Speedway Grand Plan

[Malcolm]

The GP Individual Championship should run every four years like the World

Soccer Cup or Olympics. Same for the WTC only not in the same year giving a

two year gap between championships.

No expense should be spared on machinery in the WC just like F1. The GP series should try

and mirror what F1 has done except running every year. The GP needs to grow in statue as a truely world class event and run in exotic places like Brazil and Japan, not just Poland etc. There is alot of speedway going on and there is no need for a yearly WC of todays GP proportions. Gets boring and screws up the team racing. The year of the GP when certain riders will be often unavailable, tough it's only once every four years and the exposure the rider's team will get at the time of the events and in the years between will more than compensate. WTC is only a week so no problem there.

There should be engine hp limits for the WTC as this is a different style of competition. TEAM racing not individual.

 

Instead Benfield for the rest of the time needs to invest in its base support. The

speedway clubs and promoters. I propose a yearly European Team Championship. It

would draw the crowds when a Swedish, Germany, Polish, Russian club came to

town and vica versa for said countries. This way Benfield could help and train clubs on promotion without getting involved with domestic racing. They would also benefit by having their GP riders seen all over the continent while keeping the GP itself fresh and exciting. Riders would also get the extra money they need to live without riding for a second club which is just plain silly.

Riders therefore will only ride for one club period and the points rule

would be scrapped. Speedway riders and clubs would follow their once second

string sporting neighbour soccer when it came to team building. This would give the fans a chance to grow supporting a team they can see grow and change by hard work and luck not stupid rule changes. Teams I believe could then go out and get real solid sponsorship as sponsors could rely on who and what they were sponsoring instead of a "who the hell knows who's ging to be riding for us next week" guarantee.

 

Only the Elite League would be in the European Cup and there would be a

horsepower restriction on the Elite League bikes. The cost of tuning a 500 is out of

control. We need more money in the riders pockets not a bunch of pro riders

who also work another job to survive. Team racing is team riding not oh

so-and-so will win this because he has the fancy tuner. Therefore teams

should train together, work on fitness and promote themselves, just like

soccer does. Riders need to be available for self and track promotion at

non-speedway events, we need celebrities. Track size will follow current

guidelines. British and foreign riders allowed. At least one Brit should be

in the club.

 

Premier League will have more restrictions on the engines, no fancy carbs

for one. Reliability will be key and a horsepower limit. Track size will

have the lower limit dropped to 200yds allowing for clubs to operate in

smaller markets, lower costs and open in areas where a 1/4 mile will not

fly. No more than three foreign riders will be allowed. Costs should be such that riders who are not daft should be able to make a living riding in the PL. No need for any other job unless the want to, to have a higher standard of living. This is a gray area, but we need riders focused on riding not working a full time job, trying to get time off and rushing tired to the track.

 

Conference League. Less horsepower again, semi-pro, in this league an upright Weslake

should be competitive. Track size lower limit 150yds and no foreign riders.

 

Speedway clubs need to ally themselves with Grasstrack clubs, a primary

supplier of riders. They should co-promote and help run the big

internationals that once included line-ups stronger than any WC. This is an

easy way to bring the sport to places where it doesn't normally run. In the

past GT internationals have run at the Britsh F1 GP and Isle of Man TT, they

need to again. This would not only be a big GT spectacular but a speedway

promotion event too. If there is no room for a big event then speedway needs

to look at going to one of these races or any event and grading a small area

for a "California Speedway" style race. I.E. Belle Vue and Lancs GT club

co-promote a SoCal style event at the Manchester Show. Grade a small track

and run speedway bikes and the Lancs juniors can run their grassers.

 

Malcolm

http://xtremesport.org

 

P.S. And the current team race format sucks especially with no second half. The least that could be done is throw in a few more heats for the fans.

Edited December 7, 2003 by Malcolm

[Liontamer]

Very interesting

[Malcolm]

Speedway needs to get more inventive when it comes to tracks too.

So a community does not want a 400yd track and well 1000-1500 look pretty sad at a big track, so offer the community a rodeo arena.

