THE DEAN MACHINE

I totally understand their way of thinking but I'm thinking about the future of the sport not individuals , if anybody has a better way of levelling the playing field and cutting the rising costs then let's hear them ,because riders are the first to moan that they are not making money but you give them a chance of change and nobody will take it . But contrary to a riders belief the sport has to carry on after they retire , they might not care but fans do . The fact is the sport can't afford the rising costs from riders and we have been given a lifeline without any downside to the fans and the sport , the only losers are the tuners and as I've said before we owe them nothing

there needs to be enough engines sold for it to work , on the subject of why would riders sell them on , well why do they now ? I've seen engines for sale from top riders that have 20 races from new , why ? But they do . I understand this idea is not without its questions or worries but it is our only chance of somewhere near a level playing field and it's.not like we are the only sport to do this , I have no financial gain from this idea although I think I should be on the payroll from GTR for the amount of smoke I'm blowing up his arse but I care passionately about speedway and I believe we are currently in a very unhealthy position regarding engines and I see it as a way forward

I said in an earlier post if I was riding this year at NL level 100% wouldn't buy but if mandatory would buy second hand , in other 2 leagues properly yes I would cause as I see it there is no argument against Freddie lindgren a service costs and if they mandatory there is no performance issue so yes, maybe the national league left open then and that's the place for current engines to be fazed out naturally

IMO the GTR should become mandatory next season for championship and premiership and a year later for the national league , the GP remains a free for all but I believe if one of the top stars like Doyle or Hancock started riding them it would happen naturally anyway so the only thing that would need to be mandatory would be to seal them

really not quite sure where you have seen that happen but anyway is not necessarily just what happens in the 15 heats , it's the whole experience from the time you enter a stadium to the time you leave that matters

if it is sealed they say they will gaurentee the parts against failure but not for bad maintaince

well think about it , if sealed engines were made mandatory and only certain people like Trevor hedge were allowed to service them , the tuners have no business so obviously they are going to rubbish the idea but tough , this is about the future of speedway not some individuals and some of those individuals don't care a stuff about the people on the teraces put aside the costs for a second and see what we would have if the GTR became mandatory , all the engines were identical from factory and then sealed , means every rider from the MDL to the premier league will be on the same engine , which in theory means a rider who was in the national league could ride in the premiership and if talent allowed would be competitive of which isn't the case now , the manufactuers (not Gerhard) are saying the engine should do 250 races which is a season without issue , that in my eyes is all you can ask from an engine really ,to me it levels the playing field out

well it's got 28 weeks to be up and running and apart from some obscure wall right in the corner not a thing is happening but amazingly houses are springing up like daffodils, I hope I'm wrong and it all comes to fruition but some actually sign of something going on would be a start

once they get them in that's where the Bspa really need up their game and do their bit because if they just find out it just a cardboard box with nothing in it the will walk away again

If your walking down a street and you see a cardboard box you walk past it , if you see the same cardboard box with 50 people round it you stop to have a look , as Guy Martin says "crowd creates a crowd creates a crowd creates a crowd "

Just read the GTR peice in the speedway star , ,you can sense the horns coming out from the mafia , the idea is exactly the way the sport has to go but it doesn't include the mafia and understandably they don't like that and they are going to throw the kitchen sink against the idea , every rider on the same engine with the same parts then sealed is as level playing field as your going to get in any Motorsport , it's got to be the way ,I applaud the Bspa on this and hope they get their way but to get rid of the cancer that is financially killing the sport at the moment is going to be difficult to say the least, I was against the GTR at first because of price and their claims of reliability , well they have proved me wrong on reliability and I'm happy to be wrong , I still think it's a bit on the pricey side for lower league speedway but I suppose that's the price to pay , I was thinking about if I was racing this year would I buy one , at NL 100% not , at championship level possibly 50/50 , at premier 75% yes I would

i can't remember lol ,I probably didn't like the idea , I'm just currently mulling over ideas, I think the main objection would be if the concrete didn't sit level with the shale and it made a ramp

Just watching a film about Poole speedway in 1948-50, it got me thinking, should we go back to concrete start gates ? No more gardening , no more ruts , less traction so will lead to less engine revs on start line so will save engines , no more bloke with chalk roller machine painting a white line as it can be painted on permanent , no more advantage starts gate,this is not really about how great it used to be even though that's what inspired me to write this but I'm thinking of making the starts a bit more modern and more efficient

Been into Swindon speedway today , nothing been done and no work going on , there was a digger and a van in the far corner of car park and there is a mound of dirt over the back of car park other than that stadium is as it was at last meeting. Also noticed coming off carpark that the wasteland opposite the carpark entrance is also earmarked for houses, I've since been told that they have build a perimeter wall but you can't see it as it's behind the mound of dirt

