martinmauger

Also prob some posters, like me, who read the forum everyday but don't necessarily have time to chime in or new info to contribute....

Joe Owen, early in his career had the nickname 'Tazmanian Devil' the way he twisted all over his bike with plenty of elbows out. His style calmed down quite a bit & he became a well capable rider in 1978 raising his match ave. to above 9pts before his first terrible action at Hull riding in a meaningless 2nd half race....

Indeed, All The Very Best To All In Speedway For 2025. And (don't wanna preach to ya people, no, no, no) but if at all possible: attend your local track, and also others, or subscribe to the BSN or club feed, buy a programme & maybe club merch & also buy the Speedway Star. Discuss, criticise & complain, and also praise, (as we all love to do) by all means but try to support speedway in general. 'East Yorkshire based nutshell': when Hull closed at the Boulevard end of 1981 there were 2 divisions each of 18 teams (36 in total) with prob a few 'inactive but possible to re-open' tracks. End of 2024 we have a total of 16 +/- in the entire country, allbeit with a few 'inactive but possible to re-open', Bradford, Buxton, Coventry (hopefully) & Mildenhall immediately spring to mind. Don't think I need to draw pictures, but try to Support Speedway in 2025....

Similar situation in Hull; plenty of land inside and just outside city boundries, but literally ACRES of it just a couple of miles to the the North and to the West, but it's all owned by someone, just sitting on and it biding their time....

Can reccomend this, when I was way younger my Dad took me fishing to Filey, North Yorkshire, this woulda bin late 1970's / early 1980's ?, & I was delighted to discover sand racing was taking place - who knew ? I had just got into speedway a few previous years ago & recall there were different classes: grass / sand track bikes, Moto-X, sidecars, diff engine capacities, etc. Recall one guy seemed to be in almost every race, we watched him & he just re-fuelled & went straight again. Speaking to him afterwards he told us he rode a 250 so could compete in many more classes (250, 350, 500, unlimited, etc) so more skids for his buck. One last thing: we know how a speedway track changes so rides different as a meet progresses (dries out, dirt moves, etc) well the Filey track actually changed shape as the tide came in, from a big 'Belle Vue shape', towards to the end was a long 'sausage-shaped track', imagine, say, IOW's straights with Lakeside's bends. But, yeh, a good day out, reccomended. FOC too....

(Tis the weekend so I'm in a funny mood) My favourite shovel is the Spear & Jackson no.3, there have been reports of handles breaking off but I still believe it to be a fine shovel. ... Courtesy Ripping Yarns Series 1 Ep2: The Testing Of Eric Olthwaite 😀 https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=Awr.nrDQ2kFnAwIA2t5LBQx.;_ylu=Y29sbwNpcjIEcG9zAzEEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3Nj/RV=2/RE=1733578705/RO=10/RU=https%3a%2f%2fwww.youtube.com%2fwatch%3fv%3dHlWbcQ0iQiQ/RK=2/RS=YSEvzjteue_6uWW0w.xol098d6w-

Good stuff for Matej, happy to stand corrected, as we need our info to be right. Right ?...

Jumping in quick re: Zagar, think I read in the 'Star a few weeks that Zagar is either 'no longer an active rider' or 'is semi-retired', not been able to find the article again but think that's pretty much what was said, so he's poss out of the picture anyhoo....

Yeah very smart bike, good that it gets ridden too....

Good stuff....

Thanks for that Deano, makes sense now, 'mystery' solved, as with many things in speedway: all just to do 4 laps in (still) 60 secs or so.....

Are the Monarchs & Academy teams both defo good to go for 2025 & beyond ? Not being 'a negative ninny' but seem to recall there was some doubt over the future availability of Armadale & the Edinburgh management were reported to be looking for a new site elsewhere & a new ideal location fell through at the 11th hour recently, speedway can ill afford to lose anymore clubs....

Also I've noticed what appears to be a new design of wheel rim & hub used by Martin Vaculik & a few others: the spokes hook in 'lugs' mounted on the rim and the adjustment of spokes for tension & trueness of the wheel is at the hub, as opposed to being the other way around as has always been the case. Literally don't understand this; same design but different method of assembly there doesn't seem to be any less spokes, tho the spokes themselves do look a little thicker, so can't see any benefit i.e. lightness or strength....

Sad news, the sport has lost another old-school promoter & more importantly a true showman. In the mid-1980's, when the Boulevard had closed & before Craven Park opened for speedway, in between coach trips the Hull Speedway Supporters Club held regular get-togethers & often invited guest speakers; promoters, riders, team managers, etc. Len Silver was one such guest and very entertaining & interesting he was too. All were offered travel expenses most didn't accept anything, Len flatly refused to take a penny saying "save your money, put it towards a bus trip to a speedway meeting". He likely had business in the area anyway, I don't know, but it struck me that there was a guy from all the way from down south come to chat with us northerners brought together by the sport of speedway. RIP Len....

He's a good egg is Dave Fairbrother, a man of few words who gets things done - he's great, as posted you do get a bit embarrassed making one too many Friday phone calls "er I'm afraid my Speedway Star hasn't arrived...". Thing is the internet connection / wi-fi is so hit & miss in these parts due to the partial upgrading of the network to fibre optic, much prefer paper hard copy anyhoo....