martinmauger

Looking at the stadium drawing, assuming it's to scale, the bends could do to be a tad wider at the apex. Unless it's gonna be mega-wide over the full lap, like Scunny, Somerset & prob Glasgow....

As many said, a tad dear for families, else nail hit on head. Put on more races, juniors, anything, after main 15ht match....

Interesting views but at the same time so sad, the place just stood there, quiet & empty. Some good memories, Brandon was one of the first away trips I was allowed got 'alone' to via supporters club coach, somehow forgot to mention to the folks that I wouldn't be back in Hull til 3am-ish. As a matter of interest does anyone know who owns the house / building outside the stadium on turn 3 ?....

Tis true. Used to be an off-road than an avid road biker (done a bit of moto-x & speedway too!) and there used to be the Memba Rally, for full BMF members only, camping Friday to Sunday, at a concrete / tarmac stock car track near to the Showground. Peterbrough usually had a proper meet on the Friday but I never, ever got any takers among fellow bikers to join me. A few would watch the demonstraions on the Sunday BMF Rally for campers, non-campers & general public (I think) but that would be about it. Years before that I worked in a motorcycle franchsie, only speedway fan of course, and most of the staff watched road racing. Including some form of production class for mostly standard road bikes, pretty much just lights removed, drain plugs safety wired and racing numbers added. Now until 125cc, 160cc & 250cc, etc engines were fitted over the last few years, mostly a 'speedway bike has been a speedway bike' that is one dominent 500cc engine mark with a few challengers. So, simple to follow then, only riders results count, few give a stuff about engines, tyres, etc. My fellow colleagues would say that 'speedway is too expensive, too complicated to follow, too many rules, no passing' yet happliy pay not much less than speedway entry to watch road racing at converted aifields (usual viewing one bend and maybe one straight), no real facilities to speak of. And would gleefully pay a heck of a lot more than an FIM speedway event at Silverstone, for example, to stand 1/4 mile away from one bend and listen to the riders disappear for a minute or so and wonder what was hapenning (usually nothing). Then talk about how they stood and camped maybe in the rain and the Yamahas beat the Hondas or whatever, I would tell them I saw it on TV and had a much better view of the entire circuit & race than they did. Though I appreciate I missed out on the atmosphere. Yet when I told them I thought road racing was much more complicated, like what did different coloured numbers mean, Production, F1, F2, National, International, Supersport, etc, classes mean, and that riders queued up behind the leader for lap after lap waiting for a fall, EF or mistake to pass around the inside only, they looked at me like I had 2 heads. So yeah, like with Touring Cars, many fans identify as much, if not more with the well-known brands of vehicles as with the competitors....

Inelasticity of demand: a phrase I've personnally used since my own college days. But don't some F1 races have problems selling tickets, seem to reacall at least one where part of the circuit seems deserted. Don't recall which tracks, possibly one or two of the far Eastern ones. Please don't resort to econometrics, trying to keep discussions relatively light and uncomplicated ....

James Beaton Snr very much enjoyed his speedway and did a great deal keeping his team in business, often accompanied sons Bobby & Jim when they rode at Hull. RIP....

I have a mate who says exactly the same about road bikes converted into trikes ....

Same here. Bit like at Cardiff: great occasion, met fans from pretty much every other club, sat next to some Poole fans, enjoyed the day out. Only when watching the racing again (at Wembley though Cardiff ain't always stellar) on TV then on vid & DVD did I realise not all of it was as memorable as I thought at the time. Still least I saw a World Final live, though I forgot my blooming camera....

This ^^, nuff said....

Nope was Craven Park, only ever missed two home meets but it was ony 'shirt sleeve' weather on just two occasions. I'm talking about the main stand where spectators still enjoy the full benefits of any sea breeze, accompanied by mist wafting in off the River Humber. Mind, it was tad warmer at ground level or in the back straight stand; stadium was built 90 degrees the wrong way round. I'm told Buxton is unoffiicially the coldest track in the UK, though I've seen amateur heats run in between blizzards at Scunny....

S'right. Apart from the Penhall v Olsen & Knudsen heats, the drama of Carter, Gundersen & especially Jessup EFs, nothing much happened. Last World FInal At Wembley, that's it....

Jumping in with my 2p's worth: one is, one can be and one is equal to. I'll readers to decide which is which . All The Best for 2018 ....

My family's 'record' for stuff sent by air mail to relatives in Florida, USA is 4 days. A friend of ours entered a compettion via a stamped envelope: comp address with 1st class stamp on the front, answer and her address on the back. It was posted through her front door the next day....

Credit where it's due, mine dated 30 December 2017 arrived at 11am today (28th), plenty in WH Smiths & ASDA too. Post is still catching up in this area after the entire country shut down over 2 days for some reason (!), I'm still owed stuff ordered mid-December.......

I wasn't knocking bangers / stock cars BTW, I realise there are different classes i.e. 'demolition derby'-type events v different classes of racing with different rules & regs. I meant folk wanting to see crashes and smashes are virtually guarranteed this action, wheras with speedway there is not guarrantee of the quality of racing, though personally I'd enjoy watching one rider going round a slick track on his own. Been meaning to check the stox out, a pal went to Scunny once, forget why I coudn't make it last minute, but he said "it was difficult to follow at times, but boy was it entertaining and the big Chevy V8's (?) were brilliant, the sound of those big engines was awesome"....

