Vince

Thousands of people like it and believe every word. Publicity like that where Speedway was seen as extremely dangerous would be the best coverage it's had on terrestrial TV in many years. Surely even if it makes Speedway fans laugh but appealed to people outside the sport it could only be a good thing. Doesn't get much more death defying than the TT at the speeds Guy Martin does!

Guy has ridden a flat track meeting at King's Lynn each of the past two years. First year he won the restricted class, last year just missed the pro final following a heat race fall if I remember rightly. Won the chopper class at the unique dirt quake event held the following day both years. Has got a sponsorship deal from the owners of Rye this year so guessing we will see him more often. As far as I have read he has elected to take part in a 24hour mountain bike race rather than the tt this year but will continue to ride motorcycles

Ken Fox has a long standing wall of death in the UK and uses Indian scouts. It's something I'd live to have a go at, especially on an Indian

4 bends, 2 corners I was always taught!

Does anybody really believe that an engine that has had the tolerances optimised and been assembled properly by a tuner is more fragile than one straight out of the Jawa factory? If so they'd be very wrong. I can see the benefits of trying to level the playing field and reduce costs but telling riders their current equipment is obsolete and putting them on factory built engines is unlikely to do either. For starters anybody who ever built a race motor of any sort will know that trying to get two engines to perform exactly the same is near impossible. Then you'll have what happens in other sports where engines are sealed, those with the money buy lots of engines and select the best after dyno testing them. I knew a British Kart champion who threw obscene amounts of money doing that to win a 'standardised' championship. I only see two logical ways of achieving these aims. One is to introduce a rev limiter, minimum flywheel weight and standardised ancillaries like clutch and carb. That should, for a while at least increase reliability and reduce costs, especially if the rev limit were reduced year on year to a specified level. Second possibility is a claiming rule where any rider can buy another riders engine for £X at the end of a meeting. Nobody is then going to spend too near that figure on engines, again that would have to be introduced in increments.

I can see many not being able to afford to stay!

This program came out today about the Supercross season. I found it interesting throughout but the relevant part about the way they train and practice is from about 9 minutes in to 25 minutes.

What a load of rubbish!! Brendan was at the practice last Sunday and looked to be going pretty well. The track cut up later and he had a spill on the second bend, no big deal just a normal, run of the mill practice spill. The whole unable to slide bit is a figment of yours or somebody else's imagination and had no place in a sensible conversation.

I think Speedway is a bit like Golf in so far as it is a very simple sport and tiny adjustments in technique can make quite a difference in performance. In my opinion many riders could benefit from somebody who analysed the sport in depth and then coached a technique based on that. At the moment in the USA there is an ex pro cyclist, Aldon Baker, training top class Motocross/ Supercross riders and his results have been amazing. Much of that is about his fitness regime but he also teaches riding technique and how to practice but as far as I know has never ridden a MX meeting.

With the proviso that the kid was the right character to be able to take the knocks and was determined then I think you could do so fairly easily. I would say there are more riders succeed who have the right character than those with the natural ability but not the determination when things get tough. .

Briggo was a lot more than half decent and Tony was a very good rider, most certainly not shyte. No idea what is happening at Rye but would imagine that any groundwork is going to be way behind schedule with the weather we've been having.

If its in a sealed container I'd use it.

No it's not but it won't be long before they have a lot of different set ups for the Gerhard like they do the others so 'tuning' would be more expensive to make up for the servicing is my guess. There will still be riders thinking they want a 'fresh' motor every other meeting and willing/able to pay for it as well.

In defence of tuners when your reputation is dependant on the speed and reliability of the engines you build then you are going to try to convince riders to use the best available parts and replace them perhaps more frequently than necessary just to be on the safe side. Some also invest pretty heavily in machinery and do a good engineering job at reasonable money, they aren't all ripping riders off.

Have you tried ringing them and saying you want to cancel and move to Sky for broadband and TV? should get a better offer then.

To be honest don't remember this being on here if it was at the last meeting and obviously didn't notice an issue at the track. Fact still remains the meeting was run under the ACU and therefore isn't an example of what could go wrong if they aren't involved.

First thing I should address is the Dirt track at Oxford. I rode in the last meeting held there and all the safety fence and all other requirements of the ACU were met, in fact the club was still affiliated to the ACU at that time. The only comments I remember were from Chris Brown about shale getting onto the dog track and that was because it was very windy and the covers were difficult to keep down. At no time have I ever seen Dirt track racing held where safety wasn't a priority and if anything the rules have been tightened up since affiliating to the MCF. I'm way too old and too experienced in the ways of motorcycle racing to involve myself with anything that didn't take safety seriously. I think the days have long gone where the ACU were the only people capable of running safe, good quality meetings. There are other federations out there now who can do as well and in many cases better, they train officials to at least the same standard as the ACU, carry equivalent or better insurance and have many years of experience behind them. Generally they are set up because somebody has reached the end of their tether with the ACU not meeting the needs of their members. For something like the track we are talking about it is difficult to see what benefit they gain from joining the ACU, SCB, BSPA with the costs involved if they have no intention of running league meetings. If somebody wants to run a Speedway meeting under a different affiliation why shouldn't they? The ACU will try and bully riders by threatening to revoke their licences but that would be illegal as proven in court somewhere around 40 years ago by the AMCA. More recently that threat was made about anybody riding at Lydd, they did nothing except wonder why their members view them with suspicion. If you want to run league meetings or involve yourself in International meetings then the ACU is the only option. If you want to run a training track with perhaps the odd meeting thrown in then in my opinion there are better options. Those options are in some cases very professional, very well run federations who are already running some of the biggest meetings in off road motorcycle sport in the UK. The BSPA could I suppose reach a gentlemans agreement not to use riders who compete outside the ACU. However that would run the risk of opening the can of worms that is the asset/ self employed status of riders. They would be far better treating it like a rider who competes in the odd Grasstrack or Motocross and ignoring it. You never know somebody else might just come up with some good ideas that they can copy.

