Shale Searcher

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...?

If, this season is going to become the norm now regarding rain-offs, abandoned meetings days before based on iffy weather forecasts, then something needs to change... Get rid of shale, and ride on concrete, with a bit of banking on the turns, and a slight crown on the straights the rain will just run off. Then they can ride their rocket ships all night and not get dirty.. Speedway in its current state is on suicide watch now, something has to change, or else it will be gone within 5 years as a professional sport..

Ok, the forecast was wrong, the reason why, was the temps were 4c/5c higher than forecast, the high pressure from the south west (Azores High) pushed further north than progged, and reacted with the low pressure from the north west. Where this did battle was a narrow band across the country from west to east, cutting straight through Leicester, which changed the forecast light shower/s into pretty much torrential showers, which we copped x 2! This was completely unexpected, and even after the worst had passed through, I didn't think at any time it would get offed!! The track base was sound, and although the first 4, maybe 5 races would have been a bit FTG, and not the best, once the bikes had done those races, a good race track would of developed... The Kings Lynn boys were not up for it, they really wearn't.. There are certain members of the KL team that hate wet tracks, and one was very vociferous and was totally disinterested in racing, and made it quite clear... Maybe the Lions riders should have changed, and warmed bikes up, and with not doing this, made the decision to call off easier for the ref... Another bad day for British Speedway, no doubt, there were riders that had more lucrative meetings today in Poland, and didn't want the hassle of racing a wet track, just wanting to get packed away, and off to the airport.. We spent a lot of time and effort getting rid of surface water and were confident of it being on.. Another case of tail wagging dog, no thoughts for the paying fans.. Really getting disillusioned with speedway now... to the point that I may not return.. I love speedway, love being involved, love getting in and getting dirty.. Love the marshalling at Cardiff, but I am at the tipping point now where I may just give it up as a bad job and find something else to get involved in....

My take on today's weather is that we are pretty much bang-on the dividing line between the warm, humid airmass that's reaching its tentacles into the UK from the Azores High, and the cooler, showery air from the north Atlantic and consequently, we have a dull, stagnant corridor from west to east, that may produce an isolated light shower or two over us between noon and 4pm, only enough to trouble windscreen wipers into their lowest setting!! This evening will be dry, possibly a few bright/sunny spells, but to all intents, dry.. Ideal speedway conditions with temps around 19c to 21c during the evening!! NB, By this time Tuesday, we could be hitting 30c to 32c!!!!

A toughie, don't expect to get anything tonight at Belle Vue, after getting beat by Lynn at their patch last night... However, I would like to think we are solid enough at home to get a win out of this one Saturday evening.... Weather set fair, reasonably warm, I will go for..... Lions 48 Stars 42 With no tactical rides on either side...!!

The sponges could have been compressed, and tightly wrapped with fishing bait bag material (sort of Solvron type material) it dissolves quickly and leaves no trace. So in effect, they could have been the size of walnuts, and just dropped in...

I totally agree with you, the middle section of the tapes lags behind the magneted ends by 6" to 8" when released!! Gives gates 1 and 4 an advantage, and 2 & 3 prone to getting pulled back for jumping the start...! Definitely need tightening up (shortening) to negate the lag....

I think it will be a lot closer that some people think.... Wolves 48 Lions 42

Can "SOMEONE" give up a synopsis of the actual meeting, quality of racing, any passing, etc.....? Rather than all this back stabbing, speedway politics and posturing..