Vince

Fair comment, BZ type carbs then would be less expensive to produce and easier to set up although I guess everybody has got to grips with the Blixt by now. As for clutch plates I don't know the current prices but Haruschi's were 4 times the price of a standard Jawa fibre. Baskets and hubs from other manufacturers were double the price. However I do remember a certain Mr Woffinden doing just fine at Rye on Jawa plates in a std Jawa clutch! I just think that if you are going to go for standardisation you might as well go the whole way and level the field completely. One other thing I would say is that Josh Auty's comment about it being technique rather than engine power is true, however get a rider of the same standard beating you all the time because he is on better equipment will bite anybody. Something else I've just thought of is could the use of rev limiters also help such a system. Firstly they could help with reliability and secondly they could be used at service time to ensure the output from each engine is the same as long as they are tamper proof.

Anybody know if the engines are short or long stroke? Not so much for cost but long strokes are less susceptible to set up and deal with difficult conditions better. To me that would make a far bigger difference than how many valves they have although two is a better option for standardisation I think. Standardise carbs and clutches too (BZ and Jawa maybe with jawa plates) and you really will have cut costs.

http://www.speedwaygb.co.uk/news.php?extend.36718 Be an interesting meeting on the Isle of Wight and one of very few I can attend this year.

The use of guests only bothers current fans nobody new will give speedway a miss because of them and nor does mainstream media. In fact I would make the use of guests a positive when advertising the sport. How many sports are so dangerous that there aren't enough competitors to go round? Telling everyone just how dangerous speedway really is would be the best way to attract newcomers, especially the younger generation.

Brilliant as it was I'm more in awe of the way a few top riders use the fence to drive them harder into the corners now. Think Jason Crump was the first I saw do it and it amazed me then and still does now.

Clearly the weight of his balls helped with the grip

Sporadic flat track events with no paying spectators but a couple of hundred riders paid £45 each to race at Peterborough the weekend and no riders wages to be paid out! It's no secret that most Speedway meetings make a loss. Add to that regular Speedway and flat track schools and at least you aren't running loss making events. I hope league Speedway does take place at Rye House again but it will need to be run by somebody willing to invest money rather than make a profit.

I thought for a newly laid section of track it held up brilliantly, at least as good as many tracks we see which have been 'settled' for years.

I imagine this topic will shortly be full of people admitting they were wrong and that the track changes made have worked out OK!

Dave Aldana who was something of a legend due to being one of the stars of On Any Sunday (if you've not seen it get a copy if you've any interest in motorcycles other than Speedway. Very dated now but still the best motorcycle film ever made) an AMA Champion and also known over here for his Road Racing as part of the Transatlantic series has ridden flat track in the UK several times. Last appearance was at the MCN show at Peterborough last May and he did do the meeting at Oxford that you refer to I believe as well as at least one other. Really nice guy remembered for his skeleton leathers and still, in his mid 60's, a very decent rider. We've had other American Flat Track stars ride at DTRA meetings as well including another former Champion Chris Carr, Johnny Lewis and James Rispoli. 3 years ago we had former World Superbike Champion, Moto GP rider and current MotoGP commentator Colin Edwards racing my Yamaha at Peterborough as well. American Flat track is changing but like Speedway has a long way to go to be anything like as popular as it was decades ago. The changes are well received by some but much criticised by others as is the way with these things. The company doing the promotion did revive Nascar to a large extent so hopefully will have the same success in the long term. Anybody interested can watch the American Championship events live on https://www.fanschoice.tv/ and keep up with results via https://www.americanflattrack.com/ Keep an eye out for young Oliver Brindley who is a British lad working hard to make it at the highest level of the sport after learning the basics here. He rides in the singles class and so far has been right up there with the best of them this season. Unlucky to fall on the last corner while leading his semi final at Daytona he started on the back row for the final and worked his way up to 9th having been the fastest qualifier and winning his heat. he followed that up with a good fourth at the second round and now stands equal 5th in the Championship.

I remember in the 60's if there weren't at least 5 passes in every heat, the meeting ran past 8.45 or one of the superstars shot off home without buying everybody a beer they used to refund double your entrance fee.....probably.

I would say the exact opposite as 15 other riders also get 10 goes a season! In the one-off finals a single bad gate or a breakdown could see off some of the potential winners, that isn't the case now.

All around motorcycle fan always seemed like a decent guy. Will be missed by quite a few teams and riders I think

I think Both Barry and Martin have been around Speedway long enough to know how it works. I'd agree that they would probably end up powerless if they tried to change anything that might upset the old guard though.

I would imagine anybody with an interest in keeping the sport alive.