The same arena can be used for horse events, swap meets small concerts and so on. Currently there is a race series in such an arena Stateside, Chowchilla. This track is even covered, even better. Other examples include Costa Mesa, Auburn etc

Check my site for a view

http://xtremesport.org

Another great spot would be an area for business, car and bike dealers, D.I.Y. stores. These stores would be built around the track, a 2nd level would have say a pub and then the seating overlooking an arena where speedway could run along with other events. The businesses being part of the building would help pay for the damn thing and get extra advertsing by being involved with an event centre.

imagine going to your local and walking outside on the balcony out back too see some team practice going on or a race. Ultimate theme pub. Also the fact that the riders would be below the crowd in a Roman arena type situation, this should help cut down on the noise outside the stadium.

 

Adding to the Conference League section of my first post, I'd have the hp of the bikes at a level to make numerous makes eligible 400-500cc single cylinder 4 stroke being the size limit. Say 50hp this may mean restricting even the new 450s. I say good. Multiple makes bringing in new blood that may end up bleeding upwards into the other divisions, sure has hell these manufacturers are not going to get involved in speedway as we now know it and trickle down.

Think about it a local bike shop could possibly sponsor a whole team with engines.

Edited December 8, 2003 by Malcolm

[Kevin Meynell]

The GP Individual Championship should run every four years like the World Soccer Cup or Olympics. Same for the WTC only not in the same year giving a two year gap between championships.

 

This way Benfield could help and train clubs on promotion without getting involved with domestic racing.

Malcolm,

 

But you would still have disruption every two years, and in many respects that's worse than annual disruption which is easier to plan around.

 

As for BSI - when will people realise that they have no interest in promoting anything except the SGP? This the only competition which enables them to skim-off the cream at minimal expense to themselves, and without investing a penny at the grassroots or intermediate levels.

 

I do agree with your point about a lack of heats in domestic meetings though.

[Malcolm]

The GP would only disrupt every 4 years and with no point limit, teams would have the ability to be pretty strong even missing one or two riders, it's their decision to live with. WTC only lasts a week so who cares.

 

Speedway depends on many factors and without a points limit a team could be built with a very strong across the board rider base. Combine that with engine hp restrictions, more dirt on the tracks plus real team riding and you'd be in for some classic team competition.

 

I believe if the WC was only every 4 years BSI would fill the stadiums. Makes it more special. Right now they can't even fill Cardiff, but a bet they could if it was a one night WC.

 

Manchester United can still win the odd match without Beckham. No restrictions on team building period. Real training and real team riding. Maybe add a fifth lap or at least 4 or 5 more heats, however that works out.

[Malcolm]

The promoters, BSPA, whoever is in charge over there need to look at different ways to promote. One sorely missing piece is the kids.

When I was a youngster growing up across the street from the Collins Clan we raced pushbikes pretending we were speedway stars. Infact somewhere I have a handmade program from one of our races with all the Collins bar Peter on it and former British GT Champion Andy Riley and ex- speedway current grasser John Hough.

The promoters need to get together with a bicycle company and make a speedway looking push bike. At the very least they could make a fibreglass kit for dressing up a bike. Same for riders, imagine kids peddling to school on a Billy Hamill replica bicycle. This gives the sport advertising and coverage, it keeps it in peoples minds year round.

If kids rode to school in Manchester on a bike with the Belle Vue logo on it, it would remind people of the sport, start conversations about it. Some of these other sports are successful because they are everywhere. We humans respond well to seeing a message repetitively. Out of site, out of mind.

If there was a spoiler in the track shop that would fit a bike rear wheel with the team logo and autographs, do you think any kid would want it for his bike.

Here is another spoilers, say half size or smaller that could be hung on the bedroom wall, autographed, team colours, rider replicas. Collect the set.

[Matt Davis]

I always wanted a back wheel disc for my bike when i was little so it maybe a good idea.

