Shale Searcher

I thought we may have been on the same one!!! Great experience, great people, loved it...... Ok, just been had dug out a large picture collage of the experience...... Mine, and its dated 11th November 1990, so it could have been the 10th and 11th or the 11th and 12th as it was 2 days....

They have changed this now.... They do 2 MDL races, then the chit chat, then the remaining MDL races. There's always a rider/s that have 2 on the trot after ht 2 in the MDL, so thats why they do it like this now.. Ht 1 Ht 2 Chit Chat Ht 3 Demo race - Thompson Twins Ht 4 Demo race - Thompson Twins Ht 5 Demo race - Thompson Twins Ht 6 Meeting closes.. A better way in my opinion....

Colin, what year did you do the Ole Nygren training school? I've done one, also did mechanics race at Long Eaton, and amateur meeting at Stoke, as well as training at Scunny and Leicester.....

If retiring from a race, parking up on the centre green is allowed...

NKI won his 5th Danish National Title on the trot tonight, 2nd was Kenneth Bjerre, and 3rd was Nicki Pedersen... All competed in their National Championship, wonder if NKI will decide not to compete in in next year, why would he want to win a 6th time?? He'll say sod it, let's give someone else a chance!!! NOT!!!!!!!

Is it a job of the referee to give the/any team manager the list of options available, if the/any team manager doesn't ask the referee??

That is correct, but didn't let on which tracks and why, so now we can stick Lakeside down as 1 of them...

Ok, the rule is new for this season, the rule is that riders are no longer allowed to "cut across" the centre green as a short cut to the tapes, or I would imagine, cutting across the centre green to get back to the pits or any other location on the track during the meeting.. It had been introduced to prevent injury to track staff, medics, presenters, VIPS, or any other people who might be on the centre green during racing. It also will prevent riders getting tangled up in spare tapes, audio/visual cables, track tools such as rakes/flags/gates/etc... The 2 minute rule has also been modified to take the above into account as well......

A snippet from the Lakeside v Wolves meeting thread from Weds... With a quote from Tai, taken from Twitter.. I wasn't at the meeting, but caught some of it on the TV. Without prejudice, as the lawyers say, I found this tweet from Tai Woffinden interesting: "See the boys bouncing down the straight in heat 2 at lake side and people wonder why i don't ride in uk" So now it's not burn out or travel, or money, it's the tracks are no good.. Lakeside, in this instance..!!

A certain Karma about this result....

Yup! Me too, I stayed until they turned the floodlights off, with riders still on track sometimes!! 😱😱😱😱 Albeit, not riding at the time!!

I personally think that the British Finals that were raced at Brandon on a Sunday afternoon in the 1980's and early 1990's were some of the most hotly contested meetings I can remember!! Remember being at Brandon, and it almost bursting to the seams it was chocker block full...! The Collins brothers, Andy Smith, Wiggy, the Grahames, fantastic racing, no inch given... I'll dig out a programme, and a corresponding video and re-watch, just to make sure it's as I remember!!

The bit about people having weeks in advance to book tickets is a tad unfair considering that meetings get moved at the drop of a hat, and that speedway is so susceptible to the weather... Its not like footie, which is rarely called off for weather, and cinema which never gets affected by weather... (Unless you get snowed in!!!!)

Do you think that the hard-core supporters, well some if not most of them/us, know a little to much of our beloved speedway, and this extra knowledge of our sport, can and does spoil our enjoyment, and possible puts newbies off trying to venture in to the murky waters of speedway??

Elite League is roughly 17p per race more expensive than the Premier League to watch!!!! Don't you think that the difference should be greater? I personally think the EL is about right, it's division 2 (Premier League) that is woefully over-priced!!! Sorry Lakeside Fans, I have been led off topic.... Back to Lakeside v Wolves...

The meeting will be classed as a farce by some fans, as the "Best British Rider" will not be contesting it this year.... As he wants to give the chance of winning it to someone else this year!!! Give me a British Final from the seventies, eighties, or early nineties any day of the week...

To be honest, the second half as it was called back in the day was also mostly free to watch (At Leicesters old Blackbird Rd track) the gates were opened after about heat 10/11 of the main match, some fans left, but also some came in, and that's how I got my first look at speedway by entering the stadium after the main match had finished... I got to see some competitive stuff (Star of the night) a couple of reserves races, a three ht Cubs v ????? Juniors match, and then the "Learners" as they were called back then... And I was hooked!! And so was my dad!!!

Same here, and had a painful experience, broke 3 ribs and punctured the plueritic lining on my lung!! Did get straight back on my horse though.... I have every respect to anyone who's swung their leg over a speedway machine....

Yes....

Ok, so that's the sky deal up the spout (less than 8 teams) and that's providing Swindon and Lakeside have a track to race on.... + a team would need shoe-horning into the EL to make it back up to 8 teams....? Who would be prepared to take that step? Maybe with a financial hitch up from the BSPA, but that would be on dodgy ground.....?

To be fair, it's no different to the football, top of the table much more likely to be covered than the bottom end of the table until the run in.. But speedway doesn't have relegation, so no crucial bottom of the table survival matches, nothing at stake for the bottom 3 to 4 teams.... Perhaps promotion/relegation would give speedway a boost and a give it a less Mickey mouse tag.. ??

Weather forecast for Purfleet today.. Dull, with the chance of a heavy shower in the morning, up to around 12:00/13:00 (Best sort of track watering on the earth for speedway) The afternoon and evening looks dry to me, possibility the sun may poke through late afternoon, giving the temp a boost up to around 15c, shouldn't be any issues weatherwise for Lakeside v Wolves this evening, shouldn't be any Sun breaks either!

The "no crossing the centre green" rule has been introduced to prevent injury to centre green staff, medics, sponsors from getting hit... Also to protect riders from colliding with centre green equipment, cables, etc..

What a pointless thread....

I work on the track, race days and some other days.. Davey Watt rode last night with a bit of fire in his belly, when he came 2nd on two occasions, he was very vocal under his helmet, which shows his head and heart are now getting closer to being in the right place, when he ran a last in heat 15, he was also very vocal coming off track, angry with himself, for not holding on to a point scoring position... He did ok last night, and if he continues to improve, and swear under his helmet when it goes wrong and shows fight, then I'm sure he will recapture his old form...