Shale Searcher

If he turns into a pumpkin at midnight, he'd. Be called: Darcy Gourd!

When he gets knocked off it's Darcy Sprawled!!

If he's on a mood he's called Arsy Ward!!*!

If Darcy Ward was put under the care of the courts, he'd be....... Darcy Ward!!!!

Well, which barm pot thought that one up? nd was he immediately sectioned?

Man on man heat? Please expand........ Man on man heat? Please expand........

Something along these lines would be good, but it will/would break EU employment laws in some people's eyes, but as the riders are technically self employed, not sure normal employment laws apply......

But of course they Care...... Fred Dinglederry v Hamiesh Derfenec throwing 26 after 26 and ending up on double one every game, or Phil Taylor v Another Top Darter, banging in 180,s 3 dart finishes, who would prefer the first option.......??? But of course they Care...... Fred Dinglederry v Hamiesh Derfenec throwing 26 after 26 and ending up on double one every game, or Phil Taylor v Another Top Carter, banging in 180,s 3 dart finishes, who would prefer the first option.......???

82.89% of people who say 87.51% that said 80% are ex Speedway Supporters!!

But, in them olden days, the 2nd and 3rd tier of Speedway was mainly staffed by young British riders......... And was a true nursery for the top league. Now it's almost a separate entity, and has its "stars" which are mostly double upper/downers, a few national leaguers and sub standard foreigners... It doesn't give a hoot about the top league, that's why it rejected the fast track scheme.... It wanted 7 ride reserves that can bang in 10+ points plus per meeting, not reserve race 3,pts and 0,0 per meeting.... And don't even start on the national league, guests in the lowest league? Should all hang their heads in shame... Should be young, young youngsters, promote a reserve into the team and blood a youngster at reserve, end of......

Not the 1970's Adie Funk???!!! We had him at Leicester briefly, cannot remember the year, but remember filling in a lot of 0's for him!!

In them days, you couldn't and didn't have the time to take your eyes off the racing, now, there's so much "downtime" that stuff like that gets noticed, if the racing on track is top notch, you don't notice the peeling paintwork, the crumbling terraces, the "poisonous toilets" you just don't... But there's that many delays on track now, and other distractions to try and eek more pennies out of the remaining punters, these things get noticed and remembered more than the racing...... Rant over.

That's all that's left to the start of the 2015 Speedway season!! How do you count it down????

Excellent Post....

At my local track, dirt gets tractored inwards, and is rolled simultaneously by a set of wheels towed behind the grader.. I think this works well, but I still think more dirt needs dragging back, it can get to about a foot deep at the kickboards on the turns, and once its there, it's out of the meeting.... You tend to get a lot of burmes that build up just fence side of mid track on corners now as well, which riders don't seem to like and asked to be graded out, these seem to form earlier and earlier in meetings nowadays as well..... Solutions?

These rakers people haven't vanished, they just operate the red flags and change airbags now.. they have takes still, but just drag shale off the bottom of the air fences, and the kickboards going into the bends... The loose shale no longer gets dragged back to the inside line anymore. Apparently, it's like putting micro-ball bearings over the inside of the track if you do, and riders then just skate over them and can't corner properly.. So why have tracks become like this? To much tractor time on them? The inside line nowadays is like concrete, it's rolled and rolled and its rock solid with perhaps a centimetre or two of compressed wet shale on that's lost after the first couple or three races.. except for the inner 2 feet, which is always soft and grippy, but mostly unusable except for the very top riders..... Tracks need re thinking..

These rakers people haven't vanished, they just operate the red flags and change airbags now.. they have takes still, but just drag shale off the bottom of the air fences, and the kickboards going into the bends... The loose shale no longer gets dragged back to the inside line anymore. Apparently, it's like putting micro-ball bearings over the inside of the track if you do, and riders then just skate over them and can't corner properly.. So why have tracks become like this? To much tractor time on them? The inside line nowadays is like concrete, it's rolled and rolled and its rock solid with perhaps a centimetre or two of compressed wet shale on that's lost after the first couple or three races.. except for the inner 2 feet, which is always soft and grippy, but mostly unusable except for the very top riders..... Tracks need re thinking..

I was not making a point in favour of either!!! I agree with everything you say! I have been told that modern engines cannot cope with loose shale on slick, and riders ask for bone hard inside lines, and only usable shale on the outside.. and that is from a reliable source..... I was not making a point in favour of either!!! I agree with everything you say! I have been told that modern engines cannot cope with loose shale on slick, and riders ask for bone hard inside lines, and only usable shale on the outside.. and that is from a reliable source.....

You have to remember, some of these other Euro leagues cover huge areas, and the one night a week works because if it rains in Poland, only a couple of meetings may get rained off, the others, 300 miles away won't!! Also because the teams and tracks are so far spread apart, they don't get Coventry fans at Leicester meetings because there clubs are miles away from each other, not tightly packed into 150 miles!!!!

You see this subject discussed on plenty of threads, usually it's derogatory, and accused of being an unwanted and lengthy side show... As a rough guide, it's only programmed after heats 4, 7, 10 & 14 these days... Is it to much? To little? At the wrong time? Takes up far to much time? When in reality, in the old days, well 1970's and 80's and probably before these times it was done after every race? So what's the fans thoughts? Is it like guests, a required evil....? How could it be done better? Or in a more timely manner.......? And what about the rakers? No longer required at most tracks to drag shale back over the racing line, where hopefully the aforementioned tractors graded it back into the track.. Would a return to a little and often policy of grading, rather than big track grades speed the process up? And the meeting speeded up as well? Discuss......

All this clatter about grading, in the "good ole days" see what I did there.... grading by tractor and by rakers was after EVERY race, not after 4,7, 10 and 14!! So grading is not new, just why is it a problem now.......?

Bits and pieces of rain around this afternoon/early evening in the Poole area.......

Perhaps if Speedway was raced on week nights, it would mean less feral kids on street corners kicking empty beer cans around, and generally making nuisances of themselves until 10/11pm instead?

Stupid comment! We had the finals dates before the postponements, surely a set of reserved rain off dates for the finals were discussed and pencilled in, just in case??