martinmauger

Jumping in late, don't always agree with Rob Godfrey but he did good by fans allowing re-admission tics for Leicester match to be used, I was due to attend that meet but couldn't last minute due to, reasons. So Scunny v Redcar, never really fan of afternoon meetings as tracks dry out and go slick, it happens, but the racing got better and main thing I enjoyed it and will defo return. (I'd have returned anayway as I love speedway). Oh, and I musta missed any announcement but is the ever-trying Connor Coles a permanent replacement for the desperately unlucky Joe Alcock ?......

And in days of yore people said the likes of Exeter, Hull (Boulevard), Newport (Somerton Park) & Newcastle (early 1960's) were a tad bumpy . Still, it was experience for the riders not used to such choppy comditions and hopefully the riders who spilled weren't too badly shook up. And new GP scoring takes a bit of getting used to, not 100% sold on it myself but it is what it and being speedway could well change at the end of the current season....

Correct me if I'm wrong (or I didn't pay sufficient attenion) but don't think cameras showed the home stand last nite. My point being when the YTV Trophy was filmed at Hull, Boulevard 1974-81 often few fans stood on the terracing at either end, while both stands on the straights were packed, so would give the impression hardly anyone was there. Just sayin'....

Jumping in late: I watched the event live at a mate's house and then the hi-lites on Quest; it came across great and people watching may just think "wow that looks cool I'll check that out", hopefully they may do. Just a tiny critique, think the text graphics are still a bit too small. The hi-lites package 24 ish hours later on Quest came across good too, better if were shown at 10 or 11pm as opposed to midnite. But Discovery have produced an excellent TV slot for speedway....

This is true. As I stated before the facility at the Abbey was a recent convenience, a modern 'Toilette De Stade' if you like, built as it was in 1947 compared to the more tue historical 'back straight cess trenches' circa 1895 at the Boulevard in Hull , which I visited once - and only once. Ironic that Hull Angels, Hedon finished up at the Abbey in 1949. But historical interest (sarcasm ?) aside, as a self-confessed track anorak I watch the developments in Swindon with interest, the shortened and re-shaped track was great & better than I thought it would be if I'm being honest, just needs a stadium around it.....

Yeh I got the racing at Odsal / The Shay the wrong way around, s'what happens when you post when supposed to be working. i.e staring into, rather than at, the screen to check no-one is standing behind. Racing at the Shay prob looked more spectacular as you could get more than up close and personal, was my first permitted away trip as a youngster; "no Halifax isn't far, I won't be back late" (nor from Berwick, Coventry, King's Lynn, Reading, Swindon, etc, etc, LOL!). Would welcome speedway back at Odsal, you never know, always enjoyed my visits there....

Very shocking news, RIP NIgel....

And Hull. Gotta say, obv more hope for Swindon & Coventry as the venues still exist, well kinda in Coventry's case, but goes to show, tracks can and sometimes do return even at new locations. Very good news....

I visted both the Shay & Odsal, in days before & after Hull's 1995 return, and enjoyed both. As at Hull, Craven Park, the view from the main stand at Odsal was great but of the two I preferred The Shay though, reasons of smaller stadium so better atmos and in pre-2m safety barrier days (which must be said was defo needed at The Shay !) one could literally get more than up close and personal with the racing and great pits viewing too. Racing was mostly brilliant at the Shay, unless it was a hot, dry day and then it got pretty slick, otherwise it was great. Both sadly missed venues still, Odsal has a shale track once more so looking good for poss speedway return.....

When I was a kid I'd have been 'all over' this new speedway sticker album years ago I bought a similar WWF, now WWE, album and bought stickers of all the wrestlers, comentators, other characters, etc to complete it. Kids may like it (and may not, dunno sadly I'm no longer a kid) and it may inspire them to attend tracks & turn some into supporters. But here's the rub; my WWF album was sold in newsagents everywhere, and I do mean everywhere. Obviously WWF / WWE was / is much bigger than is speedway, if the speedway sticker album is only sold at tracks, only kids who attend tracks will get the album unless it is also be on sale elsewhere....

It matters, especially in the above case if you happen to be a Thompson Twin and / or when it's your team. Relting a tale: I recall chatting to ref folowing a match at Hull, Craven Park wehere the ref's box was pretty much in line with the start (this is important) , he was quite friendly so a mate mentioned he'd got the result wrong in heat ?? in giving it to the Hull rider. The ref replied "oh yes I know the race you mean, well it was a close finish and I wasn't 100% sure who'd won so I gave it to the home rider to keep the crowd happy" . Words fail(ed) me, which I'm told doesn't happen often ....

