martinmauger

Riding speedway sounds like beer & skittles basically, but being a motorsport it can go wrong very quickly. One bad spill and bike can be written off, along with a month or so of earnings. Then when repaired or replaced the rider may not score as well due to resulting niggling injuries (often the worst to get over) and / or the 'new' bike may not rerform as well as the previous one. Spoke end of season to one rider (name witheld but a Premier League 2nd string) who admitted his scoring had tailed off somewhat, team doing zip so no real biggie. His only bike needed a tune / service and he had a buyer lined up who was aware of the impending service, but if he crashed or blew the bike up the sale would fall through and with it his chance to break even over the season. He was reluctant to tune his existing bike or replace it without a firm team offer for the next season. This wasn't forthcoming and so the rider sold his bike and all other speedway equipment and retired and does a more conventional job, though is still seen at tracks from time to time. Probably happens more than one might otherwise think....

Prob already mentioned, but no one forces anyone else to ride speedway all riders have their reasons for doing so. Reckon it costs £100+ just to turn up with one bike and put it on the track: vehicle fuel + new rear tyre + racing fuel & oil + chain oil + tear offs / goggle lenses + cleaning of bike & riding gear + servicing (cost divided by races), etc. Multiply by no. of bikes and add more vehicle fuel for greater distance travelled. Then factor in time spent 'prepping' the bike + time spent travelling. This assuming the bike hasn't required attention beforehand i.e crash damage, parts replacing, etc. As stated it's human nature not to divulge payments and also to aquiere as much payment as possible. Won't comment on possible greedy riders, but any who make a profit from riding speedway, good luck to them.

Continuing BSF Speedway Confessions: while my story probably isn't as interesting as Deano's, I should point out the lady in question was a divorcee who for some reason kept her married name. Current staus: happily unmarried to the same (different) lady 26 years and counting; so far, so good ....

Hull riders complained about the same thing happening at Sheffield once, sometime mid-1970's, was mentioned in the Hull proggie when fans decried Viking riders' gating that nite....

Who hasn't; me too . And it wasn't my missues either, never been married ....

That ^^. And let team manager place riders where they like in a team line up, as long as the 2 lowest average riders are at reserve. E.g. If Adams wishes to use Lindgren at no.5, let him, assuming he rides in the UK in 2018. Would prefer a return of the old 'tac sub' rule, but probably not going to happen on cost grounds. But - if the 'dreaded' tactical ride rule (not a fan of) is retained, as it almost certainly will, then double points should only apply if a rider wins the heat, and also allow 2 'tr's' per match. And for goodness sake sort out the fixture list, clubs not staging home meets for 4-5 weeks, especially in Summer months / school hols, then 3 per week in September to complete fixtures is ridiculous....

Folk will understand that while unable to give details, I can confirm at least 3 items went to a very good home - an enthusiastic Hull Vikings and speedway-in-general fan. Not me, more's the pity, but the most important thing is proceeds are going to a very good cause.....

Good article on White City, reminded me of Mike Sampson. You know how some folk always seem to have their sleeves rolled up no matter what ? Well Mike always seemed to have his sleeves rolled up when riding .....

S'what happens when you post whilst tired, shattered actually. I meant if Wolves still had Lindgren & Thorsell availble but Swindon were missing Doyle & Morris, Wolves would almost certainly have won. Moot point cos they didn't, all over now, still close finish, better than 1st leg 30-point walkover from either side.....

Interesting point: should active riders be allowed to also promote? Ivan was also a co-promoter (with Barry Briggs, Harry Oxley & Jack Milne) of the 1982 World Final, and 1985 & 1988 (I think) World Team Cups, and fully intended to ride in the final should he have qualified. Would have been fascinating, to say the very least, vis a vis the Penhall / Carter incedent. Especailly if Ivan was in the same race....

Life is full of its, buts and maybes: absolutely and wouldn't it be boring if it were so predictable? Speaking as a neutral though, still think I'm right 'bout Wolves & Swindon. But Swindon scored more points in the play offs and topped the regular league so there's that. Doyle - probably, the rest - dunno don't follow ball game sports. Maybe Harlem Globetrotter refs shoud be randomly introduced to all sports, . Came up in conversation last nite: is the sport running out of riders a bit, seems like it.....

This ^^. Is all you can say, adding that Swndon did well but not great as they beat a severely weekend Wolves team by 1 point on agg, if Swindon were missing Doyle & Morris, reckon they would have got a pasting. Though If Doyle & Morris AND Lindgren & Thorsell were all missing, the Premier play offs would have been Premier / Championship Select V Premier / Championship Select. Blooming close finish to the league though....

Similar thing happened to me once. Postie arrived just as I left for work, took the post with me which included a couple of speedway DVDS. Ending up using them to configure the DVD player on network PCs and many folk stopped to watch the on-screen action. "Is this the speedway you are always talking about?", " and they can actually pass around the outside", "these guys ride all over the world?", "no gears or brakes (or fear!) at up 70MPH you say?". " Yep" to all. "It looks great, I'd love to see it 'live in the flesh' so, when is the next race in Hull ?", tricky one, was hoping no-one would ask that....

