martinmauger

Good news inded !...

At Hull, Craven Park, the planning permsssion to run speedway was basically: meetings to be staged March til end of October, engines allowed to run 7pm-10pm curfew, on Wednesday nights apart from sometimes an afternoon press day, the odd Bank Holiday or other 'off-night' due to rain offs, fxture congestion, etc. Air horns were banned from mid-1995 or so, though folk I knew living nearby (opp main entrance, 2 streets to the right) told me they couldn't hear the speedway half the time. So no practices or training sessions were permitted (though 'a little bird' told me they sometimes DID occur on Tuesday nights !). The late Big Alan Grahame I recall had special dispensation for the stadium being available all day from 12 noon for practice as the likes of Frank Auffret & the late Tony Childs hadn't been on a bike for quite a while. Think Frank borrowed a modern lay-down for the day and the meeting, while Tony used his own older 4-valve JAWA upright, complete with a 'banana seat' & wore his circa 1970's Savoy Tyres leathes. So, yeah difficult running speedway in many stadia with limited track time, especially at CP where 1995-2003 ish rugby pitch corners needed to be lifted and replaced and also dog track sheeted.....

I too have ridden with Wayne Carter, on Scunny's mini track and 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....

Yeah forgot Ellis, GB future looks a tad better then ....

Tis true but it's what happens when posting early in the a.m. when supposed to be working ....

It was mentioned on BBC's Teletext service, yes some people still use it, as was Peterborough's Prem League win....

Were GB lucky ? Yes, to an extent, on this occasion, but you need at least some good fortune to succeed. Peeps seem forget for years most GB team managers mostly didn't play with a full deck, literally. Joking aside over a longish period (2000 or so on) the GB squad was made up from the likes of Scott Nicholls, the late Lee Richardson, Mark Loram, Chris Louis, Carl Stonehewer, Joe Screen, Gary Havelock, David Norris, Sean Wilson, Simon Stead, Chris Harris, Tai Woffinden, the list goes on - a squad to kick serious behind on any track. But at any one time at least one or two of them were on the injured list. In recent years Woffinden was unavailable (his business, it happened) and was also out injured, unfortunately two of the remaining riders (Cook & Lambert) collided like Sweden did on the Friday night; effectively game over. When Woffinden also crashed out on Friday nite I thought, said and texted "oh no, not again !". But the next nite a ready-made replacement squad member stepped in; "Dan Bewley come on down and prepare for the meeting of your life !", and we all saw what happened. The remaining 3 stepped up, took the opportunities that occured, rode their hearts out, delivered - and how. Ok, Bewley rode his home track & the other 2 were at least familiar with Belle Vue NSS, but it was the same for everyone of course and the Poles in particular must have been rubbing their hands with glee on seeing the track; a Polish-style circuit in the UK. With due respect to the experienced GB riders, it was still possible for any them to suiffer falls, crash out big-style, tape exclusions, machine problems, etc, we all know what can happen in speedway, especially after witnessing their captain and leader get ruled out by a well-nasty crash. When Woffinden recovers + add Lambert, Bewley, Brennan and the likes of Drew Kemp, Leon Flint, The Thompson Twins, etc waiting in the wings the future for GB looks a heck of lot better than of late. This is our time right now, we have waited long enough, enjoy it is my advice, for next year everyone starts all over again. One last point: the GP series carries accumulated points scored through the season, replacing the one-off World Finals of old, yet the current SON format guarrantees a 'winner takes all race', like a one-off World Final....

This ^^ All. Day. Long. Wow, just wow, speedway history there....

I personally heard Ivan expand on this very concept: "you have the white line on the left and the fence on your right and you ride on the bit in the middle" , he was a bit of card was Ivan when he let his hair down. Not every promotion is fortunate to begin with a clean sheet of paper, track building-wise, and good luck to those who are, it's very much a case of making the best out of what you have. IMO for every 'Berwick', big & fast, the needs to be a 'Wolves', tight & techncial, makes speedway more interesting. We can discuss 'best races at ABC & XYZ tracks' to our heart's content (and we do) but even wearing 2 pairs of rose-tinted shades, you can get great & ordinary racing on each and every track.....

Naturally I thoroughly approve of this issue and highly reccomend Backtrack anyway, it's a great, informative & enjoyable read....

The term 'legend' is bandied about a bit too readily these days, but Colin Pratt was a true speedway legend. RIP Colin....

Such a shame. 'Born Again Teenager' Big Alan Grahame was one of the original Hull Vikings at our resurrection in 1995 til 1998 and was very popular indeed at Craven Park. Sympathies to the Grahame family, RIP Big Al....

Get well soon Big Al, a popular Hull Viking 1995 - 1998....

And Stoke, was only able to visit as meeting was on an 'off nite', i.e. not a Saturday. Was an off nite too, rained off, never made back it for a 2nd try. Not exactly the same but it took 3 attempts to see a meeting at King's Lynn, since saw a few subsequently though....

Stating the obvious Lyons rallied his riders very well. After Schlein's pass of the two Panthers I thought Wolves would kick on but they didn't really. All still to play for of course and in speedway one never knows but at this stage it's gotta be 'advantage Peterborough'....

Used to witness similar at Sheffield, Owlerton & likely still can. Between the start and turn 4 but nearer the corner, as the riders drive off the bend especially if near the white line, before getting wheels in line for the home straight, for a spilt second, or even less, it looks as if they just might launch into the crowd ! Such an accident is a mega rare occurance at any track and to the best of my knowledge has never happened at Sheffield. But a tad scary , yet at the same time exciting ....

Nah, that was Olching in 1981, pesky Danes won in that year too.....

Track is very smilar to 1978 WTC at Landsuhut, Germany. Track on that day was literally white (!) with a 1 metre wide blue groove.....

Thought I'd already posted, poss not, but Wolves at Monmore, saw ht1 of British Pairs in 1985 (or 1986) not got around to a return visit yet, been too busy. For 35 / 36 years ...

I have relatives & friends in the USA and in Florida is a race circuit named '?????? Speedway' (I forget exactly), they have frequented commented "Martin would probably love this place". No, he probabaly wouldn't....

Thanks, though it likely to be concering Aarnio....

At the risk of being slightly annoying; whilst perusing Scunny v Poole proggie half saw a report on BBC2 Newsnight Friday night about the political situation in Workington, something about "the football & rugby club are working together to save their ground" then a brief shot of what MAY have been Derwent Park, back straight stand. No mention of speedway or the Comets though....

My first meeting for 2 years less 2 days due to, reasons, spoiled by wet weather quite a bit but still enjoyed it. Hye, it's speedway ! So, with some EWR speakers still a bit hit & miss half heard Rob Godfrey say something to effeect of "our local MP who has helped us before & will help us with this also............." Anyone know what he was referring to, methinks possibly a visa issue with Tero Aarnio ?...

Thanks THJ. New track nutshell: even having £9m burning a hole in one's pocket (we wish!) is almost the easy bit, so many hoops & hurdles to jump, most folk that wouldn't believe....

It's surprising how with a basic 'track in a field with fence around it + a few Portacabins set-up' the costs can quickly multiply. As a matter of interest THJ, how much would you estimate the two stands on the Scunny home straight would have cost to build ? A builder mate reckoned in the region of £15k or so for the two, which seems a bit cheap to me.....