I was 11, Briggo was local to us and I'd met him a few times so as far as I was concerned Persson was the devil himself and a no hoper who knocked off the vice messiah (Mauger was the only true Messiah in my eyes) and robbed him of a certain title! In retrospect I will allow that it was a racing incident although Persson was mostly at fault and given that he finished 2nd in the meeting (if my memory is to be relied upon) was a long way from a no hoper and actually a very good but hard rider. Wembley was such a poor track to decide a World Championship that such passes were necessary I think. A Wembley final was a fantastic occasion though and we used to have two coaches go from our small village. Nowadays the village has doubled in size but you couldn't fill a mini bus with Speedway fans. Briggo had every chance of winning another title that night, he could usually pull it out at the big meetings but we'll never know.

For me I think it would have been Eastbourne about 1977 and strangely it wasn't much of a race but the runaway winner was Gordon Kennett. The reason I remember it especially is it was the first time I'd ever seen a rider go four laps without shutting the throttle. I'd just got a Speedway bike and so was probably paying more attention than before and it really made me doubt my ability for the first time. Of course in later years I had no doubts about my ability, I became well aware I didn't have much of it! Other races I particularly remember are one with Christer Lofqvist passing Soren Sjosten (I think) third bend of the last lap after being a long way behind at Poole in the early 70's. Something Lofqvist was able to do often enough that it was widely assumed Mr Knott would put his hand in his pocket when it happened. Also Briggos crash at the Wembley World final when he lost his finger because the bike ended up a few feet from us. Hated Bernt Persson for years after but he turned out to be a really nice bloke.

I can imagine the 2030 posts now "I remember when we had real men riding full size bikes and proper racing in 2019" Seriously I don't think reducing engine size will make much difference to the racing, if anything it would become more processional as they wouldn't be using throttle control to find grip. It would increase costs with smaller engines revving their nuts off.

The track surface has changed a great deal the past few years at Kings Lynn, it used to be so grippy that plenty of decent riders really struggled to get turned. But those riders who could deal with it had lots of passing lines. It's a lot looser now and I think that is why the racing isn't as good. Whether the change is due to the track man, the shale available and/or the cost I have no idea but it's most definitely different.

In MX and Flat track at least the transponders are all fitted on the top of the left fork leg between the yokes and everybody has to fit them in the same place. There are two wires about a foot apart in the ground and the transponder is recorded by them so instead of the front wheel it will be the top of the fork leg or for spectating purposes the handlebars are close enough. Can't see them being used for jump starts as that is another system and probably an expensive one.

I just can't see how guest riders will ever stop new people coming through the door, unless of course they are told how terrible it is by an existing fan. It may well be a problem that costs the sport some existing fans but it's hard to see a way it can be resolved. Smaller teams will mean more riders sat on the sidelines waiting to race however they aren't going to wait forever they will retire from Speedway and race something else weekends. In fact the use of guest riders could be treated as a positive by explaining they are necessary because of how dangerous the sport is and how often teams are hit by injury. To me the racing is as good (and bad) as ever but the show has gone backwards if anything. They have tried to sanitise a sport that should be celebrating it's dirty, dangerous and aggressive side. People want to be entertained every minute of the evening now so something needs to be happening between races and while grading. Doesn't have to cost anything much, a local kids Trials club putting on some demos, the local cycle speedway club having some races on the back straight, local bands and so on. For those tracks that can use the centre green a cycle Speedway race between each heat is a natural fit I've always thought. I'm sure there are lots of other things people could suggest. But most importantly make the Speedway entertaining, everybody pretends to be horrified by crashes and punch ups but the sales of the crashes and cock ups videos are always much higher than any other and a punch up always sees a good crowd not only the following week but next time that team visits too. The sport is having all it's natural spectator appeal stifled.

Tiger Cubs had a big end that would disintegrate within a few seconds as a secondary rev limiter though

I think it should be one of the major promotional points along with the danger. Each to their own but in 50 ish years of going to Speedway I've never bothered with filling in a programme, then again I like individual meeting more than most team racing so I'm aware that I'm very much in the minority. If you want to keep the fans coming back following free entry I would suggest some good racing, a couple of spectacular crashes and a punch up between a couple of riders would be most effective. I'm with Rob Godfrey (for the first and very likely only time) on this one. I believe that although there were some great riders and racing in the past overall the quality of racing is higher now.

Fair play for trying to come up with new ideas and transponders can only be a good thing in races. However of all motor sports Speedway is about being in front not necessarily about being fast so I don't think the qualifying is a good thing. If experience in other motorcycle sports is anything to go by there will be some surprises as to who the fastest one lap guys are in comparison to those who have been winning races.

Why are you so convinced that a modern day two valve would be so much cheaper to maintain? The two extra valves, spring and seats aren't going to have a major impact on the cost and I just can't see the logic of your argument for 2v engines.