E I Addio

Yep, all that plus a couple of millionaires on the promotional team, one of whom comes with his own assets and has already shown he doesn't mind pouring tens of thousands a year into a club in an effort to build a winning side.

Very difficult to judge the size of the crowd in the dark. It was probably lower than for an average league meeting but it was a bitterly cold night and no doubt that kept a lot away. I found it very difficult to assess the team. I think AJ and Lawson were terrific, especially Lawsons gating, and to some extent they overshadowed the others. Personally I think there is a question mark over Swidders. The guys gritty past performances have made him a bit of a folk hero at Lakeside but he didn't really seem his old self to me. Not sure about the reserves either, but it's difficult to tell when they were against AJ and Awesome Lawson. We'll find out on Friday.

If the statement was framed that way for legal reasons they made a hopeless job of it. Look at the way it's worded; its links a tabloid newspaper. It talks about "furious " David Gordon who "hit back " at critics and they were "locked in " discussions. Those sort of expressions might sell extra copies of the Sun or Daily Star but I can assure you they won't cut any ice before a court. If it was it was done with legal claims in mind it should have been on the lines of :- "On behalf of Belle Vue Speedwáy we would like to acknowledge the loyal fans who came to support the opening night of our National a Speedway Stsdium . We are very sorry and deeply regret that the opening night was not the great occasion we had all hoped and of course we pay tribute to, and apologise to the many fans that were disappointed. For legal reasons we cannot give full information at this stage but inquiries are being undertaken and it is Belle Vue Speedways contention that the fault lay with a contractor. Our investigations are continuing but we will keep our fans and supporters fully updated as the full information unfolds. In the meantime we thank you all for your patience and will be advising on refunds within the next few days" There, how does that sound ? It protects the legal position and thanks fans at the same time , plus it's something I have just done off the top of my head. With a bit of thought Gordon and/or a proper press officer could hav e improv ed on it without shooting themselves in the foot . Is that reasonable ?

Exactly. Those of us on the outside don't have enough information to come to a considered judgment on how any blame should be apportioned but Belle Vue, or more precisely Gordon and Morton, are the public face of the project and need to acknowledge some degree of overall responsibility even if we fing at a future date that there are others that have messed up. Gordon and Morton are human, they make mistakes as we all do. If press releases and public statements were handled properly they could get a fair bit of public sympathy instead of animosity. Gordon in particular is starting to look a fool.

Well, despite the "Nuffink to do wiv me guv " tone it does throw a little bit more light on the situation , and some of the knee jerk reactions on this thread especially those about track licensing are beginning to look a little mis-placed, and even more so those that blame the riders. One of speedways many problems is forum warriors who jump on the band wagon before all the facts are known Two things we can say with certainty is that Chapman is beginning to prove to be a disaster as BSPA chairman and both he and Gordon are clueless as PR men and why on earth with all that is at stake they didn't get a proper company or press officer to handle these statements is beyond me. I am pretty sure that Nigel Pearson has company that deals with this sort of thing if not, it surely is not too difficult to get someone to handle professional press releases on a £7milion project. It quite possible that some sub-contractor is at fault somewhere down the line and it is perhaps possible (we don't know yet) that Gordon and Morton could not reasonably have foreseen all this, but that is something to be sorted out in the course of time, but the fact remains that the bottom line is that it is Gordons project, he is the public face of what has gone wrong and a bit of contrition from him coupled with an genuine apology would go a long way to keeping the fans on side. As for Chapman, I don't know what to make of his statement. I suspect the underlying theme might well be correct, and the buck may well stop with Belle Vue but to my mind the statement is so muddled it borders on gobbledegook. All he needed to say was that it was regrettable, an inquiry was being carried out and he would INFORM THE FA NS when more facts were to hand and in the meantime ask the fans for patience pending the outcome of the inquiry. That would cut out much of the speculation that is damaging to the sport. .

o As always, a balance and reasoned view from Aces 51. I am not sure I am totally convinced by it and the jury is still out on who was responsible, but an opinion from someone who was there is appreciated . I don't agree with the witch hunt that some are intent on starting and I agree that all this talk about nails in the coffin is OTT but the bottom line is that management are there to manage and the buck stops with them. A lot of ordinary folk have lost a lot of money and there needs to be some cogent explanations and heartfelt apologies from those in charge, as opposed to finger pointing.

So you also agree that that he is a 1-5 rider and too good to be an EDR reserve. Unlike his promoter who is just plain bent.

Garrity was fourth in last years British Final and aGrand Prix reserve. The more you argue that Newmanis a higher calibre than that the more you reinforce and support the point that he is far too good to be an EDR reserve and should, like Garrity be in the 1-5.

Hang on, I didn't say all the others. Newman and Garrity were the stand out riders last year and should both be capable of holding down a bona fide second string spot with the option of dropping to reserve when appropriate. The rest we can all have deferent opinions about but it makes a mockery of it to put Newman as EDR reserve, as it would if Garrity was at reserve.

At the time it was being discussed and being brought in costs cutting was given as the main reason. In fact we were being told that clubs would go under if it didn't happen. It was only shortly after it was brought in that the story about bringing young Brits on started to be put out. If it's a cost cutting measure that's fair enough as long as they are up front about it, but we still come back to the fact that there is no way in the world that either Garrity or Newman could genuinely be called EDR riders any longer. They are both too good for that, and clearly keeping Newman on the EDR list makes a farce of the whole thing.