I personally think this is the best thing the Bspa have tried in years , I can see what buster is trying achieve but he really is up against the speedway mafia

maybe rivals is not the right word as we don't race each other but the Cradley wolves thing is like no other , Cradley have a team and it has its own supporters who won't go to watch wolves and wolves fans won't go to watch Cradley they are 2 almost completely different sets of supporters but we all live in the same area , they are not the same fans who attend both ,I have Cradley suppprters who live in the same street as me , anyone who doesn't come from this neck of the woods will never quite get the dislike of each other that exists even today , maybe I am living in the past but to me speedway will never be the same until Cradley get their own track and the Dudley wolves throphy is back , I always said to ride in one was the best thing I ever did in my career and when I guested once for a Cradley team my friends & family didn't speak to me for a month (the last bit was a joke ) it was a year

Having read the full deal behind the GTR deal , I am fully behind this deal even if it's what I saying a couple of years ago albeit with a different manufacturer ,they have got the right idea and it's a step in the right direction ,however will it take off ? Firstly I think the cost is too high when performance against the GM isn't gaurenteed and more importantly can buster take on the illumati type mafia that dictates speedway and beat them ?

RIP Bryn ,a true through and through speedway man , had many chats with bryn and he must have announced my name a million times as he seemed to be announcer at every southern track at some time or another , I will always remember walking out for my last meeting at the Isle of Wight before I retired and hearing the very touching introduction he gave me , sleep well my friend

despite not being in direct competition for 20 odd years the rival is still there , the difference between this rivalry and others is we are not seperated by a motorway or a county we live in the same place , we share a track but won't go to each other's meetings , they still call us dog heads and renamed our track monmore wood , we still call them spoons and think they are unwelcome squatters , that rivalry will never die and both supporters crave the day the proper Dudley wolves trophy returns , is rhis neck of the woods nothing else mattered , I agree the younger generation don't understand but they would if Cradley ever got a new track , the Cradley wolves rivalry is deeper than just 2 teams

This is a post from a personal point of view and not really general but , I was born in Wolverhampton and grew up a wolves fan ,speedway was wolves are far I was concerned , I never missed a match and the riders were my hero's , now when I became a rider obviously my perspective changed a little , after I finished riding and became a fan again the sport had changed and doubling up had taken hold and I now find it hard to be a wolves fan as the riders are all over the place riding for their other teams and it doesn't bother me if I miss a match or if wolves lose , this is not because of bikes or racing or price (even thought I think this is a major issue overall) it simply cause the team aspect of the sport has been diluted to the point where it's like a school footy game where one side picks a player then the other picks one , as I said in an earlier post the max clegg situation last year , this is not against max personally but how can I support a rider who also rides for our deadliest rivals , it's bizzare at best yet the modern speedway has made it so ,it goes against the whole point of team sport , it makes me not want to support my team and not bothered about going

these are all valid points except they are not really relevant for speedway because it's not seen as a Motorsport , it is and always will be a team sport on motorbikes , 90% of fans including ex supporters don't care about the bikes , my misses has been a fan of speedway since the 70s and has no interest in bikes what so ever , you go to superbikes or whatever and in the main they are petrolheads , the bike is king , listen to the commentators on superbikes it's all "he is on the new factory Yamaha with the new shocks blah blah bla " it's all about the bikes , speedway is all about the riders

but in the main top flight football is corporate venture driven by the media and there are many ex fans who say the same as speedway fans do , but one big difference is when they play for a club they are the club and they are not swanning off to play for another team a perfect example of this is max clegg , last season he rode for wolves and Cradley , now for any fan of either team , you either ride for Cradley OR wolves not both but the club ethos has been diluted so much this is accepted , well it shouldn't be accepted if you are in a team sport , it's wrong on all levels and makes the sport a joke and then we wonder why nobody follows team speedway in great numbers anymore

What I mean by the social aspect of the sport dissapeared is speedway used the be somewhere you went to socialise with your mates and generally the riders were a big part of that scene but now riders seem to be trying to be this sort of athelete and the bond between the fans and riders has been lost , its hard to put into words but I suppose fans don't feel like riders are everyday blokes anymore ,they can't bond with riders anymore ,sometimes when I see woffinden I feel like he is doing another sport similar to speedway but not the speedway I love , I know this sound wierd and maybe I'm not getting across what I'm trying to say but hopefully someone will get me , maybe I'm just getting old and living in the past and speedway is moving on but from what I can see the new speedway is not flicking the switch like the previous one for many people

IMO the biggest decline was the period when penhall walked away from the speedway followed by the death of carter , it all coincided with the race fixing scandal , but also a couple of years later was when the social aspect of the sport dissapered and we haven't recovered since

Speedway is a head game more than a fitness game , if going down the gym isn't your thing then doing it isn't making you happy , if your not feeling happy in yourself you won't win races , working out works for woffinden and some others but it's not for anybody , I remember the year holder was world champ saying he had never been to gym as it's not his thing , woffinden riding style especially in the gps has become an opitunist racer , he won't mix it on firsts corners anymore ,he always cuts back instead of racing for the dirt , it works for him but doesn't mean to say it works for everyone , but being a single minded person he can't see that