Ray Stadia

If you are asking what I'm on about, you must be fairly young. Before oil catchers and the recycling oil systems in modern speedway engines, the spent oil used to drip out the bottom of the engine. To be honest, I was never too sure what the issue was about changing the rules to catch the oil, especially if the rider was using castor oil, as the oil is a vegetable based oil and is not as toxic as mineral based oils.

Are they back to total loss?

I went on the website. Nice gear, but nice prices too. I don't know how the sport can support these costs.

I know, but what I was saying is it was a venture in a town where speedway was already established. But hey ho, the promoters have done a great job! I think I agree with an earlier posting that the best chance for any further new tracks is out in the sticks somewhere. However, the survival of speedway is a big subject and has been discussed on the forum many times. Cost for the riders, promoters and fans is probably one of the biggest issues.

Even Kent is not so much of a new venture. Iwade, which is virtually in Sittingbourne has been there for years and was a conference league track for a while.

With respect, how would you know what psychological effect being spayed/neutered has on an animal? My mum had many female dogs, all un-spayed. She just ensured they kept away from males when on heat. Simples! I think it would have an effect on me, as a male! And after all, many dog owners claim dogs are more important than humans!

The truth is, probably not many sports aren't bent, one way or another!

You have got the wrong end of the stick, (certainly my stick), as usual! I'm saying that those people, probably dog owners (mostly), who will bang the drum that greyhound racing and horse racing (those associated with it) are cruel, while they believe they are anything but cruel to their dogs. How does a dog owner know whether their dog or indeed cat, being forcibly neutered/spayed, has a psychological effect on the animal? How would like your knackers or any other bits cut off (as we don't know if you are male or female)? Some owners leave their dogs 'home alone' when they go to work, for hours on end. The dogs get highly stressed, as the animal doesn't have much of a sense of time. Also, one hour to a dog is longer than it is for us. But of course greyhound racing and horse racing for the 'rent a protest' are easy pickings!

I agree that any animal should never be cruelly treated, however, if the sport of greyhound and horse racing disappeared, there would be no need to breed the animals.Therefore, the animals would not even be given the chance of life. Which is worse, given a chance or never be born at all, obviously assuming that any necessary end of life is humane. How do we know if 'normal' domestic dog owners are not being cruel to their pets. Soon after a puppy or kitten is acquired, invariably they are spayed/neutered. The most natural thing in any animal's instinct is to procreate, but what do we do, immediately put a stop to that, because it suits us as pet 'owners'. The relationship between man and animals is massive and using animals in sport, in my opinion, is not the main issue.

I thought they eat dog in Finland?

Sorry, I thought you were saying it's Vojens in Germany. Lost in translation, as they say!

As it's known in Britain too!

Vic Eastwood, the very successful scrambles/moto X rider passed away on Sunday. You may say what has Vic's passing got to do with speedway, well, probably not much, but he did race machines which had Hagon frames. I did buy a bike from him once, at his shop and was a gentleman to deal with. RIP.

And when he's done with auto racing, he can move onto sumo wrestling!

I found the following link on Youtube. Seems it is a challenge between flat track, roadracing and auto racing: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEYEn_fpv-4

Very good film, Empire of the Sun. I only found out recently that he was the little boy in the film!

RIP I had no idea of the man, but very sad. I just Googled and apparently he was struck by a recovery vehicle, so presume he was in the pits or something. As I recall, that is the track Joe Owen had his accident and ended up in a wheelchair. Also very sad.

On Netflix at the moment, there is a documentary about the 'war' between Ferrari and Ford, regarding Le Mans. Only snag is, there is a particular Italian chap who pops up now and then, doesn't speak in English and there are no subtitles! My Italian doesn't stretch much beyond ciao! If you haven't seen the film (I haven't yet), it's a good intro to the story behind the film.

Whatever butter's your parsnips!

So you are out to 'sanitise' threads on the forum? If only the world was perfect.

So, it sounds like you too are fully aware of the sport's shortcomings, rather than as the opening poster suggests, we should all be saying 'the Emperor's wearing clothes'!

I would have thought a Workington fan, would have a few gripes about the sport? You must feel shafted?

I have recommended the mods remove this thread. It's creating confrontation.

I think it's a very good point. After all, you wouldn't expect to watch Moto X, Grass Track, Moto GP, F1 during the week. The only other mid-week stuff I can think of is TT racing and other road racing motorcycle events. If there was a mid-week Moto X event, I wonder how many fans would turn up, compared to a weekend? Years ago, when speedway was more popular and had more tracks, the bulk of the fans could probably walk to the tracks or use public transport, but now with far fewer tracks and fans thin on the ground, those fans who are interested, have to travel and that is a put off for a mid-week event. It would still work in a city, such as London, with the good public transport it has.

I think as well, yesteryear there was more interest in motorcycles. 16 year olds were able to ride a 250cc motorbike on a provisional licence and of course if you were 13 years plus in years, many would be counting down the days to their 16th birthday. To get a motorbike licence nowadays, you have to 'jump through' many hoops and have to obtain your licence in stages, so for a youngster to be naturally interested in motorcycles and motorcycle sports, is going to be few and far between.