Vince

'Twas me, winning the B final just means you didn't qualify in the top 10 to go direct to the A so not as good as it sounds, think I actually qualified 13th after some very poor decisions in the heats! Eventually finished 11th in the main (because somebody fell off ) so it wasn't a great day but OK for an old fart, it is getting tough to get to the A final at all these days. Wish I had got the holeshot and led the whole race, led into turn 1 but was 2nd coming off turn 4 and stayed there for about 5 laps until I managed to get underneath Gary Birtwistle with a pretty 'robust' move. After all 11th or 12th gate pick in the A final is worth dying for

Like the 4,3,2 system but don't like the idea of somebody judging effort affecting the score

I think the move to narrow the gap between the top leagues is a good start as is the single average. It's very difficult to do but I think tracks need to be prepped for good racing rather than home advantage BUT fans want home wins more than good racing it seems so I'm sure promoters would disagree. Like a lot of what Danny Smith says, the laser lighting, good music, WiFi and apps are all things that would be attractive to younger newcomers (I guess!). I would add in that needle among riders creates atmosphere and should be encouraged. Even the odd punch up shouldn't be punished as long as it stays between riders. Anybody else at all who hits a rider, mechanic, track staff, anybody should be banned from the pits for life though. Moving meetings along smartly can only be good. However I would rather a meeting lasted 20 minutes longer if that time is needed to keep moisture in the track or other maintenance to give good racing. Do away with the family friendly image and make a big issue of just how dangerous Speedway is. Unlike most sports it wouldn't need to be exaggerated and again might get people through the gate. I would keep doubling up to British licence holders who have to give preference to our leagues. However stuff like the doubling up and tactical points makes not one bit of difference to getting new people in the gate and in my opinion that is where we should be concentrating. Get them in the gate, make sure it's as exciting as possible and try and create a good atmosphere for starters. They can be on the forum moaning about the details six months down the line but if the atmosphere was good they'll still go and watch.

This Sunday, April 9th sees the opening round of the DTRA Championship at Rye House. The meeting will be split into two halves. The morning meeting will consist of Minibikes, Rookies, Restricted (Intermediate) and Junior youth groups. Starting at 11am it will be approximately 30 races including finals. The second part will follow on from this, I would estimate it starting about 2pm. The groups will be Pro, Thunderbike, Vintage and Youth Inters and seniors. Again just over 30 races including the finals I think. Each rider has 3 heats, starting from each of the 3 rows in 12 man races. Points scored decide who qualifies for the finals and where they start from. Entry is free for spectators, come along with an open mind rather than expecting to see Speedway and you should have a good time and see some competitive racing. 12 bikes on a Speedway track can get pretty interesting at times. As ever if you go come and say hi to No95 in the pm meeting

For youngsters a job that allows them time off for racing!

Rich has been on the case and there is indeed a flat track class to be run at the Bristol clubs meeting in May. Will be good to see if there is interest from the riders, I will be entering for sure and know a few others who have expressed an interest so hopefully it will make for an interesting add on to the meeting.

It looks like a building site because it is, surely the fact that they underway with such a revamp can only be good. Seating was going in under the bar on Wednesday. It might not be finished but they are working on improving the things we read on here are needed to bring the sport up to date. Surprised nobody mentioned the big track changes, bends 3&4 are now more banked 4 especially and combined with the off camber the other end having already gone should improve the racing a good deal I think.

I think that's just clever use of wording by the council to muddy the issue. Sounds like a brickie being held responsible for the footings collapsing to me. If somebody is contracted to supply a base built to a certain standard and using specific materials and when you check it out all looks fine then you would be right to assume they had delivered what was agreed. If things later change because that, now hidden, base is unsatisfactory it can hardly be the fault of the track curator who specialises in the shale surface.

I use leathers because I think they offer better protection in small crashes and rarely ride more than once in a week so have plenty of time to look after them. There is a bit of a hole in the leg where they touch the exhaust! However I would wear kevlars and an undersuit with no problems at all if I were riding more often as they are much more practical to look after. Especially with this armour http://www.d-starracewear.co.uk/covecbodyarmour.html underneath I believe they offer protection as good as more restrictive and harder to maintain leathers in the vast majority of instances.

Sorry but league or not if it's costing you money to do something and you do it because you enjoy it then it's a hobby. It's certainly not a living for those who stay in the NL for whatever reason. The winter series is just a cheaper hobby at a lower level. There still aren't enough riders of an adequate standard trying to break into the NL to need to worry about those already there.

NL isn't a career it's an expensive hobby for many or a stepping stone to the higher leagues for the talented few. Those riders who have dropped down the leagues have experience that is of great value to the youngsters, if they can pass that on and cover some of their costs what is the problem. Those riders who have reached a level are needed to fill team places, there's hardly enough as it is now, do away with them and there is no league. Why shouldn't riders turn up with good equipment if they are fortunate enough to be able to afford it, or more likely have grafted their asses off away from Speedway to buy? Dropping to amateur level is not really an option as the gulf between that and NL middle order rider is huge. At the end of the day it would be an issue if there were dozens of youngsters capable of riding at that level unable to get team places but unfortunately there aren't. As for the Aussie riders while there are some who leave Britain behind for the money there are just as many who have been loyal to the British leagues. If you want loyalty from riders then really the system needs changing so they can be offered some in return. British riders can be bought through by other means such as keeping them clear from the asset system until they have reached a certain average and giving them average reductions for team building purposes.

