Vince

It's also open to anybody who is under 16 on March 1st, so many of last years riders from the U15's and this years grade 2 CL riders will be able to compete.

Is Speedway a minority sport? Compared to football for sure, but then just about every sport is in comparison to football. I would have thought spectator figures hold up pretty well against most other sports though. I think there are about 38 teams in the league and even if you take the average attendance at a pessimistic 500 that still gives 19000 people watching Speedway every week during the season. I know they used to get more than that at individual tracks in the old days but live sport attendances are down in just about every sport. It also has weekly television coverage and the GP's are shown on terrestrial TV. I suspect Speedway is still within the top 5 or 6 of spectator sports. My guess is that Speedway would be behind Horse racing, Rugby, Cricket, maybe Athletics and of course Football but well ahead of genuine minority sports such as Sand Yachting or Table Tennis! That's not to say that anybody should be sitting on their laurels because we all know it could be so much better.

I wouldn't have thought so, there was nothing on offer for the U15 championship.

That can't be quite right as they are able to pay 15 year olds (who are still at school) to ride in the Conference, must be something to with being adults & kids combined as against kids alone. I know in MX they aren't allowed to charge entry for a kids meeting but they are if it is predominantly adult with some kids races. There are also things like child actors being paid so presumably it must be legal to pay kids. I would imagine that last years U15 Championship provided a lot more entertainment than expected so the BSPA will be a bit more likely to get behind the kids now. As for the rest the theory is great but getting the time to attend such things is difficult and expensive, just the racing is hard to fit in. Generally all the advice that they need is available once they are in the pits with experienced riders.

You can't charge to watch kids racing, don't really know why but it's the same in all motor sports. I would think they wil run after the main meetings.

Personally I don't think that smaller engines are the way to go, standard engines, carbs, clutches and ignitions would be good but very difficult to enforce. There would also be the problem of needing extra equipment to step up a league. Assuming that averages are coming in what about allowing one old hand per team on his straight average but then adding 0.5 per full year of any league experience up to a maximum of 6 years for every other rider with no minimum. So newcomers would come in at 0.5 which would make them a good option. Most riders who are still learning could expect to increase their average by more than 0.5 while riders who have come down from the Premier or spent years in the league would struggle to match their average, this would hand the advantage to improving riders where now it is definitly with the experienced rider.

A friend of mine would love to locate any videos of Reading during the 1988 season, home or away. If you can help please contact me on vince@samsspeedway.co.uk

Don't sit on the fence Tim - say what you mean Seriously though something needs to be done about this Ref, she really is dangerous. You can just about live with some of her very strange decisions about who is at fault but when she is putting riders at risk of being hurt or worse she needs to be sorted out before the new season starts.

I think we should also add our thanks to the Ref Steve! Thanks for managing to bumble her way through a meeting without actually managing to kill anybody that is, somebody needs to revoke her licence in a hurry. There was one incident where Andy Braithwaite locked up badly and both the following riders layed their bikes down to miss him but when he stayed on she just allowed the race to continue. Far more worrying is the incident that my wife saw where Tim Websters bike was laid in the middle of the start straight and she failed to see it and only switched the red light on when Lewis Bridger was a few yards from the bike, by all accounts Lewis was very lucky not to have been seriously injured. I don't generally complain too much about Referees as they have a very difficult job (and I would be useless at it) but this woman whose name I can never remember is a danger to the riders at every meeting she attends. You can always tell when she is the Ref as she loves the sound of the bell so much that she rings it as often and as long as possible.

Weymouth 17 Matt Bates - engine failure in first race unable to take further part. George Piper 7 Sam Hurst 9 Tim Webster 1 Fell in second race. Wolverhampton 16 Lewis Bridger 8 Adam Lowe 4 Dan Kirkman 1 (1 exclusion) Andy Braithwaite 3 (1 exclusion) Meeting only run over 6 races due to curfew. I was only able to watch the races Sam was in, the final race was good with Weymouth only having 1 rider out so Sam needed to win for Weymouth to get the match. Lewis rode very well on a borrowed bike and pushed Sam hard for the first lap before he seemed to have some sort of problem. It was a shame as I would think Sam and Lewis could have had a real battle had Lewis been on his own bike as they are both happy to race hard.

Don Smith was better known as a Trials rider but was also pretty good on the Speedway (with Hackney I think?) and Scrambles as well. Unfortunately he passed away last week.

Are you sure that's the same Glen Phillips? as far as I know Glen rode schoolboy Grass Track, he has never mentioned riding MX. There is a Glen Phillips who is a good MX rider, I think from the West Country somewhere. Briggo wasn't bad on a scrambler and rode in several meetings here and in the US.

We considered the red carnation but unfortunately there is no clock tower to stand under!

You missed out old Steve We ought to all meet up after the kids meeting next week.

