THE DEAN MACHINE

I was referring to the CL, remember The meeting when they had to put the white line round a hole going into the third turn

there have ALWAYS been rough tracks and some that have bordered on dangerous, ask people about somerton Park Newport, Weymouth, Wimbledon, Carmarthen, buxton, Exeter, Plymouth, Coventry and loads more, the difference is the engines, riders are even complaining about Somerset now and remember Kings Lynn last year? Two Aussie’s saying the track was dangerous others said it was just grippy, they are made unracable by the bikes, I can remember a meeting I was in at stoke in 97 against hull and the track was rough and I can remember struggling to turn the bike in the first few heats but we got through it because the engines were more forgiving, we are heading down a very slippery slope in oblivion and the bikes are contributing massively to this , stoke are not the only one with track problems but hey instead of getting to the bottom of the issues let’s just close stoke and buxton and Somerset down because that’s going to solve everything isn’t it

No what I’m saying is if different engines and to a point tyres were used then even inexperienced riders would cope no matter what the track was like , the modern engine just isn’t fit for the purpose, as I said in an earlier post if you put NL riders out at Cardiff after 10 heats when the ruts apear it would be carnage, unless it’s smooth and dry they are a pig to handle ,speedway needs to address this problem which is far bigger than one track which you clearly have issues with

I’m not defending stoke’s track the other night, but rough tracks have been around for years and always will be but the modern bike just isn’t forgiving and this is the result, it’s also why there are far more rain offs because the engines are wrong, I spoke with a rider last night who was in the meeting in question at stoke v iow and his words were “the track situation was blown out if proportion and the meeting should of finished, he said some riders need to understand occasionally you need to ride rough tracks, they are not all smooth” his words not mine

That must really hurt

And yet you can’t see the difference between being unable to cope and to cope is the very engines being used

If you put national league riders out on a temporary track like cardiff after 10 heats when the ruts apear it would be carnage, the top riders lift and bounce around but it’s still raced because they can handle their bikes “just”

Yes it is happening everywhere , there are so many restarts in national league it’s ridiculous, I’m not blaming the riders but the modern bike is so unforgiving , you put young riders on them who haven’t been brought up using throttle control and what do you expect, I could point to loads of tracks that were a lot worse than stoke, somerton park Newport, dreadful track ,Weymouth ist year has ruts a foot deep Carmarthen ist year was like sand but all were ridden ok, I had a conversation a few weeks ago with a top official and he was talking about a well publicised recent event in which the track/promotion was blamed but even the main rider involved who is a huge name in the sport said the modern bike just doesn’t work on rough surface so what chance does young riders have ? I’m not justifying the stoke track but riders riding bikes that they can’t control is a far bigger issue than stoke

I suggest the sport should look into riders using bikes that they can’t control, tracks haven’t really changed some have always been rough, however bikes have and not for the better, but far be it from me to point out the obvious

100% correct

Brilliant mate , totally oblivious to the state speedway is in

I think he recently had eye surgery and is unable to drive at the moment

I agree with that point it is about money but most of the NL riders are not self employed and wont declare the money they get

Please explain what they are learning as the league is now that they wouldn’t if everyone was on £15pp? What they are learning now is that they expect to earn a living as soon as they get a bike now , this is not just me who thinks this, it is a wide spead belief around speedway and while we all agree riders should earn millions, the money isn’t there, there are not enough fans coming to watch and everyone who try’s to justify riders pay in all league is just making it harder to get things to change, I’m not sure how much longer we need to say this before people get the message but we are dying as a sport and we are causing the death ourselves

one of Eastbourne,s riders was asked to guest for a team last year and the deal he wanted and would of got(meeting rained off) was far and beyond acceptable for NL and it wasn't just the money but the point of all this is the bigger picture, it all good Eastbourne bringing on these riders if the league folds because of the "we are alright jack attitude" what happens to these riders then ? where do they learn ? people including riders have got to look at the bigger picture and see where the sport is heading and it has to be soon

There is more to the Leon madsen situation than meets the eye, not sure what’s the problem but I’m told other Danes don’t want to ride with him ,not sure if has something to do with silencers. A few years ago

I don’t get the drodz situation , he named at no2 but never gets a ride ,I understood when fricke was at no8 and scoring big points but now fricke has gone right off but drodz still gets no ride

I wasn’t actually referring to the speedway star but I guess you will have a good story at the end of the year

This goes back to the old problem in speedway of if you scratch the surface it always seems to come back to the same people, it’s like a spiders web and they are not going to upset each other are they

A sad fact is a good percentage of young riders don’t understand the importance of a good clean air filter but strangely think it’s important to have an anadized joker throttle

Yea maybe just pondering the wording used by rob painter

Reading the talk from GB and how they want to make the GB riders full time with more meetings for he riders including individual meetings for them, thinking down the line if all this comes to fruition will we be seeing a situation where when you become a full time GB rider the british leagues have to pay a fee to the GB set up to use it’s riders ? Just thinking allowed

As I’ve said before I’ve been crucified on social media from some quarters and that’s fine I’m not bothered by it but the bit that grates is I may be in the wrong and my thoughts my not be a way forward but nobody is doing anything, we are plodding on piddling about with rule adjustments, nobody is getting hold of the sport, so if your going to say I’m wrong then at least offer some alternative , the sport needs structure and strict machine and finance control

Don’t get me wrong, although it may come across that I’m out to get at riders I’m not, this is about the bigger picture of the future of the sport, the fact is the crowds are getting smaller and the money is getting less, now we can all blame the bspa or cradley or Donald trump or whoever you want but the fact still remains we are where we are and now buxton are struggling to field a team because of riders demands , my angle on this far too much is spent on unnecessary equipment by the riders, there is no need for a lot of it but riders want it and believe they need it and so pushing costs up and who funds the costs? The fans who are not turning up, the sport as a whole needs to get a grip on costs and machinery but to get this to happen is like pulling teeth, there are many people in the sport who don’t understand or just turn a blind eye to just how bad things are financially at some clubs, we are slowly dying and as painful as it is, we need to take steps to address this and we are not doing anything and I can honestly say the sport I love and have devoted my life too sometimes deserves to die, it is it’s own worst enemy, I listen to riders talk about money from speedway and quite frankly they couldn’t care less if a club shut down as long as they got their money, i know it costs a fortune to race, when i was in the premier league I spent a fortune on engine bills with top tuners like blomfeldt and bullet and I still have the eye watering bills even by today’s standard and I was on piss poor money , infact it was less than national league riders today and I lost £1000s but that’s what I had to do, i didnt spend on unnecerary bits that I couldn’t afford , you could argue that I didn’t make it but it wasn’t through lack of ambition or money, I rode against some big names and rode in all 3 leagues but at the end of the day I didn’t have enough talent but I never set out to or expected to earn a living from speedway, I was in it to be the best, I suppose world champion in some fairyland day dreams and when that didn’t happen I just decided to change the way I approached speedway and had a blast , just want to add my finest moment was I beat Nicki Pedersen and there ain’t many riders in the sport who can claim that lol. One other point I have made before is you get the best 10 NL riders on the best bikes money can buy v Jason Doyle on a 10 year old GM who will win ? Until the day comes when it’s a NL rider wins then I will keep plugging my point about unnecerary costs, we could just ignore the whole thing and put £5 rise on admission for the fans

I had Ambition to be the best up until I left Berwick in 2000 and then I just did it for fun after that