OveFundinFan

Well, I watched the match on Quest last night and it was good speedway, as expected from NSS. I just don’t get the grumbles the track was too slick. Virtually every meeting the first few heats tend not to be as good as subsequent heats, but I found Mondays meeting ok in that respect. Good overtaking, and if not overtakes there was good chasing with opportunities to overtaken carried out but maybe not accomplished - that’s racing. Question, what problem did Jack Holder seem to have with Brady Kurtz. One of the later heats he seemed to refuse hand shake (or fist bump) with Brady. Was their an incident on track or is Jack growing into a whinged. I thought the commentators were on par to usual, no better, no worse. Seems some supporters listen more to commentators then take notice of the actual racing. Camera work could have been better, a few times camera was focused on wrong part of the racing, but unless you there in person with the fantastic field of vision we are created with I don’t think any camera work is going to get it all unless set to focus from a distance. Camera work is often better then the eye because it can zoom in which the eye, fantastic as it is, cannot. The main “problem” with NSS is that most riders love the place, plenty of lines for overtaking, that is a problem in as much as BV does not have much, if any, of a home advantage. It is a racers track. Go to Wolverhampton or Ipswich and if you don’t like tighter bends then you snookered, they are tracks with good home team advantage. So the likes of Wolverhampton can come to BV and can win a match but take BV to Wolverhampton and they more likely to loose. My big criticism is that the match was too late at night to be any real benefit to speedway. Would have been good to see it at 7pm, or 8pm, may have got good viewing figures, and with such good racing may have attracted some new speedway supporters. By 11pm kids should have been tucked in bed, pity they were not watching.

Highlights speedway tonight 11pm on Quest, I presume it’s BV v Sheffield from last night.

It may well be in another 10-15 years time, if there is any speedway left in the uk, that it will have to be very much less quieter and less pollution. That’s the way the world is going.

Would it work? Two day event would mean fans staying overnight so extra costs involved and currently many do the gp without staying overnight so it would be a real additional cost. For bsb weekends, usually held away from towns/cities many would camp out on provided sites, could that work in Cardiff? I doubt there would be double go weekends once the COVID restrictions are over, so the 2nd day would be a different type of meeting. Would this be so high profile to retain interest. After all, a big part of the Cardiff experience is the fact it is a gp and world class riders.

Of course, most of us love the sound of a speedway bike, but local residents do not, and by extension that involves the councils, who give permits. On that basis it’s got to be seriously considered as the future for any noisy sport. F1 is very aware of noise and I sure if they are then others need to take note, after all, F1 would love to race city centres to gain even more prestige. Is it the way to go? Apart from less noise, it would probably be less money to purchase and maintain the machines.

Condolences to his family. I can just about remember seeing him ride.

I very sure I would never fail a dope test.

If racing in UK was regularly Fri and Sat nights it means riders could (not a must) have a 4 day job Mon-Thurs.

Thats the one I had in my mnd, Gregori. And hasnt he served another ban in the last couple years for the same thing.

Didn't one (or both) of the Lagutas get denied entry into the Uk a few yars ago for something. Coulld it be related.

I would go along with that. It sounds sensible to try to get to equalisation in what would be a fairly easy way to be done.

Could it really get to that ridiculous situation in British speedway? Probably.

With all due respect, isn’t this thread about the failing of British Speedway? If a rider goes with international teams as well as UK that’s fine with me.

I agree, Triple H, that he did himself no favours the three years he was absent from the GPs. He would have been up there with Tai chasing world title, Tai got them, Emil didn’t. Having said that, I still agree engine tuning is costing everyone a fortune, no need for it.

If you read his quote you will find after the semi, his team thought great, they didn’t touch the bike in relation to changing things, yet in the final he said the bike just didn’t pull from the start. I don’t see the need for these bikes revving to what 11000/12000 rpm. The JAP engine didn’t Rev half of that I don’t think and we had some good racing. On the grass tracks some of the top riders tried two strokes, easy to tune, Maico, Honda engines. They ditched them, too revvy, to hard to handle.

Absolutely ridiculous have a rider riding for multi teams. At this moment in time it is clear that there are a) too many teams or b) not enough riders. It’s a complete farce to have a rider riding for multiple teams in the same week. For sure there may be instances when an injury means a rider stands in for another, but it should be very short term, and certainly not one particular riding for multiple times in a week. Doesn’t look like it will be sorted this side of the total collapse of British speedway.