 

Speedway needs to go back to basics. Even with standard engines, your still going to get the "good" and "not so good". More dirt on the tracks, standard engines, basic rules = closer racing = more people watching

[Malcolm]

...and for the adults how about a beefcake calender using the riders for the girls and a good old fashioned topless women calender for me. I mean the lads.

Pictures using staged speedway scenes in the pits, showers and at the tapes etc.

Get the sport hung up in every garage bathroom in the U.K.

[Mylor]

As for BSI - when will people realise that they have no interest in promoting anything except the SGP? This the only competition which enables them to skim-off the cream at minimal expense to themselves, and without investing a penny at the grassroots or intermediate levels.

BSI are, of course, copying the model of the Formula One Administration who many would agree are probably the most successful sports promotors of them all. The whole of motorsport benefits either directly or indirectly from their success. They don't own any teams, they are not the ruling body, they just own and successfully exploit the rights making a lot of people rich in the process. One of the downsides is that it costs a fortune to go to a Grand Prix, especially at Silverstone, but the place still gets packed.

 

Now the participants, unlike in speedway, don't drive for anyone else. They, like speedway riders, 'volunteer' to show their skills at the highest level yet no-one accuses F1 of skimming off the cream. All BSI have done is to take a series that already existed and placed it on a bigger stage and have been instrumental getting the sport televised in places we didn't know existed. It all helps the sport to grow. Growth is painful, especially when it's your club that suffers.

 

Taken to it's logical conclusion, if and when the sport takes off on the world stage, by which I mean in 20-30 countries, GP riders will be just that. No league riding for them, well not till they fail anyway.

 

Of course this means the EL clubs will suffer the same pain as the PL ones when riders move up but just as it doesn't in the end affect the competitiveness of the PL it shouldn't affect the EL either.

[Malcolm]

The main problem in making the sport follow F1 lines is that there is little distinction between the GP and a league match except for the venue and the fact they call it the World Championship. If logic prevailed and as in F1 the bikes were to be faster and more expensive then BSI should have gone with a solo series that already exsists in a multi-race series. Longtrack.

 

The problem lies in the fact that riders for the most part most come up through the ranks to gain enough experience to ride at the GP level. Will clubs want to put effort into riders whos goal is to leave, and will has been GP riders find a place in team racing after showing loyalty elsewhere.

 

The other issue is the equipment. There is nothing in this arena that makes the GP special. Some riders use standard all be them well prepared Jawas, the race times are no better than league racing and so it is difficult to look at the GP and say here are the best riders in the world riding the finest equipment. I'm a 2nd Division rider at Costa Mesa in California and my bike is GP quality with a pro tuned engine and custom chassis, only some basic Jawa parts are standard.

In England you have Conference League riders who own nicer bikes than some Elite League riders.

 

Then all we have left is the team aspect within F1, Mclaren, Ferrari etc. Speedway has Jawa and GM plus a bunch of chassis makers. Would Jawa or GM build exclusive teams and not allow anyone else to run their engines. I think not. Forget the chassis makers they are not that rich and will not abandon their core business, everyone else for a couple of guys on a GP team.

 

Of course all the this changes if huge sums of money finds its way into GP. Now this would make it more intesting, and I believe would prompt teams to appear and new engines too. Still the racing will have to be better than league racing and all the other individual races going on (Unless Benfield promote the GP and the riders to be larger than life). I see a difference between F1 and Formula 3000 and Formula Ford, but not between a Gp and say Belle Vue v Coventry with Jason Crump, Joe Screen, Lee Richardson and Billy Hamill lining up at the tapes.

[Kevin Meynell]

BSI are, of course, copying the model of the Formula One Administration who many would agree are probably the most successful sports promotors of them all. Now the participants, unlike in speedway, don't drive for anyone else. They, like speedway riders, 'volunteer' to show their skills at the highest level yet no-one accuses F1 of skimming off the cream.

Mylor,

 

Your analogy between FOCA (F1 Constructors Association) and BSI is not quite correct. Firstly, FOCA abrogate the rights to Bernie Ecclestone's company for a guaranteed sum per year, and he then sells the rights on for whatever he can get. Whilst he's been extraordinarily successful in doing so, he makes millions of pounds in profit and it could well be claimed he is skimming off the cream, which is of course what some of the F1 teams are currently unhappy about.