Great read as always, obviously I love the Siggy article but also the Golden Helmet info. Good stuff....

At the risk of suggesting the obvious: I assume the Northside / Workington promotion have had a long chat with Rob Godfrey re; ending their vandalism problems. Scunny suffered similar issues a few years back but they were sorted out and no longer occur, as far as I know, sure hope not. Good luck to all at Northside / Workington....

Upgrade looks good just hope in time, or when season starts, the 'news' page becomes the first opening page. I prefer to initially glance at the news to see what is occuring and then read the rest of the info later on when I have more time....

I did say 'most' and not all riders enjoy Arlington either, but variety : spice of life and all that. If time & money were no object I'd love to visit every track in the UK, and in the world if my lottery numbers come up (fat chance), been to probably 70% or current circuits. Ticking off tracks is always interesting as with almost everything they are different to how they appear on TV. And obviously if Belle Vue did sign Woffinden it would be very interesting. To say the least.....

This ^^. It's why the Aces usually struggle to win trophies, most riders thought / think "oh boy we're at Belle Vue next week, brilliant", especially in the Hyde Rd days & now at the NSS....

I'd already seen Pt1 of the Chris Morton episode and viewed Part 2 last nite. 2 quick points Morton & Gordon did AMAZINGLY well to deliver the fantastic NNS, it must be gutting beyond belief how certain things panned out, blooming well done Mort & Gordon you should feel so proud . Also, I'm not in the last bit surprised it took 10 years (or whatever Chris said) to finalize the project. Nutshell: (without compromising myself) obtaining finance and securing a suitable site is almost the easy part of building a new speedway, even just 'a track in a field' facility, and there is nothing at all wrong with that, let alone a full-on stadium. Smaller nutshell: it would be (much) easier to take up the hurdles in the Olympics or a hoop-jumping event . Still, the NSS is here, still flipping brilliant and one day I promised to take my lazy carcass along to enjoy the experience myself. One day....

I agree with most of the above 2 posts. F1 used to have many or characters like Nigal Mansell love or hate him he was box office, similar with the late Ayrton Senna, like with the late Ivan Mauger people used to watch to see if he was beaten, and, like Ivan, he rarely was. Similar with Michael Scumacher. Now, in F1 there is Daniel Riccardo and that's about it, character-wise. I don't watch Moto-GP but am aware of Valentino Rossi and like the late Barry Sheene & his no.7, (heck we have lost so many motorsport greats) you see many bikes , cars, t-shirts etc carrying Rossi's no.46. We can discus all day the effect of TV on speedway, I won't ( can't be bothered TBH) but I'll give few interesting examples. More people used to be at least aware of speedway due to ITV's World OF Sport, folk would watch all day anyway and at 3.10pm speedway was be shown so they would see it. 1976 World Final, people said "wow wasn't that Peter Collins brilliant he just kept passing everybody". Yes. Yes, he was and he certainly did. 1977 WF, a wee youngter had the house to myself for once (yay!) and almost all of the heats were shown one Saturday on World Of Sport AND on BBC's Grandstand (I know !). Non fans told me how they saw "Ivan Mauger win in the pouring rain". 1978 WF, folk said "what a shame your Hull rider Ivan fell in his first race". 1979 WF, don't beleive it was shown on UK TV. 1980 WF, folk commented on Micheal Lee's win, an Englishman winning and another (Jessup) 2nd for change. 1981 Qualyfier at White City, Penhall v Carter pt1, "Penhall knocked him off !". 1981 WF, Wembley folk told me how exciting the meeting was & "that American guy won, he had some good races (well one) with Ole Olsen". Incedntally, thsi meeting was shown on ITV, literally a few hours after the actual meeting ended, whilst many fans were still travelling home, few had video recorders in those days I didn't get to see it on TV for months when a test match England v USAs at Poole was rained off. 1982 Qualyfier at White CIty, Penhall ran a last, with unfortunate wheelies thrown in, to help other Americans qualify for Los Angeles: "what were those Yanks playing at, fans threw bottles & cans at them onto the track ?!". 1982 WF, arguments on Penhall v Carter pt2 incedent, "he knocked him off again didn't he, but he won again". Hate saying it but Carter fell on his own, sad but true, but people still argue over it (and isn't it fun to do so?). Notice a pattern, by the way ? 1983 WF Norden Germany, few groups of heats, but not the entire meeting were shown, but spread throughout the day on BBC Grandstand, folk said to me "who is that guy who won, he just wiped the floor with everyone didn't he, but I've never heard of him ?". 'The Gundersen / Nielsen years' followed of course, great riders sure but not the characters, Mauger, Penhall, Carter, etc, were. In other words (finally): many of the characters / personalities have gone from the sport and you need to make the effort searching for speedway on TV channels to view it. So less viewing of the ridera & of the sport lead to less fans. Not a comprehensive analysis by any means but a few reasons....

