Shale Searcher

Was that Sapphire Engineering? Please, who is the UK promoter, I genuinely didn't know this...

Colin Cook (Blackbird Rd) and Mike Lanham (Blackbird Rd) both on the start/finish straight, both caused by breakdowns in front of them (far to close to do anything) both pretty badly smashed up, especially Mike Lanham, if I remember correctly, Mike Lanham had 27 seperate fractures, I think reported in the Leicester Mercury at the time.... Both crashes horrendous, both pretty unavoidable.. and aifences wouldn't of helped, but having floodlights lamp standards away from the track, would have helped considerably....

It will get to the point that team speedway will be a thing of the past. The bikes will be so finely tuned that most meetings, on most tracks will get postponed because they won't be safe to ride the rocket ships on... After stock cars "Off" to grippy, after any rain "off" to slippy or grippy, in late August and September "off" dew makes it to slippy, in March, April, May "off" due to rain, and dew, to slippy or grippy, so this leaves June and July, when the UK is on holiday, and the UK is prone to thunderstorms....... When will they race?

Will it boot speedway onto SKY Sports 3, BT Sport 2 and off Eurosport for good?

So, what's going/gone on at Leicester? Apart the BSPA V DH saga...?

I was working on the track that night, I was taking 4th Bend... It was horrible, he didn't die at the track, but later on at the hospital. Don't want to ever witness that sort of incident trackside again.. The impact he had with the first bend fence at Lynn, split his helmet open.

So, a quick end to this thread then........!!

Should have stopped pi**ing it down now, the storms should have moved off up north by now, and the sun should have made an appearance albeit - hazily dazily.....😃😃😃😆

Well, it's 13:45, can anyone confirm that Vastervik has just had or is having a thunderstorm at the moment???

I suspect that we will be in the final hurrah of an Indian summer, temps around 15c/16c for race time, it will feel slightly muggy, it will be damp from rain showers over the run up to the meeting, but the jet stream will be flowing west to east roughly over central Scotland so warm air being advected north over the UK from the continent. To summarise.... Evening temps 15c to 16c, a rain free evening, but moisture on and in the track from a showery run up to the day..... Possibly perfect for speedway!!

Weather update for race day.. Well, the thunderstorms risk has not gone away, but there times have modified. Temps a little cooler than Saturdays forecast, now 21c to 24c The thunderstorm risk has moved to earlier in the day, which is in fact a really good thing, now expected to break out around lunchtime. There is still a slight risk for later in the day, but at the moment it's negligible.. So, if the track cops a good un around lunchtime, dumping tons of water down, all round the track, would be 1000% better than using a bowser to water.. if it does arrive at lunchtime, and clears away to sunshine/cloud environment, the track without human interferance should be the dogs b0110x by race time!! Bring it on!!

What's the deal folks??

Snap!!!

I must agree with the Zmarszlik exclusion, definitely "the PRIMARY cause" of the stoppage... Brave call and the right call.

Weather Forecast for Tuesday... Very warm day, 22c to 26c by teatime, then heavy showers developing into thunderstorms, clearing Vastervik by 9.30pm/10pm.. Not the best forecast, but, thunderstorms can be very localised and erratic, could hit the track, one after another, or they all could miss the track by a couple of miles... Will update around T24..

When I first started going speedway, the season started in the last week of March, and had to be concluded before November 1st (a seven month season) if the number of 1st division clubs had remained at, crikey, can't remember how many they were in late 70's or early eighties, maybe 20? 23? That gave you 20+ league, maybe 6 or 7 other 2 team meets, a four team meet, am individual, a test match, and a round of the world qualifiers.... So what's that then? 31+/35+ home meetings..... Riders didn't need to ride for 2 or 3 other clubs then. The constant watering down, and reduction of top division teams has forced riders elsewhere...

Leicester only have 3 Elite League matches at home left, + 1 British youth champs round and the NLRC and that's it! We aren't even into August yet....!!!! That's not a full season, it's just 17/18 meetings at home.. if we'd have ridden every week at home, our season would have been over by the end if June!! (Mid March to end of June is not a season, well, it's just about spring! Forget Summer, and forget Autumn!! No wonder regulars lose interest, it's no longer regular!!!

Ditto....?

The other way round, but basically correct.....

How about speedway in the UK needs him, and where is he...........? Oh yea, Poland, Sweden, and the GP's.... Fooooook Britain..!!!

Track was watered, no sign of any rain around, even on the high res rain radar I pay for.....! Like I said, temps blew through the forecasted afternoon high (21c-22c) and peaked around 25c which initiated convection, which morphed the light showers into saturated monsters!! Even if water had not gone down on the track, it wouldn't of made a blind bit of difference, the second shower was torrential, but as I said, the track was recoverable.. But, KL did not want to get wet as well as tonked!!

These couple of showers we had between 5pm and 7.30pm were ultra localised, and isolated, but the second shower was torrential, but by 8pm the sky had cleared to a pleasant evening.... The riders from Kings Lynn did not want to race, not even prepared to give it a go.... I was the lonesome puddle drier after the bowser went off, I stayed out and managed to get rid of 90% of the laying water, sometimes, it's best to keep riders, track staff, management off the track after heavy rain as it doesn't take much to make the track look worse than it is.... and sometimes, once the big puddles are gone, just let mother nature do its stuff for half an hour and re assess the conditions... As I said, the base was sound and would have taken a tyre on it quite well, it would have taken 4 maybe 5 heats to develop a dry line or two, but racing/grading/racing/grading quickly dries even the most saturated shale out!! I really can't fathom why further track work wasn't carried out/asked for by the ref, and then a delayed start as there was a good crowd in, some had only travelled 10 miles and coulnt understand why we were so wet!! As I said, really really isolated torrential rain that caught us out. Also, the ref didn't seem that interested either, everyone who should commit 200% to getting a meeting on, apart from the track staff did naff all to get it on, Inc the ref... Very very, very disheartened by it all.. Roll on the close season, and I have never, never ever thought like this before....

So, Poole v ____________ Belle Vue v ___________ _________ V Poole _________v Belle Vue Lakeside v __________ Wolves v ____________ That'll be that sorted then... Same old, same old teams/fixtures....

Why is this not on Sky?,it seems nobody is on Sky this week!!

Is it finished? Any competitive sport NEEDS a top and bottom league, how do we save the UK'S top league...?