Ivan was also part of the consortium mostly as a sleeping partner I believe who ran Barrow for a while before Chris Roynon (Adam's dad) took over. Think Bradford were also ran by a rider / promoter for a time in the early 1970's....

Forced as I am to speak cryptically (!), going back a few years concerning a potential new track not a million miles from where I live (wherever that could be) councellors advised against even trying to attempt planning pemission for one possible site as "the drainage there is terrible, it's a flood plain basically and so you wouldn't to build anything on it". Fast forward a couple of years and, low and behold, (very) many houses have been built on said site that was seen to be good afterall, even overcoming much public opposition concerning already existing traffic congestion due to the proximity of a school and a soon-to-be-built supermarket. And so it came to pass that much flooding does indeed occur to the (very) many houses much to the disenchantment of new house owners and the traffic congestion has to be seen to be believed: think of a long, thin car park. The new supermarket owners seem happy however what with the (very) many customers literally on their doorstep. Funny how things sometimes work out....

Once asked World Class rider about Kasprzak and he told me "he, (KK) is just one of those 3 -13 riders, you never know what you will get". As we know, when on form KK is devasting, when not he is quite ordinary...

Bit before my time, saw it on Speedwaplus! site, poss shouldn't mention other sources but hey, it's all speedway. Seem to recall a commemorative stone from Stein's home country of Norway was placed at Hampden Park, then moved to Ashfield....

Me too, I'm in Hull where it rained most of yesterday and all nite, quite heavily at times and only just stopped today. After leaving work at 6pm, woulda had to chase around like a blue-ended flying insect, fighting thro' car park-like traffic then arranging transport to hopefully just make it by 7.30. So saved me from a bagful of hassle and poss wasted journey or half-journey.....

"The things you hear off some riders who cant even get a skid on is laughable, try to explain to a young wannabe that a jawa front wheel 10 years old with new bearings that costs £20 spins at exactly the same speed as an anodised sm pro wheel which costs £200, its like explaining algebra they switch off." I've overheard so many identical conversations. A thought occured to me, with all the guests and doubling & down up maybe speedway should run as Belle Vue did in the war: have a blank programme and just man meetings with whoever turns up. I was being semi sarcastic but, hang on. Actually....

I'll echo what Albert said; Graham Trollope, Dave Peet, Rob Godfrey, wife Gail and their daughter (forget her name) worked like trojans, ending up covered in muck for their efforts. The track ended up still wet, heavy but also smooth think only one rider fell ,Proctor, but not a bad spill and no one 'picked-up' & headed toward the fence One can respect any rider for deciding that conditions are too bad to take risks, it's their neck afterall, and then riding but not going 'flat stick'. But it was galling to see 2 of the riders who appeared to be the most unhappy about conditions, Palm Toft & Cook, each then race to one untroubled & fully in-control win. The track wasn't getting anay worse, and as is often the way seemed a lot better after few races, the meet could have continued to heat 15 in my opinion....

Indeed she did. Madeline Fundin wearing Tony Briggs' leathers rode match races against Bobbi Hunter, a lady rider from USA....

Think the extremely varied starts that day were too much even for Ivan. Prob significant the the ref that day was the same as in charge of the 1972 World final at Wembley, George Transpurger. Both finals featured interesting starts, but think it was a bit 'off' that the ref spoke to Ivan just prior to the 1973 run off threatening to exclude him if he took his sweet time arriving at the tapes as in '72. Had had he showed a tad more patience he woud no doubt beaten Szczakiel as he was passing for fun on that day, especially round turns 1 & 2. That said Ivan himself recalled "he deserved to win because I fell off and he didn't !"....

Once travelled to an away meet with Hull, 1980 or 81, forget where and the Vikings ran R/R so borrowed a local National League (then division 2) rider as No.8. He didn't get a ride in the match but rode in the 2nd half and in 3 rides never got a slide on once, and he was a league rider.... Not getting into anything but I know what I saw. You will have to forgive my Mk1 human memory but it was 36 / 37 years ago and I was only just considered old enough by my parents to travel to away meets alone. If I could honestly recall the rider and the track I would happily name names, but I'm not sure so won't. I just remember thinking the Vikings has been stitched up as while I'm sure the rider was prob going as well as he could, didn't look as if he would've got a point.....

The sound of speedway bikes never comes across good on TV. At Hull, Craven Park when the bikes were revvving at the start under the green light the noise in the main stand had to be heard to be believed and appreciated. Imagine your fav rock or metal band, amps on 11, twin guitars with perfectly sustained crunch through a wall or Marshall speakers and you come close. For a few glorious seconds one's internal organs literally shook; can you tell I'm a rock / metal fan . Interesting that local residents never complained about it. Yet on TV, Sky and club videos, the was bike sound was of loud road bikes ....

That too ^^. I don't follow the rules as closely as I possibly should anymore, s'pecially guests, R / R, doubling up / down rules. I just enjoy 4 riders going heck for leather, 4 laps turning left at each end, no gears, no brakes, getting well sideways: that part hasn't changed....