THE DEAN MACHINE

Congratulations belle vue, feels a bit flat atmosphere not helped by the lack of fight from Sheffield but I guess if your belle vue fan it feels amazing, shout out to chase the ace for whipping the pensioners in the grand stand up

Class ride by Pickering and Klindt

Belle vue v Luke Killeen at the moment

Anders Rowe not ready at the start there, seemed to be stretching his fingers when tapes went up

Yes and that individual requirements is basically why a standard out the box engine wouldn’t really work in speedway, it is nothing new, when I was spannering for Adam skornicki he told me at a meeting in Sweden his team mate Jason crump lent him a bike cause adam’s had a problem, he said it was unridable because Adam likes a motor that revs hard but is unreactive and crumpy likes one that is lively and reactive also while at wolves Adam borrowed an engine off Freddie lindgren and didn't like it, riders have different preferences, different cams, different flywheels, what works for one doesn’t work for someone else, also an anomaly that occurs in all motor sport anywhere in the world is no 2 identical engines will ride the same, same batch, same castings,same parts and settings and one will always feel better than the other

95% of speedways power is in the 2 heads, the head on the engine and the head on the riders shoulders, get those 2 heads right and you have a winner, the only real difference in tuning is head porting, cams and internal parts like valves everything else like crank cases etc are just stock parts

Interesting watching Kurtz at Sheffield on Monday, heat 5 riding the dirt line and was at least quater of a lap infront yet his time was no faster than Carl stonehewer 26 years before and Zack cook’s win in heat 14 was the same time as Chris Morton 47 years ago, so the question is with all the money spent on tuning and engines, is it really worth it ?

Yes I was and Danny bird, I’m sure they weren’t random but they have to be seen to be random but I guess it’s not hard to get someone selected for a test just by selecting another random 3, there were a few who I thought would get caught a some point but strangely I never saw Richie worral being one as much as I thought he was a bellend

Towards the end of my career my mechanic worked for motad making silencers for the motorcycle industry, through getting done over by Norton they were on the brink of going out of business and decided to try make a speedway silencer to save the business, after we tossed about a few ideas about design they wanted a king silencer they could take apart to see what they were doing inside, I got hold of a silencer off a top elite league rider at the time and they cut it apart to find the baffles had been cut out, I don’t know how it was done but they weren’t there and there were no weld repairs on the chrome plating, we got another one to check it and that had baffles in,motad made an exact replica of a king and as much as we tried we couldn’t get the noise under the limit, motad opted for a different design and although they performed well especially on long track they couldn’t break the monopoly of king in speedway and they went out of business 6 months later,

I can’t remember now how it was, I think we were told before the meeting 2 numbers from each team were picked and you got tested before meeting or they would pick the winners of certain races and you got tested after the meeting, I certainly had both over the years

Yes there regular drug tests and now at grasstrack but not so much fuel testing, it does still go on but you tend to find if suspicions are raised like fuel or filters or whatever then testing seems to ramp up for the month after, they could sort the fuel problem by using the polish system where the bikes are filled just before the race from the same drum, on the subject of cheating I purchased a famous silencer a couple of weeks back, it was Eddie Kennett’s famous drilled one from about 15 years ago, have to say not the best “modification” I’ve ever seen

I’m not sure if the rules have changed but back when I raced they couldn’t do a test on a specific rider even if that rider has been reported or they suspect them, the tests have to be completely random, I would like to know now if some officials at the track are told a few hours in advance that a test is taking place for number 3or 6 or whatever as I do find it strange lately how some riders are arriving late or suddenly don’t appear at all

Hope Sheffield can make a match of it in second leg but belle vue are all but home now

Over the last few meetings Jason Doyle has rolled an extra lap 😂

Luke Killeen getting taken for ride by his own bike in heat 7