Jumping in late (been a l-o-n-g week): I was at my mate's house (a HUGE F1 fan ) the other weekend and he was tearing his hair out over of the final F1GP controversy, I just laughed telling him this kind of thing has occured in speedway many times. Thing is F1 is pretty the pinacle of worldwide motorsport, pretty much ace-ing everything else, a TV executive once said 3 biggest sporting events on TV are: the Olympics, Football World Cup & F1. In F1 one or two teams dominate for a season or so, others catch up then another team usually dominates, rinse & repeat, has always been the way. One good idea is for standardised cars and drivers draw lots, or whatever, each race but standardised cars was tried a few years ago with A1GP, it didn't catch on. Other formulae, like F3, F2, Formula 3000, Formula Atlantic, Formula Ford, Indy Cars / Champ Cars, etc the actual cars don't look that different to F1 & the racing is arguably better - but they aren't F1. That said I just cannot abide BSB or MotoGP, a few laps and I switch channels - and I'm into bikes in general, but a lot folk I know are massively into road racing - and probably the team brand names: Ducati Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Yamaha, etc even more adn tell you who used what brand of tyres, etc. When I mention the riders queue up behind each other for lap after lap all on the same line awaiting a mistake or fall, they look at me like I have 2 heads. Obv road bike racing, like F1, is about the ideal racing line and 'chasing the dirt' doesn't happen, but I don't think a lot of modern race cicuits help the racing, many seem to be endless left, right, left, right and difficult for riders to get into a racing rythm. That said I love the Isle Of Man TT Races. That and speedway. Great riders of the past; Barry Briggs, the late Ivan Mauger, Peter Collins, Mike Lee, Bruce Penhall, the late Kenny Carter, etc were somewhat household names, at least some extent when the sport was regularly on ITV's World Of Sport, but these days sadly few non-fans have heard of Artem Laguta, let alone Tai Woffinden. Before this becomes a novel: even worse these days, many non-fans haven't heard of speedway.....

Locally there are often spates of pernsioners' bungelows' electricity being disconncted from the mains as lowlifes were stealing some of the actual mains cable form outside the building via the access panel. A policeman told me that just 2ft or so of this cable would realise £5 or so from a no 'questions asked scrap dealer'. Increased number of elcertic charge points will mean Christmas all year round for such folk, a point never mentioned when promoting EVs. Heard on local news a dozen or so bungalows were 'hit' again last night, electric cables were literally were ripped out so folk with no electricity likely until tomorrow morning, police attended but the lowlifes were naturally long gone, likely next-to-nothing would happen to them even if caught. So yeah it does happen but hopfully Northside will be ok from now, digits crossed....

Used to be a woman who complained about Hull in the Boulevard days, she lived about a mile away from the stadium & reckoned she got hit by stones when hanging out her washing. This also somehow happened when the Vikings were in fact riding away, perhaps they were at Birmingham ....

Good news indeed and a great early Christmas present for Brummies fans. Two threads open so.....................

Good news indeed and a great early Christmas present for Brummies fans. Two threads open so.....................

Do it RS, treat yourself, you won't regret it ! I have ridden with Wayne Carter, on Scunny's mini track and on a 500 on the main circuit (gulp !) and found him friendly, helpful, very knowledgable as you would expect and has a good sense of humour without being at all condescending or insulting, which helps if (when) progress doesn't go as planned or the ground keeps coming up to meet you (!). He has plenty of time for everyone and equally importantly he asks what riders are hoping to achieve; from just having fun, riding round the track without the ground hitting you (!), getting a full slide on (yay!) to taking on the likes of Laguta, Tai, Smazlik, etc. He then helps each rider make steady & safe progress at their own pace. Speaking as I find, I can highly reccomend a day 'skidding with Wayne' and promised to myself one day hope to do so again. One day....

I recall that meeting, not surprisingly, and was getting a lift there but then my folks wouldn't allow me to go. Missed meet woes apart, there was an article in the then very popular Motor Cycle Mechanics magazine, short interviews with Ivan, Don Godden, etc. I managed to lose the copy given to me by an older cousin; "you like speedway don't you, I think this is similar". Said piece was in addition to the annual bike mag tradition of 'let's look at speedway, it's different to what we normally discuss, it will shut up our resident speedway enthusiast and fill space while awaiting new bikes for testing'....