You'd think. " in the middle of the night,dig some holes, preferably about 5x5 mitre and about 2/3 ft deep. Cover with netting then put leaves and cut grass over them. Next day sit back and watch the fun ". You have no idea how much I'd love to do that, but I'd setttle for lobbing the odd stick through a front wheel . All that said, mention to folk an out of town speedway track to remove such yoofs from public areas and they say "what a good idea, there MUST be land somewhere". You'd think that too....

Each to their own, of course, footie & rugby do nothing for me other than assessing whether a stadium could also stage speedway. Once went to Coventry, Brandon for a speedway nite wih a couple of stock car fans, who when turning into the car park about an hour befiore the start, both said almost in unision "oh no, it must be off already". It wasn't off, they were just used to seeing the car park beng full to busting. And Brandon has a more than decently-sized car park....

They were at it again yesterday, Boxing Day, this time with a few quads joining the local 'heroes'. Hopefully there were no children in the park at the time....

Stock Cars / Bangers: I 'get' it, guarranteed action rain or shine, prob hardly ever gets rained off, must get around to watching it sometime. Was recently having a chat about motorsoprt with a pal, and a pal of his mentioned he is really into drifting, which they stage on the inside at Kig's Lynn (can't call it centre green) among other places. Have to say I don't 'get' drifting. He was going on about the mega powerslides and performed mostly by Japanese sports cars in formation or singularly and how marvellous it is to watch, well they do that all the time in speedway whilst actually racing against each other. While I'm sure there is a lot of skill involved, spinning up ones tyres is not that difficult, even if one doesn't have a less grippy surface or an excess of power, pumping up the driven tyres to 60PSI or so will get you sliding. But whether I 'get' drifting or not, like stock cars, they get huge crowds....

I'd have settled for 10 acres of land with full planning permission for disruptive motorsport within 5 miles of Hull city centre. Didn't get it. Incedentally, at a local park, youths were riding loud motorbikes up and down for over 2 hours this afternoon, if only they had somewhere supervised and safe to ride without distrubing anyone. No point in calling the cops they're not interested. But - if you do 31MPH in a 30 zone or park for 10 seconds too long well that's different, sigh. All the best to everyone in speedway....

Same happened to Ray Morton way back in 1997 with formation of the Elite & Premier League. The limit for PL riders was 7.00, Ripper's ave was 7.01 so he was excluded from that league, as were (if memory serves) Andy Smith, Sean Wilson and defo Garry Stead, all 4 made deputations to the BSPA. Doubly Ironic as if Ripper had beaten one less rider, 2nd instead of a win, he'd have been eligble for a PL place. The rider he beat: Garry Stead, then riding for Bradford though he signed for Hull of course in 1999. As did Ray Morton.....

The Vikings did flipping great: Hull won the Premier Trophy, first 'cup' since Interleague KOCup in 1976. A good season for me personally for various reason. I was a good position financially to buy a season ticket, £250 if memory serves, so thought "why not?". Gained me free entry each week to at least 20 home meets including free car parking so was very good value indeed as Hull had good run in all competions. Also an ingenious cross-promotion meant season ticket holders were offered a "5 for £5" deal with greyhounds, which ran at Hull, Craven Park until mid-2003. Think the deal was entry, free drink, free racecard, £1 of bets (minimum was 25p) and maybe a bag of chips. Went to few 'dog night's had a great time, picking dogs with speedway-sounding names like 'Screen Machine' and picked trap numbers going by gate positions on the speedway track (!) e.g. inside traps / gates early on, then the outside traps / gates, then random. Me and the girlf basicaly broke even and thoroughly enjoyed our nights at the dogs. Was also able to do a lot more away meets than usual and got to know the riders a bit more....

So TWK, where do your loyaties lie: with the Rebellian (not the Somerset version) / Resistance or with the Empire / First Order, Light or Dark Side of the Force ?. Always loved Star Wars, don't mind Star Trek & Indiana Jones, Harry Potter is really for kids I but can't get into Lord Of the Rings. I'm told by Sci-Fi / Fantasy fans, more serious than I they are (!), that the arguments on the Star Trek forums have to be read to be believed. Still, wouldn't life be boring if we all liked everything ?...

Mine arrived today, Saturday, annoying for sure but to be fair post has been a week or more late in this area....

No, I have't been at the Chrimbo egg-nog already; that starts tomorrow. I hit the flicks and Star Wars: The Last Jedi, sees our heroes searching for someone to help them give the bad guys another kicking (no spoilers but it's actually to stop the bad guys wiping them out) when they travel to an up-market casino-planet where gambling is the thing and betting on the old space gee-gees is the way. Some action shows said space gee-gees racing around a oval huge track, maybe half a mile long, of loose surface with at least one enormously banked corner which woud be turns 3 & 4 as races were run clockwise. Can't say I noticed turns '1 & 2', but it looked one heck of a track. Meantime "just jump into an X-Wing and blow stuff up", and you all thought I'd just say May The Force Be With You.....