Can I not very politely suggest you two eff off and bitch at each other like a pair of two year olds somewhere else.

Changed the link to the Speedway museum home page. Have to go to the tracks page and it says that the track used for those 70's meetings was a different one to the one we use now.

Years ago when synthetic first came out it used to emulsify if mixed with the non synthetic but as far as I know that's no longer the case.

Seems likely it was a Grasstrack / longtrack meeting as Tig Perry was a very good Grasstrack rider. I'm sure he was also the man who started Antig the Grasstrack and Speedway frame builder. Not sure if the track has changed but it's definitely quite a lot more than 440 yards now. http://www.national-speedway-museum.co.uk/

Personally I think the change that has had the worst effect is the short stroke/ lighter flywheel engines. I think they make setup more critical and leave riders less of a margin for error. I also think that the new silencers (not popular but better get used to it because noise levels will be reduced again!) would have been far less detrimental to long stroke engines with heavier flywheels. Of the stuff you list: Leading link forks seem quite a lot more stable. Handlebars, personal preference and if somebody started flying with old style bars there would be plenty about in no time. I'm guessing that leading link forks made narrower bars possible as well. Offset cranks, understand the theory but think only a rider can tell the difference. Recycled oil, makes a huge difference to track surfaces that isn't good but total loss would be completely unacceptable these days. Silencers: as above, blamed for everything when in my opinion they were only a part of the problem. The sport will need to reduce noise levels further I'm sure, we may not like it but it's the way things are these days. Despite the lawn mower comments Speedway bikes currently are still pretty loud machines, especially if you have no interest in Speedway which is the vast majority of the sports neighbours.

The ACU represent only one interest and that is their own and the FIM are a league above even that of the ACU in self interest. Now and again you'll get some very decent, well meaning people in both organisations. They will inevitably leave with very sore heads after banging them against brick walls for however long they last. The BSPA are a wonder of forward thinking honesty in comparison.

I've had BT after dropping Sky because they kept putting their prices up and offered new customers a very much better deal than existing ones for changing to fibre optic. Never had any issues in the approx 18 months I've been with them and only time I used customer services was when starting with them and they were very good. Price wise I spend about 70% of what I was with Sky for an equivalent package. For me it's great news as it means I can watch league Speedway when I get in from work once again. I really like the way they cover MotoGP and have no issues with the way the Speedway GP's have been shown. At least they haven't been shunted off the main channel because another sport is seen as a priority this week! See no reason to disbelieve Flagrag when he says it's because of the football costs, after all he is in a position to know better than those who argue differently. There is no way Speedway won't be around in 5 years and I'd happily bet it's not all that different to how it is now. For years I thought that Speedway would evolve into a largely amateur sport with a professional GP series like just about every other motor sport but it kept proving me wrong. Now I just see it as a remarkably resilient sport which keeps finding people with enough money and the will to keep propping it up (thats the majority of the much maligned BSPA!). We might not always like the decisions they make but it is their money to lose and I suspect a lot of us would change our opinions on certain subjects if we had to bet a fortune on the outcome. Forgot to also say that if this means more of the TV pot reaching the sport rather than one company that is also a good thing.

Yeah then they could race a rally car against an f1 car as they are two different sports as well

We've run a flattrack meeting there the past two years with a British Championship round plus a Transatlantic Challenge with a star American topping the bill, Colin Edwards last year and Kevin Schwantz the previous one. Perhaps they are running some Speedway races alongside, always seemed crazy to me that they don't have the sport on show.

Not convinced grass track is doing well in comparison to the 70s any more than speedway is. A few well attended meetings but equally meetings are being cancelled for lack of entries. I suspect you'd have to ride in every centre to get anywhere near the number of meetings you could get in the 70s

I have never in the nearly 50 years I've been going to Speedway, talked about Speedway to people who weren't really aware of it or taken newcomers along had any of them ask that. The only time I've ever had any discussions about attendances is with people who are already involved as spectators or in other capacities.

I'd agree with that, although it is possible that some of the higher ups in some companies who have been convinced to sponsor a rider or team don't actually realise how low the crowds are. I still completely fail to see how publishing attendance figures can benefit the sport. We all know that they aren't good so how will making everybody aware of that improve things? The only reason I can see is so that a few people can make some pretty uneducated guesses as to the net income of a track. I say uneducated because most of the guesses you read on here miss out some very vital and expensive costs. The truth is we have no need to know, if the sport was in a boom where we could use high spectator attendance to pull in sponsorship then it would be different but this is just curiosity.

In truth apart from keeping a few current fans sweet what would publishing attendances achieve? I find it very difficult to see what could actually be gained. I suspect the biggest effect wold be to make those already putting sponsorship money into the sport wonder why.

Out of the lads my boy started with at 14 it is very noticeable (with one exception) that those who did best were those who were dedicated and worked at it were the ones who succeeded and got into the higher leagues rather than the most talented. The exception is an immense talent with plenty of money behind him who has done pretty well but by the time he gets to my age will realise how much further he could have got with a better work ethic.