Tragedy: The Kenny Carter Story by Tony McDonald
Arrogant, brash, volatile and sometimes just simply crazy according to some, outspoken Yorkshireman Kenny Carter was the biggest box office attraction in speedway. He was the brilliant number one rider for Bradford Dukes and England, having spent his first season showing great promise with second division Newcastle and the next seven starring as ?King Kenny? for his home-town team, Halifax. A courageous double British Champion on the track, his world title dreams were twice wrecked by a broken leg. Away from speedway, he saw himself as a sharp wheeler-dealer who formed his own sports promotions company and believed he could make it big in business. At the age of 25, sharing a luxury farmhouse with his wife and former childhood sweetheart and their two children, with a flash, new sports car designed to impress his clients, he seemed to have the world at his feet. But very few people ever knew or understood the real Kenny Carter and the huge family tragedies he suffered in his early youth. These were devastating influences that would haunt him for the rest of his life and no doubt shaped the personality that the fans came to either love or hate. No-one knew the demons that must have been raging inside the young head of a fiercely driven, self-obsessed individual who could not accept losing be it a friendly game of snooker, a speedway race or indeed the love of his life. Kenny was never able to reveal his true feelings ...until it was too late. At his Yorkshire moorland farm on the evening of Wednesday, May 21, 1986, the England speedway hero shot dead his wife, Pam, and then killed himself, orphaning their two young children in the process. Tragedy is the full, sad and harrowing story of Kenny Carter?s rollercoaster life and examines what led up to that nightmare ending including candid contributions by his friends, speedway rivals, team-mates, managers and promoters who knew him best. From the world of speedway. How they remember Kenny Carter...Ivan Mauger, Bruce Penhall, Peter Collins, Eric Boocock, Eric Boothroyd, Kelvin Tatum, Michael Lee, Hans Nielsen, John Louis, Phil Crump, Neil Evitts, Andy and Alan Grahame, Doug Wyer, Craig Pendlebury, Mick McKeon, John Berry, Ian Thomas, Carl Glover, Joe Owen, Malcolm Simmons, Chris Morton, Dave Jessup, etc...