You can but its much cheaper and easier to do so through one of the affiliations such as the MCF, ACU, YSMA etc. To do it yourself is a pain with deciding on rules and regulations for absolutely everything while the affiliations already have those in place. I've been through the process for a Motox practice track about 15 years ago and it was difficult then and I am sure it is far more so now. The insurance is broadly third party and indemnity.

It was never under consideration by Tim Stone, you are assuming while I spent countless hours talking to him about what was going to happen at Newport in the year leading up to his death and not once did he ever mention withdrawing from the PL. There were plans in place to let part of the car park go for an industrial unit and the terms and conditions for weekday use of the remainder of the car park had been drawn up and agreed so the stadium would have been in it's best position financially for years. Whatever your opinion of Tim Stone he wouldn't have spent the income on anything other than keeping the Speedway running. The details were passed on to Nick when they bought the stadium along with my opinion that it needed income from other than Speedway to survive but they were of the opinion that they could turn it around. Their money to invest as they thought best of course and no matter what my later opinion of them they really did give it a good shot.

There is no way I would involve myself with the acu if I were to run a track but not wanting to enter the league. There are plenty of alternative affiliations and I'd opt for any of them rather than the acu. You can just about get insurance on your own but at quite a cost. The insurance isn't for the riders so insisting they carry their own is a non starter.

I'm framing that one :D Can say with absolute certainty that was never under consideration by Tim Stone. I would also say that the Speedway stayed alive while he was which is what he used to tell everybody. You only have to look at other venues where Speedway has returned to see that they tend to follow a similar pattern with great crowds to start that dwindle away in time. It happened at Weymouth and Scunthorpe that I can think of in recent times. Even a return from closure and the improvements to stadium and track couldn't draw sufficient crowds under the Mallets. They listened to everybodys opinion and did most of what people said was needed for Speedway to thrive in Newport and it didn't survive. Tim Stone listened to many then did exactly what he thought irrespective of their opinion and Speedway survived until his death. Easy to say if and but, the above paragraph is evidence the rest is part informed guesswork. My opinion is that Phil Morris could well have been the only man to keep Newport alive but that also is part informed guesswork.

So I've been told there is a better quality jrm/jawa engine on its way.

The thing I don't get is if the answer is lowering admission to £10 why are NL tracks not attracting lots of newcomers? The standard of riders isn't what stops new people coming along because they don't know the difference. Not even entirely sure that getting people along and them enjoying the sport initially is even the answer, just look at towns where they re-open tracks after years of being without the sport. Weymouth opened and for the first couple of years pulled very good crowds indeed but over the years they gradually dwindled away to the stage where there weren't enough there to pay the bills most weeks. They had a lot of people helping out and promoting the sport but gradually the crowd dwindled down to a hardcore of regular support. The same pattern is repeated throughout the history of the sport, new track opens and draws good crowds which slowly reduce year on year. I think weekly Speedway is too much for many people and fortnightly meetings would probably do better, however that is no good for paying landlords or riders. Personally I think Speedway will pretty much muddle on as it has for years to come with peaks and troughs of support. The one light at the end of the tunnel is the rise in popularity of amateur Speedway, the more opportunity there is for people to get on a bike the more are likely to go to watch weekday Speedway and take along family and friends. Hopefully alongside that will come a rise in the number of British lads capable of holding down team places at their local tracks. League clubs should be getting more involved with this, getting riders and Promoters along to meetings to look out for and help talented riders.

I think there is a big issue with expecting the things you see at BSB, MotoGP, Supercross or most other events replicated at league Speedway. None of those things play to the same audience every week for months at a time. If you took the best from all of them within a few months it would be old and stale. Equally club Road racing would often be pleased to see an average Speedway crowd, while club motocross which has thousands of riders competing every weekend usually has family and friends as non paying spectators. Even British Superbikes which has terrific presentation and TV coverage and is probably the best sports day out I've ever been to doesn't pay very many of it's competitors with the majority paying to be there via sponsors. The British Supercross is the same with the majority of riders paying to be there and therefore helping with the costs. As far as the riders taking to much money out of Speedway it's a difficult one. The very top riders earn OK but not exceptional money while the vast majority vary between getting by or having to contribute toward their racing one way or another. It's right to say they would be paying to compete in any other sport at a comparable level but generally they would be competing less often and more locally at times that would fit in with a normal working life. They would also have the option to not compete if they had work commitments, something that Speedway riders don't have the luxury of. If you take into account the time off work and travelling costs in addition to upkeep of bikes that is when Speedway becomes a very expensive sport to participate in. Take away the money and you won't have many riders able or willing to commit to the sport. The idea that the riders don't care about team performance is something else I wouldn't agree with. Possibly true at the highest level (although we have seen performances by injured riders that would say otherwise. I can't imagine anybody claiming that Chris Harris for example isn't passionate about his team). I would say that most of the riders in the PL and NL care very much about their team, it might be different to the time when riders spent years at the same team but riders involved with a decent promoter still care about their team even if only there for a season.

That's not what I see in this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvIm7EiRYu8 video at all, don't agree with the video title that Morris is innocent and if I was the ref I would exclude him. But in my opinion a racing incident with a horrible outcome.