iwright71

The introduction of the new silencers (2011) has led to a dramatic downturn in the sport in terms of the motorsport experience ,and the reduced quality of racing.

Well that was an excruciating watch tonight. Never did I think I would see the once mighty Poole in this state. Awful meeting on a dangerous track with bumps, inconsistent preparation and a large blue groove. The shabbily turned out Pirates , residing in what looks like a rundown stadium in front of the lowest crowd I've seen for a Poole TV match. If anybody was in any doubt that the sport is on life support this was it.

Ah track changes, that old chestnut rolled out again for about the tenth time after another poor Prague GP. Rather than defend all things Speedway GP why not admit what everybody knows, Krsko and Prague have never been or will never be great race tracks providing the quality of spectacle expected for the Speedway GP.

whey hey, one hour in and at last something resembling a good race. Not sure how may channel hoppers who have stumbled on the speedway will have had the patience or stamina to stick it out for an hour. First hour garbage.

2 bad results for Wolves today but not exactly end of season. Finishing 4th which is as good as first in a 7 team league still very achievable. Title decided in October not May

Spot on, How can anyone take the top division seriously with only 7 teams and served up on 2 tracks like today which aren't fit for purpose. Tinpot

Spot on post, since new silencers were introduced in 2010 a lot of tracks in the UK are not suited to todays machines. As you say todays bikes are suited to big wide, fast , throttle open tracks, any tracks where you have to shut off and rely on throttle control , the quality of speedway has been severely effected. Add to this the shape, lack of banking and poor shale and you have an unwanted cocktail. Even Terry Russel eluded to the point when on BT last week. I know speedway has a dedicated band of devotees who like to protect the sport from any criticism but anybody independent watching the first 2 live matches on TV can see the problem. Regardless of what Rob Godfrey and Jon Cook tell us " the product is not better than ever " its significantly worse than it was. If BT sport is the window to advertise to the rest of the country its no surprise the terraces are empty. Interesting in the Speedway Star last week there was an analogy between Formula 1 and speedway. Similar to speedway the F1 devotees think they have a good product when in truth you are watching a boring procession. Both also have commentators that repeatedly try to sex it up, insulting the intelligence of those who know the sport What can be done, nothing, there is no money ,the best riders are not coming back, a TV deal worth peanuts, no major sponsorship and falling crowds. As for changing the bikes , no chance while the current bosses at the F.IM are in charge. Very Sad

Got to be the best track in Poland

Back from a weekend in Warsaw. Great city, still on a 4th visit plenty of new things to see and do. Thought the speedway was ok , not the best I've seen at Warsaw , not the worst, happily it was possible to pass if you were quick enough and the gates were pretty equal. Stadium I think is one of the best in Europe, easy access , easy to get, food, drink and toilets. The atmosphere is great but its all dependant on the performance of the home riders, when the Pole's are at the back you can here a pin drop. Great programme as well, 87 pages full colour for only 4 quid. Not sure if its the same publishers who do the Cardiff programme as they had an advert in the programme. Another quirky thing that has changed in Warsaw is they now have an abundance of the public flying around on public motorised scooters. Instead of Boris bikes they have something akin to Stalin scooters. And they go pretty fast, accidents waiting to happen in my view, if one of those hit you full on you would know about it. Saw some of the qualifying on the TV Friday night. Why I'm not against new ideas its pointless if several riders are missing, what is it 6 missing in Krsco. As for the Championship it was good to see some of the outsiders in the Final and now the Favourites have to chase not the other way round. Just wish we could have more Stadium GP's but they have been tried elsewhere and we all know the finance doesn't add up, unfortunately back to speedway in a field in one horse towns is becoming more the norm.

Good post. The mantra to the casual viewer cannot be, tune in and something worth watching may appear in an hour and a halves time. The 2 matches we have seen on BT this year have been pretty dire, its like watching British Speedways slow funeral live on the box every fortnight. Last night even Pearson seemed to be running out of steam trying to bull it up, think he realises that this is a pig its getting harder to put lipstick on.

