Tears and Glory - The Winged Wheel Story chronicles the highs and lows of speedway in Reading. The book captures the heady euphoria of five league championships, two cup wins and two world champions - Anders Michanek and Per Jonsson. They are joined by a cast of notables who wore the winged wheel with distinction: Richard May, Bernie Leigh, John Davis, Jan Andersson, Mitch Shirra, Dave Mullett, Phil Morris and Armando Castagna.

Walkouts, sit downs, fights, crashes, drugs, shopping, law suits, battles for control, transfer requests - all the drama is there. And so too is the tragedy - the work is dedicated to Denny Pyeatt and Geoff Curtis, two Racers who lost their life racing.

When Reading Racers burst on to the scene in 1968 Reading was still a town of 'beer, bulbs and biscuits'. Initially the Racers vied with Reading's football team (then languishing in the third division) for the title of Reading's leading sports team. Now the speedway team lives, literally, in the shadows of the Premiership soccer club and came within a whisker of extinction during a turbulent 2007 season. The changing fortunes of British speedway and the town of Reading provide a backdrop against which the story unfolds.

Early chapters cover speedway in Berkshire before the Racers arrived at Tilehurst in 1968. As well as California near Wokingham, a previously unknown venue revealed for the first time.

With a foreword by Pat Bliss, the story is illustrated with more than 80 photographs (see examples below) and supplemented by extensive statistical information. Containing 256 pages, the book will cost just £15.

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12 July 1971 - Richard May receives the applause of a packed grandstand as he parades with the newly won Golden Helmet. (Evening Post).

Beauty and the Beast - Racers mascot Roary the Lion gets friendly with Charlie Gjedde. (Bill Taylor).