 

Secondly, FOCA (or more correctly Bernie Ecclestone) manage to generate sufficient revenue to fully fund the whole travelling circus, and to pay drivers to more or less race exclusively in the F1 series. Whilst Ecclestone has his critics, it's fair to say that he doesn't do things by halves, and indeed he's actively worked to make F1 exclusive.

 

BSI on the other hand, are doing things on the cheap. The SGP does not generate sufficient revenue to have full-time riders, so BSI employ the FIM regulations to use riders at no cost to themselves (except the rather low prize money which is allegedly paid by the FIM anyway). However, they do not give a toss how it affects the teams that *still* pay the bulk of the riders' wages that allow them to ride in professional speedway in the first place. Nor do they care when staging promotions lose money so that they can pay their CEO a GBP 350K salary.

 

If BSI want to make the SGP a full-time series, I have no problem with that, but until then they must realise that they need co-exist with the national leagues. As for going to 20-30 countries, well in their dreams! They're having enough problems to find ten venues for their series, so where they'll find another ten, I have no idea.

Edited December 15, 2003 by Kevin Meynell

[Guest Zebbo Mooty]

Mylor correctly cites FOA (Owner: BC Ecclestone) as the company responsible for administering F1's commercial rights, having taken over that role from FOCA (President: BC Ecclestone) some years ago. More recently, governing body the FIA (Vice President: BC Ecclestone) sold their share of the rights for over a hundred years to FOA for very little money.

 

Although a substantial figure, the TV money and prize fund, of which the teams see less than half, is nowhere near big enough to fund the whole sport. Ferrari receive a substantial part of the money just for having been in the championship for over 50 years, but even with their recent on-track success their share of the prize money doesn't even cover Michael Schumacher's wages. Nearly 90% of the teams' funding comes from commercial sponsorship and trade suppliers.

 

BSI may well see F1 as their guiding light, but as Kevin points out, for all John Postlethwaite's past and current F1 experience, he seems not to want or be able to put in place the funding for the SGP to be self-sufficient. He showed by the SGP restaging fiasco how happy he is to bite the hand that feeds him. In turn, it's difficult to condemn him for taking advantage of the BSPA's traditional inability to peacefully coexist with the FIM or even, more worryingly, itself.

[Kevin Meynell]

Although a substantial figure, the TV money and prize fund, of which the teams see less than half, is nowhere near big enough to fund the whole sport.

That's certainly true, but the overall package created by Bernie Ecclestone is sufficient to make companies want to sponsor individual teams.

[Kevin Meynell]

More recently, governing body the FIA (Vice President: BC Ecclestone) sold their share of the rights for over a hundred years to FOA for very little money.

I believe the FIA only held the television rights. The other commercial rights were/are owned by FOCA who have sold them on Bernie Ecclestone in exchange for a guaranteed income.

[Guest Zebbo Mooty]

The FIA only became interested in the commercial rights, which include broadcasting, when BCE was doing individual deals with race promoters, on behalf of FOCA, in the mid-70s. The FISA-FOCA Wars of 78-81 resulted in the creation of the Concorde Agreement and established that those rights, as a whole, were owned by the FIA who in turn leased them to FOCA in continuous short-term deals. At that stage the focus was mainly on the fees charged to organisers which were redistributed as prize money. For a later CA the deal was switched from FOCA to the newly-formed Formula One Promotion & Administration, much to the surprise of the FOCA membership, and the TV income had grown to become the major part of the deal, split 47/30/23 between the teams/FIA/FOA. In the mid 90s the FIA sold their 30% share of the rights, to FOA, worth about $120m pa for $360m for a further hundred years.

[SCB]

Speedway needs to go back to basics. Even with standard engines, your still going to get the "good" and "not so good". More dirt on the tracks, standard engines, basic rules = closer racing = more people watching

In Matt's perfect little world!!!