Wimborne Road vs Foxhall . The ultimate race to the bottom

Can't wait for Pearson to explain the new qualifying system and then to tell the viewers that the best 2 riders in the World won't be taking part. Will be like Formula 1 qualifying without Hamilton and Vettel. This was an accident waiting to happen. Either qualifying has to involve all the riders in the meeting or we need to go back to the draw.

Your not one of these speedway protectionists are you that defends the product religiously but doesn't go very often.

There are some out there who would like to have you believe it is still a great product regardless . Those with eyes last night could tell you it wasn't

Unfortunately all the passing lines seem to be up the inside only

Top level sport is all about intensity . Unfortunately this format now provides the first 2 events which are forgone conclusions . Yes the 2 day Final may be great but the old World Cup format was much better. 1 winner from event 1 and 2 through to the Final, places 2 and 3 to the race off , with the top 2 from the race off progressing to the Final. Under this format can see Manchester regularly having one of first 2 events with the numbers that turned out at Manchester last night. Credit to the GB fans but can see this interest waning, knowing the result of sport before you turn up is not great. The format if to continue needs a further tweak.

Shows how low the bar is set now when people think last nights meeting was " not bad " .2 exciting laps of speedway in 15 heats , unfortunately the only decent race of the night was curtailed after 2 laps , with 3 passes in 2 laps the referee somehow see's that as a guaranteed 5-1 and calls it as a result. Ridiculous. The numerous full starts and mechanical issues made the league look amateur. Felt sorry for the fans who didn't have the comfort of the remote control beside them. Positive things have been said about the new Swindon track but on a good night for weather and with the TV cameras there it failed to deliver, and I can't think of a valid excuse why. Riders strung out like washing , you could fill your program in after 1 lap with some riders the length of the straight clear. All this thrown in with the commentary from Planet Pearson where everything is always great. Viewers watching this weeks meeting will not be surprised that the sport is struggling.

Got to be honest this tournament doesn't really start until the Final. Last night there was one place to ride for behind the 2 big guns and in Manchester can't honestly see how GB, Australia and Denmark will not qualify. Really miss the old format World Cup race off. 2nd and 3rd in Events 1 and 2 with the top 2 going to the Final. Now that used to be some meeting, albeit sometimes skewed by the Joker rule. Can't see the World Cup coming back on the calendar thou. It is testament to the support of British fans that so many tickets have been sold for Event 2 which on paper looks a formality baring a disaster for one of the big boys in the first of the play off races.

Unfortunately the situation at Poole is indicative of British speedway as a whole. Its crumbling slowly or now rather quickly in front of our eyes. Its a gradual race to the bottom even for British speedways most successful club. The owner wants out, can't even fit the team out in matching kevlars , the track is falling to bits with seemingly no money or endeavour to fix it. All while the crowd figures slowly depreciate. Lets be honest who can take a 7 team top division seriously with 4 of those teams making the play offs, only those hard core fans who will watch anything and only professionally because they have to, BT sport. The end is not too far away for the Premiership as it stands.

Promoters are lining up in Speedway Star to tell us the product is great. It seems the fans disagree

Only bettered by everyone's number one The National Speedway Stadium

Promoters keep banging on about rain being the biggest enemy of speedway. when you can't prepare a track on a fine day early in the season you really have problems. Yes we have seen similar at some National League tracks but at Poole you are having a laugh. Jon Cook keeps banging on nothing is wrong with the product its just getting people in to watch it. I beg to differ, who in their right mind would return to watch that again if it was your first speedway experience ? As Rome burns Promoters just can't see it or don't want to see it.

3 I know money is tight at Poole but that's embarrassing Do they seriously expect people to pay 18 quid to watch that. The sport is on its way out !

Sums up speedways decline in a nutshell

Amazing that someone of a rider of Chris Morton's experience saw nothing wrong with the Belle Vue track prior to opening the doors to the public on the first night. Good job the riders on the night pointed out the problems the promotion couldn't or didn't want to see and forced Manchester council and its sub contractors to amend their shoddy work and produce the circuit we have today.