it was better when tape touching was allowed and in a way I agree with him as the starts were part of skill of speedway racing, but it did perpetuate the 'first out the gate wins' myth.

No doubt the 'no moving or touching the tapes' did improve things but I think the biggest improvement was bringing out the 'two minute' rule. Before that rule riders would pull up to the tapes then as the other approached the tapes they would pull back and go through a ritual of adjusting goggles, clutch lever, putting bike on footpeg and kicking their clutch and this went on for ages as each rider would do this. I remember Mark Courtney when a Rye House rider would always make sure he was the last to the tapes.

The only thing I don't like about the no tape touching rule is the way referees administer the rules. I feel that because riders are penalised for moving or touching the tapes if they get a flyer they should be allowed to get away with it. Years ago it was a simple rule, it was five minutes from the start of one race to the start of the next except for track grading, two rides on the trot or fence repairs.

I also liked the 15 yard handicapping rule but the down side to that was it made it unfair on remaining 3 riders as they would probably have to change gate positions to allow penalised rider to start on the outside.

Think the GP's have it right, tape infringement you carry a warning for rest of meeting then you get excluded, sorry dissqualified.

So in conclusion I'm in favour of the no moving or touching the tapes rule with the warning for tape infringement carried forward throughout the meeting.

This article was first published on 15th February 2026