Kenneth Malcolm Carter (28 March 1961 – 21 May 1986), was a British motorcycle speedway rider. He was a World Pairs champion and British champion.[1] On Wednesday, 21 May 1986, he shot dead his wife, Pam, and then killed himself, orphaning their two young children in the process.[2][3]
In 1982, he qualified for the final again, this time held in Los Angeles. The final is remembered for the incident after a controversial heat 14 exclusion for Carter, following a coming together with defending champion (and eventual 1982 winner), Bruce Penhall, in which Carter fell and was excluded after the race was stopped. After pleading his case, he failed to change Torrie Kittlesen's mind. He then told Kittlesen that his decision had cost him the World Championship. Following this, Carter walked onto the track and stood at the starting tapes in an attempt to prevent the re-run heat going ahead without him, with most of the 40,000 strong crowd at the Los Angeles Coliseum (who were firmly behind home town hero Penhall) booing him loudly. Carter then had to be physically removed from the track by security personnel and his manager Ivan Mauger.[9][10] Penhall and Carter had been bumping each other all the way along the front straight and footage of Carter's fall is inconclusive.[11]
Less than two months later, he retained his British League Riders' Championship, recording a 15 point maximum[12] and he topped the 1982 British League season averages for his club Halifax.[4]
Carter was British Champion in 1984 and 1985, and later that year appeared as a television commentator alongside Dave Lanning for the 1985 World Final at the Odsal Stadium in Bradford for which he had failed to qualify after breaking his leg in the 1985 Intercontinental Final in Sweden. Outspoken, Kenny Carter was not universally popular with other riders, even those who were his team mates in the Halifax team or the England team. In a television interview during the 1984 British Final (which he won despite a broken right leg) he stated that some of his England team mates had been verbally criticising him for his desire to continue riding. Most of the riders' frustrations came from the wet track conditions, which they felt were dangerous to ride in.
Less than one year later, Carter shot dead his wife, Pamela, before turning the gun on himself at their home, Grey Horse Farm, in Bradshaw, West Yorkshire.[15]
