mikebv

Mark Lemon Sole might be interested?... And Mike Bass(t)..

Strange to see his score at end of a meeting at the NSS.... I don't buy a programme so never keep scores... However, just watching him race he always seems to be in the mix most times, yet ends up with a score that doesn't ever seem to reflect his efforts... I do remember him scoring well in the SON....

Do any of the Social Media outlets advertise car sharing?.... That might encourage more to go and it shares the costs... Four in a car with three passengers giving the driver £20 each may get a few more away fans there.. Sixty quid should pay for the fuel there and back and get the driver in the meeting for nothing...

It just shows the state the sport is in these days.... Almost zero margin for error... And is this a track owned by those who run Leicester?... If so, no rent to pay, yet still being cautious due to all the other costs involved... Does "Absence make the heart grow fonder?".... Meaning such long gaps between meetings result in good crowds due to missing the sport?... Or will it be more "out of sight, out of mind"?, and crowd numbers suffer?... Or, are we now solely down to the die hards only who turn up whenever, and accept whatever is put in front of them?.. If ever a sport needed a huge injection of cash, it is UK Speedway... Who from though? Given its inherent flaws and issues, is the several million dollar question...

Well.... Plenty on here moan about missing regular Speedway (like in the Good Old Days)... So. Pretty soon they will have Monday, Thursday, Monday, Thursday, Monday, Thursday, Monday, Thursday, at home every week for a whole month...😁

The Fanzone was pretty poor.... I was surprised riders didn't have merch stalls there... I presume the lack of fast food and bar was due to those who had paid to have their units within the stadium?... We didn't bother with the fanzone in the 2nd day... Overall though a cracking weekends racing...

What a sh*tshow of a season.... No wonder the SGB Premiership Speedway League Thread has so many other topics to pad it out...

"Nigel! Hello Nigel!!! What do you think?".... A London Stadium GP would easily deliver 50,000 fans I would think... Tens of thousands from defunct London clubs whose fans still fondly remember the sport.. Admittedly, most will be well over 80, but you live longer these days don't you?... Also, a London GP would transform the sport in the wider UK... Almost overnight, dozens of business people will invest millions into purchasing land and more millions in building tracks... Just like the way sport has grown so much since Cardiff came onto the scene, it will be a huge success... Cardiff, when Wembley was being rebuilt, was the highest focused stadium in the country, hence UK Speedway was able to piggy back off this media focus and grow like it has for the last two decades or so... I can see a Saturday GP at the London Stadium being a huge success for both the series and UK Speedway in particular... Buxton could even run a meeting the next day... Easily 5,000 there I would think given the nation will have suddenly realised the night before that Speedway is still going...

And High Beech wasn't a patch on the Maitland Showground in Australia.... Maybe they should run a GP there to relaunch Aussie Speedway and make the sport a huge success over there?.. I am sure that running a one off meeting there will have a 10,000 crowd attending Mildura through the season each meeting....

I remember when this was all fields...

Do you miss the great occasion that was the SGB Premiership Speedway League Thread?😁

Lambert will probably be involved till late September in the Play Offs in Poland, so would be very surprised to see him allowed to ride over here...

That sounds reasonable, and fair....

Only saw it from the camera coverage, but the fact Cairns' back wheel caused the issue to Piper's front suggests there was a gap there long enough to give it a go... As you say, "youthful exuberance", but good to see all the same... It wasn't a reckless act by any means which would rightly have been criticised accordingly... To reach the highest levels you need to take calculated risks, which, sometimes, you fail with... I do think an U24 Championship would be something worth considering until the U21 level can stand alone with enough riders of sufficient quality... It would also give any "wunderkinds" (that we seem to have very regularly considering we are a nation who end up with very few top level riders), a more realistic appraisal of where they are in the "real world", and may also then have people being less over the top, and pressured, in their expectations of them...

Only saw it on YT but there did seem to be a Zmarzlik sized opportunity to dive bomb into turn three... Cairns took that chance and, given the one camera angle from his side of the track, looked like he may have got passed without touching Piper... Either way, good to see someone prepared to take racing risks...

EVERY meeting should have some junior racing incorporated into it.... The old Scottish Junior League structure would do if they wanted to make "teams".... Track time being the gain, rather than money being made... That can come later when progression happens...

The more "names" the merrier...

Watched the last SON from the top of the Monster rig situated there... (Thanks Monster Joe, free food and bar for two days!!!).. And seeing the riders fly down the straight, and cut across each other, at full speed, at the last moment on that third turn, is incredible to see...

Ex riders, and sponsors of riders who take over clubs, are, in the main, the ones who provide the sport.... They are too close to the sport and know nothing other than what has gone before, therefore, do pretty much, exactly the same.. The raw material of a fast, high octane, colourful, exciting sport, all done in a minute so perfect for modern day attention spans, is clearly something that has potential to be exploited. However, white, middle aged males, with almost zero marketing, media and entrepreneurial skills, certainly need some people working with them who do possess those skills...

Cardiff was no Wembley was it?... The racing isn't as good as it used to be is it?... The riders of today are not as good as their counterparts of yesteryear are they?... Etc. Etc. Etc ..

We have two so it is viable... The cost of purchasing the event to run would be too prohibitive for one nights takings.. The East Stand means the capacity increases sufficiently to ensure ticket prices are affordable to "enough people".. Even with its huge cost to set up... On a one night GP you would have no East Stand, a 4,500 or so capacity, and, therefore, no ticket less than £100.... I presume the GP promoters are happy too, as they will get paid for two GP's rather than just the one payment they usually get..

They'd have to make sure David Sullivan stayed away....

It is very much a "UK Speedway thing" isn't it... Your comments will no doubt generate plenty of "what do you expect?", or "we should be lucky they cover the sport"... Fans are now conditioned to make allowances for UK Speedway... The reality of course is that so much of what UK Speedway delivers is down to an absence of any defined "Quality Control"... Phil Morris had the amazing ideas to start meetings on time, have a 2 min clock visible to fans, had those coloured helmet starting mats, and told tracks to make the centre greens look good with the sponsors clearly displayed... Imagine needing someone to tell you that?.. Amazing that so much off track mediocrity is delivered by the very people who wouldn't be too pleased if the lads on track delivered the same..

They should have ran it at Cardiff... I bet the stream would have connected if it had been ran at Cardiff... Loads of shops with free WiFi in Cardiff too, so that would have helped connnecting... And Cardiff has a roof too, to keep the internet in.... Should have ran it at Cardiff...

Tom B is a perfect example of the gap between where he is and the top lads are... A decent rider who will have a decent career in the UK, (if you can still have a career in the UK five years from now)... Tom found bikes being fired at him from all angles, full throttle, with not a thought to switch off, nor any split second of doubt from riders when committed to a manoeuvre... Even Dan Bewley struggled for a fair while when he was coming back from injuries and suddenly the levels went skywards from the usual domestic racing, when at the GP's.... Even Dan couldn't give three World Class riders a lead out of bend two, lap one, and expect to consistently get by all three... Probably half way through last season, Dan visually started to mix it more and his results showed the improvement needed, and this year he carried on from where he left off with an obvious more attacking approach.. The lads at the "next level down" certainly have a huge gap to bridge to get to that rarefied level that many have been at now for a good many years...