 

Why is a heat with standard bikes better than a heat with highly tuned bike? It's not, you will still have better riders and not so good riders, all that will happen is that the better riders will still gate first and still be fastest as they are now and there will be just as many faster riders failing to make the start and passing, as you do now. However, some "standard" bikes will be better than others so riders will buy bike, after bike, after bike until they get a good one and so drive up costs and they'll want more money and promoters WILL pay it and the sport suffers.

 

More dirty?! No, just well prepared not nessesarilly loads of dirty. I'm no expert but I'd say you need a thin layer of dirt with grip on the outside, slightly less dirt/grip about mid track and an almost slick track on the inside, not completly slick or you get the 'blue line'.

[Mylor]

..........BSI should have gone with a solo series that already exsists in a multi-race series. Longtrack.

 

The problem lies in the fact that riders for the most part most come up through the ranks to gain enough experience to ride at the GP level. Will clubs want to put effort into riders whos goal is to leave, and will has been GP riders find a place in team racing after showing loyalty elsewhere.

 

I'm a 2nd Division rider at Costa Mesa...................

Right, where were we?

Oh yes, discussing how speedway is promoted.

 

Longtrack........now what's that and how would you go about introducing that to punters outside Germany? Ok we do know what it is but I've only seen one longtrack meeting on the tele and that was 30 years ago. And how would you fit that in prestigeous venues with a view to expanding into non-longtrack countries. Nonstarter methinks.

 

Clubs and training tracks already put a lot of effort into riders they know will leave. It's common practice in the CL and PL. Good riders, especially respected ex-GP riders will always find a welcome at British tracks when they've finished their GP careers. Look at Sam Ermolenko and Billy Hamill. They may be looked down on as deserters from the American scene but if you don't want 'em, and they don't seem too keen to return, then we'll continue to welcome them. Got any more??

Edited December 16, 2003 by Mylor

[Mylor]

As for going to 20-30 countries, well in their dreams! They're having enough problems to find ten venues for their series, so where they'll find another ten, I have no idea.

Methinks you misread me post Kevin!!

 

'..if and when the sport takes off on the world stage, by which I mean in 20-30 countries,'

 

Just as F1 is seen in 100 or so countries Kev although they only hold 17 or so F1GPs..............more growth, more venues!!

[Hammer]

I thought Malcolm was spot on about appealing to kids, with bicycles and accesories. Most of us had our imagination captured by Speedway when we were children, there needs to be clever marketing in main stream shops as well. I spent many happy years proudly wearing a golden hawk race jacket.

 

If good quality club kevlar type replica shirts are sold in different sizes, we should all wear them around high streets and give the football shirts a run for their money.

 

Non Speedway people might start to wonder who the Witches or the Aces are.

 

On the subject of GP Speedway, I think Matt's right. Following Formula one in to constructor teams might well destroy the essence of Speedway where personal skill wins the race. I know there is disparity in equipment now, but imagine Speedway in ten years if Scott Nicholls on a Minardi equivalent bike can't finish on the same lap as Tony Rickardsson who is on a Ferrari. This is a little simplistic but you know what I mean.

 

Also So many Tracks are poorly prepared. The ELRC this year was absolutely shocking, Back to basics, Matt's right.

Edited December 27, 2003 by Hammer

[Malcolm]

Right, where were we?

Oh yes, discussing how speedway is promoted.

 

Longtrack........now what's that and how would you go about introducing that to punters outside Germany? Ok we do know what it is but I've only seen one longtrack meeting on the tele and that was 30 years ago. And how would you fit that in prestigeous venues with a view to expanding into non-longtrack countries. Nonstarter methinks.

Yes I agree it is a non-starter due to the brick wall some have up between Speedway and Longtrack. Still look at the crowd support at these events. As big and often bigger than speedway. It never will be, but it truely is the F1 of the sport.

Teterow 30-40,000 fans every year, Marmande 10,000 and a full floodlit stadium, the Paris event last year had upwards of 40,000 even New Zealand got what 7,000?