THE DEAN MACHINE

no unfortunately , Im missing my Carmarthen , Weymouth , buxton and Glasgow ones

similar to me I have 5 weslake bikes, 1 GM upright and a 2v jawa ,Ive just sold a rotrax Jap and a weslake to a guy in Australia, I also collect my own stuff from my career , I have my race jackets and I have the bike that I crashed in my final race of my career

no your not right , they are being trialed in Poland , they are being used on grasstrack and longtrack and in Britain there is a few at lower level and they are working , to be honest was Freddie any better when he went back to a GM , he led the world on a GTR he never got that high after he went back to a GM , we get you dont like them or the bspa involvement but your not right , far from it ,

there is no optimum performance because what works for 1 rider wont work for another , how many riders brought an oval port GM to find they didnt work for them , how many brought a baby offset when they first came out and found they were rubbish in Britain , or what about riders who had a good set up with a british tuner but decided they knew better and went with a foreign tuner and then struggled , its a race engine not a Ford Focus , if everyone was on them you would all be in the same boat but as you say results matter and while you experiment your sacked

Freddies engines were out the box but its how you set them up , they need different jetting/gearing- valve timing to conventional thinking and with Freddie not giving that out you were on your own but the engines were the same

but they are competitive , reliable and economical , they are just hard to set up and without being disrespectful to the riders some are not known for their technical ability and without the help which was not there they were not able to make them work ,other top riders like hancock tried them and said they had similar performance to a GM, Nicki Pedersen used them up till his injury but unless an engine hits the ground running it will never succeed as results matter , the concept is right despite what the nay sayer say but it need enforcement then no one gets the upper hand

I have just read Somersets press release about cancelling their end of season party ,one bit that really stood out was the following - then you have the riders that for one reason or another dont want to attend or want to be paid to attend . wow really ?😳

yea I was there 1999 and 2000 ,I did ok , yes moggo was there

the wise ones set themselves up with a business or a future income while riding ,I know a couple of riders who brought property while riding and have or are doing ok from it, I dont think anybody has thought speedway is a way to get wealthy, there are easier less painful ways to make money and if they set out and choose speedway as a way to set yourself up for life well they will be disappointed

i know 👍🏻

I have no idea what it takes to get to the top as I never got there or even close but I made it so speedway didnt bankrupt me and in general at all levels riders waste money but its their choice ,

i cant say I was wealthier but there were times when I was making a bit like in 2003 , I think I did about 75 meetings that year and certainly in my last Few years I became a lot wiser about equipment and even though I was only getting £10 a point I saw it as I was getting around £120 to have a bit of fun on my bike in a Sunday but I made my business and my speedway work hand in hand and often I did deliveries on the way to meetings , I never thought speedway owed me a living and felt very lucky and privileged to be a rider but up till about 10 years ago I think most riders had other jobs , it was the norm, sponsorship was always appreciated , I got a sponsor in 1996 at long Eaton and he stuck with me for 21 years , its a 2 way thing but I see some riders are very Ungrateful , I have a friend who sponsors some current riders and quite frankly the riders treat them like dirt

also with pay in Poland you are expected to turn up for training , visit schools and do all sorts of promotional work for the club and you can be fined a substantial amount for something as trivial as your mechanics top button was open on his club shirt when in official capacity

there are riders using them with big service intervals , the problem wasnt its reliabilty or its service costs it was its performance or at least how to achieve the performance ,I understand that there are some using them in longtrack/ grasstrack in Europe , its obvious you dont like them and are finding some enjoyment in their failure to take off in Britain and in the bspa failure if there is one ,they could of been a answer but sadly it doesnt look like thats going to happen now

and then they had the gift of tomasz gollob who pretty much brought Poland to the front of speedway world, we have a similar sort of thing in British speedway called tai woffinden who does the opposite

not so much the bspas part because I dont actually know what the deal is but the GTR concept really could of been a way forward but the attitude of the riders and nay sayers within the sport wont let it happen

When I first signed a contract with wolves , I got the 5p which was on the bspa contract at the time , straight away they sold me for £250 to buxton and then because of owners changing tracks I got transferred to stoke with 4 other riders and fixtures and I remained contracted to stoke for the next 18 years where I was loaned out to Berwick , Glasgow , long Eaton for a fee and to any national league teams that had to pay ,stoke never stopped me riding for anybody but I always had to ask their permission if another team was interested

there were 2 used at Birmingham on Wednesday along with 2 jawas , seem to go ok, still say if it were SOHC it would be a different story now and if it was enforced as everyone had to use them so no one was at an advantage or disadvantage speedway as a whole would be on the way to a more sound financial step but as we stand riders rule and as such costs just keep going up and up and riders keep wanting more and more and well you get the picture , it needs leadership and strict rules and the GTR could of been part of it , instead we have no leadership, half arsed rules and tuners are still the winners

its a family forum I couldnt possibly say 😉

im a teetotaller so no chance of that

we didnt get stopped luckily cause Im not sure what our excuse would of been as the real reason was not an option

me and the ex Mrs drove all the way back from Blackpool to Wolverhampton in our undies but Im not going into the circumstances that lead to it , so yes I have

totally agree the polish system of reserves has made Poland the force it is at under 21 level and over 21 , I believe Britain should adopt the same system and I dont understand how opening it up to foreign riders is going to help polish speedway

Compare this to whats happening over here next year , nobody knows how many teams or what league or what make up of teams or even if there will be speedway in Britain next year or what the hell is going on , makes you really excited about british speedway doesnt it 🙄

more people suffer serious injuries tripping over their slippers than riders do riding speedway per year , while speedway is a bit dangerous its no more dangerous than a lot of jobs , the risks can be the same , in 21 years I never went to the tapes thinking Im putting my life on the line or this is dangerous ,I cant say the same while driving down the m1 in the heavy rain , nobody is forced to race, you have an accident at work or on the road and you will wait 15mins + for medics , have an accident at speedway and the medical crew are there in 30 secs, there is no better place to have a accident in a strange sort of way