Ray Stadia

With electric bikes, maybe there is an opportunity to have a temporary track, put into a football stadium, maybe with a non shale surface, but a surface that is rideable. When I say a temporary track, I mean a track that can be laid and removed in sections. I can hear the wags lining up to suggest a Scalextric track! It could be a serious thought?

In sheds or the back of the garage!

It took a little boy to say 'the emperor's wearing no clothes!'.

Formula E (battery racing cars) happened in London a couple of weekends ago. The track was part indoor and outdoor, using the ExCel centre. I watched a bit, but soon tired of it, but then, I can't watch formula one these days. Interestingly, Custom House is nearby, which was the home of West Ham Speedway.

The smell is from the castor oil, not much smell from methanol. However, many are using synthetic oil, so the smell is disappearing. Funnily enough, burger vans, smell a bit like burning castor oil!

One of the drawbacks of having all that sign writing on your van! A plain colour van would seem a safer option to me!

That seems to suggest that the promoters 'trouser' a nice little earner from speedway, when reality is, most, if not all, lose money. The biggest problems for speedway over a fair number of recent years, is crowd levels have gone down, while costs for promoters have gone up. That circle can't be squared. Maybe some promoters do lack charm and appear to have a 'take it or leave it' attitude, but if you are losing money, I think I might be a bit cheesed off! It's been said so many times, the riders are paid too much, which will be the promoters biggest overhead. Yes, the riders deserve to earn good money, as they are the ones on the track, but if the money isn't coming through the turnstiles, why should they bleed the promoters, the fans (with constantly increasing admission charges) and the sport dry! The riders need to get back to being semi professional. Yes, one bike strapped onto a bike rack, on the back of a Ford Focus!

RIP and condolences to friends and family. Was Archie the chap , who started the 'Archie Wilkinson cycle speedway' cycles?

Surely, owning one, just rubs salt in the wounds, unless you are planing to hit the Mallets over the head with it! (excuse the oxymoron!)

Sad thing is, that would be 'one out, one in'.

A name in speedway, that seems to have been around forever. RIP

That simply isn't true. Moto X bikes used to be allowed at grasstrack events, especially in the 70s, but not anymore. A meeting might be padded out with quads, but they have their own heats. I haven't seen a club run with a separate event with moto x bikes in recent years. The 'non-adult' races, are virtually all grasstrack machines, except for the very little children going round on Pee Wee motorbikes. Are you referring to another country and not the UK? Which riders are turning up at grasstrack meetings? And those that are, the prize money certainly won't be a 'nice little wage packet'.

Grasstrack riders are definitely, in my opinion, an immensely overlooked resource, as riders on speedway. I think the problem is, some speedway supporters and maybe promoters, look down their noses at grasstrack, for some inexplicable reason?

Jeremy Doncaster!

Not good.

Many riders just have the one bike, some may have two for the same class, i.e. 2 500cc bikes. Some may ride in both say, 350cc and 500cc, so will have 2 bikes, one for each class. I don't think they are forced to use a particular tyre. I think the rim size mostly used is 22 inches and Barum used to be the tyre of choice. That may have altered now. Some will rebuild their own engines or a family member, but most, especially those using GMs and Jawas (250,350 and 500cc), will have their engine rebuilt by a competent engine builder, but many, every 2 years, some every year. Between meetings, just check tappets, strip the clutch down, maybe clean chains, air filter, just general servicing.

You can see good racing, without 'setting the house on fire'!

Believe me, they would do, if they could. The reason they can't is the lack of meetings. There are grasstrack riders, complete amateurs, who will travel from Essex to ride in Cornwall, because they love the sport. In the 70's, just in the Eastern Centre (Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk), you could ride virtually every week, there were that many meetings. Many speedway riders rode on grass also in those days. Speedway over the years has grown snooty towards grasstrack and I don't know why? The funny thing is, from what I see on Facebook, grasstrack seems to be on the up.

Regarding your first post, if promoters/organisers/clubs tapped into grasstrack riders, I believe there would be sufficient. Also, many youngsters ride grasstrack, often sons and daughters of grasstrack riders and ex riders. It is a resource awfully and woefully overlooked. Grasstrack riders are crying out for 'track time' . I think the trouble, is the mindset. As someone else said, possibly yourself, there are 2 types of fans, those only interested in their team winning and those that enjoy the racing for what it is. Grasstrack fans and riders enjoy the racing. Speedway needs to attract those fans and I believe they are out there. Point 2, I personally think there have been very few promoters over the years who have made money out of the sport, John Berry, according to his book did, but I don't think it made him rich. Speedway promoters are enthusiasts and perhaps, egotists, but then, a lot of sports are like that. football clubs lose money, as do rugby clubs. But football and rugby seem to find benefactors who will bail them out. Why speedway doesn't, I'm not sure. Perhaps it's the demographic of the fans as a whole or simply the sheer lack of numbers. I agree it's not just the fault of the promoters, but someone has to carry the can! Foreign riders certainly hasn't helped with the costs and allowing machinery costs to runaway hasn't helped either. Why can't speedway or a type of speedway, switch to an amateur model, similar to the way grasstrack, moto X, trials is run? There are riders in all three disciplines who do make a living, but the cream only. The rest, just enjoy a Sunday ride in the summer!

All too late I'm afraid. Sweep the decks and start again! Re-open High Beech!

It seems that many of the current promoters, with the exception of the Isle of Wight, just want to carry on with the same formula. It would appear they are not interested in getting round a table with marketing people, supporters of the sport, riders etc. There seems to be a 'my way or the highway' attitude. I think change could only happen in one of 2 ways, 1. new tracks open with a new formula and not called speedway, but it is still 4 riders going round a track. So you start, effectively with a brand new sport. 2. assuming the new sport is successful, the existing set-ups 'jump ship' to the new sport. The new sport would have to be amateur, certainly at the beginning and will probably have to be 'a track in a field', as the chances of a new stadium in a town, with that kind of land at a premium and all the other problems associated with the building of an inner or indeed an outer town stadium, won't happen. The biggest thing killing the sport, is the costs. I doubt current riders would accept a pay cut. Stadium owners are not likely to be sympathetic to reductions in rents. For the sport to survive, in my opinion, it has to ditch the 'glitz and glamour' mentality, that every rider is a superstar, needs multiple bikes, a sign written van etc etc, we need to get back to a rider, with a passion for the sport, not a passion for what the rider will earn, but a passion for riding a speedway bike. Those riders are out there, they are competing in grasstrack, paying to enter, driving long distances, all out of their own pockets. What is more, they are 'starved' of enough meetings to attend. They would, I'm sure, love the chance to also ride a speedway type sport, but without all the 'cloak-and-dagger' the riders get with speedway.

So, what would be your solution HA?

I agree. I think once speedway gets it's model/formula right, it can go back to meetings in the best spring/summer/autumn months, every week!

I know how you feel, but I do believe speedway or the model can be reinvented. At the end of the day, basically, we enjoy watching 4 riders, on 500 cc single pot 4 stroke engines, going round a shale oval track, over 4 laps, with the whiff of Castrol R in the air.

What would be your solution?