Yes, they have reduced it to just two this year. Last year it was a different line up almost every meeting !

I think it's also significant that Paul Hurry has been added to the back room team, especially as a talent scout. We heard about changes to back room team in the winter and certainly Paul and Kelvin should bring some ex-rider experience to the set up. Hopefully these changes coupled with the youngsters coming through from the Hagon Shocks Academy in the next few years will revive the Hammers fortunes in the long term.

That's hardly a revelation. It didn't take a lot of working out when his mechanic, who just happens to live in Poole put a bit of a careless comment on twitter after last years fast track pick. He was always going to finish up at Poole. Plenty of people worked that one out.

After being the whipping boys of the EL for at least the last 8 years, one can only admire what Dave Gordon& Co have achieved not just in pulling this off, but having the resolve to keep the team going through what must have been some very difficult times financially. Looking at the shape of the bends I would hazard a guess that it will provide some of the best racing in the country. Congratulations to the BV fans, ,who must be well pleased with the outcome.

Can't think who they might be. Give us a clue?

Every post you have made has been answered by a variety of posters, mostly with first hand experience and a technical background explaining why your ideas are not practical. You have rejected those comments with fanciful suggestions with no factual basis. You now reckon that clubs could could find around £50k for 14 new engines by not paying so much in contracts. So perhaps you can back this up with a few facts. How much do clubs pay in contracts now and how much of a reduction would riders accept to make this £50k saving? On your idea of a pool of engines riders don't know which engines they are going to get and therefore how much money they will make. Unless you can show us your costings it looks like a pie in the sky argument.

The most popular engine in this country is GM. GM do not sell ready to race engines. They have to be sent to a tuner to assemble in race able condition. You woukd need several different tuners to build them for a whole league, and no two hand built engines would be quite the same. That is your first problem. To supply 7 man team with 2 engines per rider would cost at least £50k. Where would cash strapped clubs find that sort of capital outlay? That is the tile already so no saving there.

Yeah , but look at the bites it got me from the Bluetints! FWIW, cant read too much into what anyone does in a relatively unimportant match when they are still testing and sorting engines, especially if the weather is still cold. I will be astonished though if KK rides like a No 1for the whole season. He seems to have good spells at times but can't usually keep it going off a whole season.

To summarise Peter Johns comments to their basics he is saying that relative to other motor sports Speedwáy is not that expensive and a lot of the trouble is because people don't know how to look after them properly. He says the biggest single thing is not filling them with water when pressure washing and the next most important thing is keeping dirt out of the engine when making adjustments during a meeting. This is in line with my own observstions. The first rule of engineering is to keep your workplace clean, yet I see many junior riders and their so called mechanics working in all kinds of mess. Some of them never learn and the reason they never learn is that their is no one to teach them. Young riders should be taught the basics from day one. Peter Johns backs up what he says by pointing out that engines he built for Chris Holder and Tai Woofinden 4 or 5 years ago are still in use. It is a myth that riders need new engines every year yet some spend a fortune on them . The other thing is learning about ignitions and getting them right. Sometimes a minor ignition fault can be difficult to trace and riders spend a lot of money replacing other things without finding the real cause of the problem. Sealed engines won't cure lack of technical knowledge. Proper. Technical education(and riders that can be bothered to learn ) will . That IMO is where the real problem lies.

You couldn't get seven engines exactly the same, and even if you could riders are different weights and sizes , with different riding styles and need engines set up in different ways. You really should read the Peter Johns interview in SS . It is an eye opener.

Because methanol allows a higher compression ratio. Grass track bikes also use methanol because , like Speedwáy it is a sprint and needs a lot of power in a short burst. They would seem quite boringly slow on petrol

....and Agent Kasprzak is an asset of ?

Will there be an additional charge for the car park ?

You can't do anything regardless of purse strings whatever business you are running, whether it is Speedwáy club or a corner shop. Once your outgoings exceed your income it is a recipe for going out if business, unless you have a sponsor with very deep pockets, it's as simple as that. It's obvious that crowd levels took a big hit last season due to an inordinate number of guests who didn't perform. For example Lindgren, Roo-boy and Doyle only scored about 16 points in total between them in three meetings guesting at No 1,apart from being totally shafted on the fast track with having to get NL riders covering for the injured Ashley Birks . The fans won't take much more of that.The club clearly have to rebuild financially from a poor season. Stuart Douglas, to be fair, has been straight with the fans from Day One in saying he wants to balance the books as far as possible. Fair enough, we don't want the club to go the way of Peterborough and Eastbourne with thousands being poured in without results. That is the sort of shoestring that most Speedwáy clubs have to run on these days whatever league they are in, and I use the word shoestring in a relative sense because we are talking about the risk of losing tens of thousands of pounds not a few pence. Such is the precarious state of Speedwáy in the 21st century.

Yes, and he also added "But unfortunately the purse strings wouldn't quite stretch to that" , a fact you chose to omit in your previous attempt at stirring. That throws a totally different perspective on it. One might as well say they could have had Bjarne and Emil Sayfutinov if the purse strings would have stretched to it. Interesting that Bjarne doesn't have another team place over here though. Has Matt priced him out of the market we wonder ?