Vince

I worked for Jimmy Squibb over 20 years ago. He was in his mid sixties then and still as hard as nails. He was about 5'4" and yet drivers half his age and twice his size were terrified of him. I think he rode Speedway until he was in his fifties and when I knew him he was still driving Rallycross. He judged Split Waterman to be the toughest feller he knew ( as in hard - not a dirty rider) and although he generally had little time for modern riders he did rate Bruce Penhall as the most talented he had ever seen and Ivan Mauger the best all round rider.

My point is that it should be relatively easy to attract motorcyclists. If the sport can't do that what are it's chances of attracting new spectators from the general public who have absolutely no link with the sport? Making the rules more easily understood may not be the answer but it has to be worth a try along with better promotion and finding a way to reduce the riders costs.

When I was a kid the second half was an individual event entered by all the team riders from both teams. Best of both worlds?

I found an article about Speedway on the BMF web site. I think that for a motorcycle site to include the following comments (although it is pretty upbeat about the sport in the main) is a good indication of where the sport is shooting itself in the foot. Motorcycling generally is enjoying a massive upsurge in popularity with Road Racing and Motocross especially recording records in spectator and rider attendances. Speedway should be able to benefit from this relatively cheaply and easily but like you say the sport has to be easy to understand the first time you go. "Although speedway is a bikesport, many bikers find it difficult to relate to. Unlike road racing or motocross, neither the bikes nor the skills required to ride them bear any resemblance to those used on the road. Most regular spectators have little interest in bikes, just the sport, and the lack of motorcycles parked outside any speedway stadium is testimony to this. Speedway should be a simple enough sport, with four guys racing each other over four laps, but it has some strange rules. It is hard enough for newcomers to understand why an individual sport is played as a team game. Rules that allow teams to borrow riders from other teams are commonplace and cause the sport’s credibility to continue to be questioned. Can you imagine Manchester United borrowing one of Liverpool’s star players for a match because one of their own is injured? It happens in almost every British league speedway meeting. When you add in tactical substitutions, reserve replacement, rider replacement, golden doubles and green sheet averages you can see why a love of statistics is almost as important as a love of speedway."

I understand what Jeff is saying but don't think that you can group football, snooker, darts etc with Speedway. The participants in any of those sports usually compete in local leagues and any of them probably only spend a couple of hundred pounds to follow their sport for a year. Presumably the majority of Conference riders intend to go on to higher things within the sport and therefore would need top quality equipment to be competetive and attract attention. My beer mat maths suggest that for a rider to be competitive at Conference level would take between £10,000 and £15,000 per year. That is to have 2 bikes, a reliable van, riding gear and spares and also allows a few quid for engine rebuilds and crash damage. This is based on only 20 meetings per year so could easily be higher. Over the same amount of meetings a 7 point rider rider can earn £700 points money and roughly £120 expenses. That still represents a massive commitment by the rider. I would suggest that the promoters can't be making much, if any money on Conference matches so to keep riders in the sport the costs need to be reduced. So what about: 1. Only one bike/ Engine per rider to be registered at the start of the season. This would have 2 benefits in that it would reduce the initial outlay and maintenance costs and would also force riders to learn how to get the best out of an engine for the track and conditions rather than just use the other bike. I would suggest that at this level they only be allowed to use standard bikes but it would be impossible to police. 2. All bikes and/or engines to be at least one year old, again to reduce costs. 3. North and South leagues to reduce travel costs and time off school or work. 4. All riders get their first years racing licence free. It doesn't save a fortune but it would show some interest in new blood by the ACU/ BSPA. From a personal point of view having a son who is considering going from Motocross to Speedway it is a far more expensive sport in which to be competitive, with bikes needing to be modified to be really competitive and a great deal of travelling. Most forms of motorsport have one make, minimal cost race series to bring new talent along and I can't see why Speedway couldn't evolve something similar. For sure the sport must be losing a lot of talent to other, cheaper sports.