The problem with splitting the current Conference league is that many riders just won't be able to get enough meetings to improve. In an ideal world these youngsters need to be racing at least once a week or they just don't progress, although the training schools allow them to ride and are great in the off-season racing is the quickest way for them to get better. I think you will find that is as much a reason for riders to go to certain teams as the money, if the team is riding league and trophy the riders get more meetings under their belt. It is the same with having second half meetings, who is going to travel from say Newport to Armadale for 2 or at best 3 rides? It could take the whole meeting to find a gear that worked. At least in the Conference (with the sensible teams) he will usually get 4 rides. If you split the stand alone clubs from the others by running trophy for one and league for the other all you will do is reduce the number of riders needed and make it more difficult for the inexperienced riders to get into a team and more appealing for the teams to use Premier standard riders. If you want to make the racing closer a half hour practice before the meeting for the away team would help as the inexperienced riders would have the opportunity to learn the tracks well enough and get their bikes set up to allow them to be competetive when the meeting started. It's OK for riders who have plenty of experience to turn up even to a new track and race but it is very difficult for the youngsters, I think Speedway is the only motor sport where practice isn't compulsory. One thing I don't think many realise is just how many young riders there are looking for team places, obviously some aren't up to the job yet but there are also many who are decent riders but have signed for strong teams and not been used. These riders will be lost to the sport if they don't get to ride as nobody is going to invest the time and money needed for this sport if they can't get to ride. An amateur league would be a non-starter. Unlike Grass Track or Motocross which are run in a local farmers field for Speedway you need an expensive, purpose built track. A mx or Grass Track can also attract 100 - 200 riders to help cover costs, they then have to run the meeting over a whole day, most Speedway tracks would be unable to do that. Then if riders are competing in leagues there are very high mileages that need them (and their parents/ mechanics) to take time off work. You could only run as an amateur league if you ran individual meetings and then riders would tend to compete on their most local tracks and never get the experience needed to make the step up.

Well I think we're too old to adopt anyway Steve! Bloody hell you've gone and ruined it now - I thought I'd seen a way out of another 5 years of teenager related stress. Do you know if Reading is open tomorrow?

I can get the adoption papers over to you by Monday Shazzy and Sam can be all yours

put a 'trying to contact Wizzer' post up and he will probably see it pretty soon.

Unless you are in a desperate hurry it might pay you to wait until the end of the season when all the riders will be selling gear. You can get much of the stuff second hand, a pair of kevlars will be somewhere around £200, boots and shoe £70 - £100. You will probably have to buy the rest new. Armour is £70 upwards, gloves £25, goggles £25 plus knee pads etc. You must get a new helmet at anything from £120 to £300. Sam's first bike was a laydown 897 that cost £700 and was plenty good enough to start on. You would expect to pay from that to £1400 - £1800 for a bike that will be good enough to get you into the Conference league. A good place to start might be Wizzer on here, he generally has stuff to sell at sensible money. Also don't forget you need transport and if you really give it a go the mileage you travel will be one of your major expenses.

Reg, who used to own Matchams wanted to put in a speedway practice track about 3 or 4 years ago but they slapped an SSI on the piece of land he wanted to use. They are currently trying to put a noise restriction on the motocross track - even though it has been there for about 50 years.

1. I think the Andy Smith thing was a one off and is unlikely to be repeated. It was pretty ridiculous though. 2. As far as I know there is no Australian equivelant and it is very difficult for them to get enough meetings to progress. Again it's not the ideal but if a lad of that age is willing to leave home and travel half way round the world to try and make the grade in his chosen sport it would be harsh to deny him the chance. 3. Mildenhall might be the strongest team in the league but they would have no chance against any Premier team away from home without strengthening their team. Until the rules change to restrict the team strengths the stand alone teams will continue to employ the best riders they can to ensure they get decent crowds. A point limit may well benefit them as well by reducing their costs. 4. Wouldn't that be like Safeways and Tesco's paying into a fund in order to get Sainsbury's out of trouble? The League isn't perfect and there are changes I would like to see (as in my earlier post) but it is still a decent product overall considering the wide range of riders and teams it has to accomodate. The problem with getting a major manufacturer involved is that none of them make a suitable engine or even anything that could be easily converted. They all run flywheels that are very light compared to speedway bikes and there isnt room in the cases to make them heavy enough as far as I know. If it could be done it would be great as a modern 4 stroke motocross bike can run all season with no more than a change of oil, they do produce about 30% less power which wouldn't be a bad thing but the lack of flywheel weight would make them pretty unrideable.

I think the idea of changing the title of the 'old hand' would be good. I also think it would be an idea to introduce a point limit for teams based on a rolling average. It would help the real newcomers if the 2 reserves had to be under a certain limit - say 4 points then at least they could have a couple of rides against riders of a similar standard. I also think that no team should be allowed to use rider replacement except in a genuine emergency, too many clubs are travelling with 6 riders and leaving squad members sat idle. Or perhaps the home team could always have a reserve on hand to be used if a rider fails to make a meeting and whichever team uses him has to pay him. I think that if things continue as they are the stand alone clubs will ultimately be the losers as there are not enough of them to build a full league that will support them if the second teams break away into a proper development league.

Best I've seen: 1. Ivan Mauger 2. Bruce Penhall 3. Barry Briggs 4. Tony Rickardsson 5.Leigh Adams 6. Kenny Carter 7. Jason Crump

I think I remember Jim Squibb saying he was 54 when he retired from speedway, he then drove rallycross into his mid sixties.

In those days Barry was one of the best Rallycross drivers in Europe, I think he is still running a hotel in Torquay. I did hear that Jim had died a little while ago but don't know if that is true. It would be good if anybody knows for sure, he was a stroppy old bugger but I liked him and we got on pretty well most of the time.