The ticket sales plan did not show stands on the 3/4 bend. SON is usually earlier in the year, sort of June. I think this year with the uncertainty over Covid and green, amber, red, they put it at the end of the year. If Covid allows, next year 2022 hopefully if will be a full GP series year and only one GP per track.

Thanks Eric. 2016, yes, and probably some time before, and before that too. Definitely need some standardisation at UK national level, the sport is almost dead in UK. Reduce costs for riders, encourage fresh ones to the sport. That is one problem in UK speedway, attracting crowds back is something else. But here we have one of the top players on the world scene. Either he is niffed that a fellow countryman is possibly going to take the prize he has wanted or he maybe he is the first to make a noise for change. The sums of money top riders have invested in high tune ups, that is money already spent, and they will keep spending it. Standardisation will mean cost saving every year in the future. If standardisation is the solution what should it look like. Or are there other problems?

Please read https://www.speedwaygp.com/news/article/9206/sayfutdinovs-final-frustration When you read the whole article it is clear to see he is very frustrated in how speedway is run today . To quote he says "speedway is now like F1 I think,. Its just decided by the engines and not the riders. Even if you spend a lot of time training it doesn't help if you have had bad setups or bad engines. We are going the wrong way" Is it the engines, and if so what is wrong and how is it rectified? or is it something else, say the track material, depth, not enough on the inside, whatever? I can see Emils frustration that for the last 10-12 years or so he has been the Russian boy wonder, but he hasn't won the World Championship, and now, this year, Laguta is in with a hot chance of doing just that. Maybe though, Emil has a point. A standard speedway engine should be a winner. But it seems riders are spending loads of money on top of a new engine to get it to higher levels, What do you guys think, and what is the solution, if any is needed.?

Is that a fact, or just what you might imagine will happen. Are you saying hotel prices in London, Manchester, Sheffield, Glasgow, Newcastle etc do not go up when there is a “big act” in town. Of course they do, it happens every where all the time, and not just in the UK. I understand the Welsh government pays BSI handsomely to take the GP to Cardiff. If that would be the same in any new agreement, and the offer as a whole is better then anywhere else I would think Cardiff is the place. Having said that, put the temporary stand up on bend 3/4 at NSS and get 9000 in, stream the event at £20 and get 30000-40000 round the world paying to watch and it’s made money.

This is what Craig Cook said… https://www.speedwaygp.com/news/article/9202/cook-ready-to-return

He could have been, many people do it. Though, some 12 years ago I got a reply from an email I sent him, and he was very respectful to Peter, and I think that was genuine. On the track they put complete trust in each other’s riding, you could see that, the closeness of the racing I saw at BV was incredible at times - without touching never mind barging.

Peter was indeed a very clean rider, I cannot remember him doing a dirty on anyone. Despite his short height he wasn’t an easy pushover though. Fundin, on the other hand, was considered to not ride cleanly all the time. Having said that, I never saw Fundin do anything dirty to PC. I think he had great respect towards Peter. PC was a man for the fans, always willing to sign autographs and have chat when he could. I remember the shock and sadness in our household when we heard Peter had passed away.

Peter did indeed have a great talent. We know his nickname was “the wizard of balance”. I think he was 5’ 2”, so small. We see many photos of him with his head as low as the left handlebar. Not always his riding style, more when he was riding the inside line. Remember that in the 50’s/60’s handlebars were wide and often upswept. This made it the more incredible his style of riding. Getting his head down low would put centre of gravity low, which no doubt helped his balance. Whilst a great talent, and one of the famous five ( Knutson came good 1959/60), his performance in the world finals was perhaps not as consistent as the others. For example 1959 9th, 1961 10th, and 1963 10th (his last world final). Fundin, Briggs, Moore and Craven were pretty much same age…. All born 1933 or 1934, so they were all rose to their peak at the same time, and about to start their decline (the Mauger years staring in 1968). Whether Peter would have won any more world titles we will never know, but I would say it was not a cert. I never heard Fundins eulogy at Peters funeral, but I don’t understand where it is said Ove said he would not have won as many world titles as he did if Peter had lived. Ove won in 1963, Peters last final (Wembley). when he finished 10th, and Ove only won one more world title, 1967, meaning Fundin had already won four. This is taking nothing way from Peters record, it’s just a fact.

I would be hapy to leave the points the way it is at the moment, concentrate on 1) decent race tracks, and that includes GP Challenge where 3 of the following years riders come from. 2) cut out time wastage ie a restart due to tape infringement, riders go direct to start.