Chris116

Having read your predictions about various other riders I will take your above comment with a very large pinch of salt and obtain the views of others whose predictions are more reliable.

I can remember an Arena Essex meeting where rain was expected about 70 minutes after start time. Frank Ebdon was the referee and the two minute warning horn sounded as soon as the last rider finished the previous race throughout the whole meeting. As a result the meeting finished before the very heavy rain started under five minutes later! Frank always got through meetings quickly and I have always wished other referees would do the same.

Firstly, my very best wishes to Tai who I hope makes a full recovery. Secondly, where on earth are the mods to stop the bickering on this and a number of other threads?

Oxford would do better to take Schroeck away and lose him. He was a disaster at Rye House and hasn't got any better since then.

I used to be involved in the promotion of one of the stock car organisations and used to get onto both local BBC and commercial radio stations on a fairly regular basis. I also know that at least two other local promotions were also successful in getting on the local radio stations. Providing you didn't just make it a free advert and gave them a story about local drivers with reference to recent results, then even the BBC stations would accept mention of forthcoming meetings where the drivers you had mentioned would be in action again. Speedway would be a lot easier with the team format at most meetings meaning you are automatically talking about something local even if the riders come from the four corners of the world. It does however mean you have to cultivate interest from one of the presenters and give them information on a regular basis. The promotion I worked for had two tracks in the same area so I only ever mentioned one track on the local BBC station and the other track on the local commercial station, that way both stations were happy to interview me every two or three weeks during the season.

All the speedway tracks that I have gone to regularly have run midweek and once SWR reinstate the letter trains from Poole and Portsmouth then I will be going to both Poole and Smallbrook again.

I am with you, if it isn't on Freeview then I don't watch it.

I fully agree that both Arena and Ipswich use(d) a separate inner track for speedway and therefore the dangers of the car fence were not as much a problem as at tracks where the two sports use the same track. The real point I was making was that the new Mildenhall fence is a typical modern stock car fence. I wonder if a wooden fence the height of the posts with a foam or air fence in front would be a solution but as has been said already the track looks as though it could be rather narrow by the time all of that has been put in front of the stock car fence. I would be surprised if the track for the cars has been narrowed as has never been a track with that much room for manoeuvre.

The fence is a pretty standard modern stock car fence. The posts will have two or three wires (think pit head machinery lifting gear) on them to make the fence high enough to stop cars joining the spectators. Aldershot, Ipswich and until closure Arena Essex all have similar fences. Not ideal for speedway but vital for car racing safety.

Closed 19th January 2025. The stadium was rubbish as from the expensive seats you could not see the home straight! The old stadium may have been a bit of a dump but viewing for speedway and stock cars was much better.

That would be in line with the problems Skegness had.

The Spedeworth fixture list has been issued for the first half of the 2025 season with the first car meeting bing on 22nd March which means a full season of speedway should be possible if they can be fitted in between the car racing and if the BSPL will agree. Here's hoping things work out successfully.

I only went to Crewe twice. One was an afternoon meeting featuring a National Hot Rods NHRPA Championship round which saw some fairly expensive Hot Rods shaken to pieces on the rough track. The drivers were very unimpressed! The second time was for an evening meeting featuring F1 Stock Cars and I commentated on the consolation. I totally agree about the dark patches around the track. Even the best light places appeared to only have a 60 watt bulb. It was impossible to read the numbers on the cars on the back straight or bends but fortunately in those days I knew the shape of most of the cars. About 30 years ago the track lighting at Skegness had to be changed due to the local council suddenly saying they were too bright in the surrounding area. A firm who did lighting for motorways and major outdoor events put up the new lighting system and they were nearly as bad as the lights at Crewe and they had to double the number of lights before the next meeting which even then were no where near as good as the old lights had been but at least the local council were satisfied.

There, that's corrected it! 😇

I could use some very rude words to describe my feelings but they would serve no purpose. I saw two, three and four wheel racing and my parents must be turning in their graves at what happened to the stadium. They would be equally unhappy at the fate of all the London stadiums, Crawley Heath, Peterborough and so many others we enjoyed visiting for racing.

In the last five years of stock cars at Wimbledon they checked bags for food and drink but it never stopped my father and I getting a thermos of coffee plus sandwiches in. Great having deep inside pockets and a bag with my programme board and extra warm clothing which they checked carefully and there was never anything of interest to them. The bag did a great job hiding the bulge in my coat caused by the thermos!

Sören Sjösten. Rode in the same style as Peter Craven. I loved watching both of them.

That will all depend on who is asking and what effect it will have on the rule makers. I bet it won't be covered in an undisputable way in the rules.

Isn't that the way speedway rules have always been written?

No real news yet on the state of play at Mildenhall following the fire but the one piece of news is that a championship qualifying round is being advertised for 24th May 2025 so Spedeworth must be fairly certain things will be back to normal by then.

When we had tracks in London, I regularly attended Wimbledon, Hackney and Crayford. You knew which night of the week they ran and didn't need to check the fixture list as they ran every week. Len Silver made a point of 'Make it a date, Friday at eight' and that is exactly what the fans did. The same weekly format was the norm throughout the country so it meant riders were on average racing one home and one away meeting every week during the season. How the promotions get things back to that is a major problem to which I don't have any real answers. Back in the 60s and 70s supporters would arrive in equal numbers for league, KO Cup, local derby challenges and individual meetings. These days many are only interested in league matches and don't even support a second team in a lower league (Oxford being a notable exception).

Sadly, it is the fans who have caused the loss of international matches by us not turning up in sufficient numbers to make them profitable. We have also lost most of the big individual meetings due to lack of support caused in some cases by promotions reducing their costs with cheaper riders or running with only 12 riders instead of running a full 16 rider 20 heat meeting. Costs being reduced by those methods give the promotion a higher profit the first year but further reduce the attendance in following years which leads to more economies, further loss of attendance and then the loss of what used to be a well attended meeting. I can understand why the promotions did what they did as I suspect that the rise of Polish speedway meant some riders started asking for more money. At the other end of the sport, we often read how much we need a thriving Development league but such comments are often followed by the same correspondents saying that they don't want to watch Development league standard racing as they only follow professional team racing. I used to enjoy the international matches, both top level and junior level. Equally I can enjoy meetings in all three leagues run in this country. I have seen good and bad meetings in all three leagues. How the promotions get the sport back to what it was I don't know and I fear none of them have the cash backing to be able to run big meetings in half empty stadiums.

I have reported your post asking that the mods do as you request.

I thought you had improved the forum by leaving. Please stay gone.

The one problem with using Monday is that it will mean less time to work on the track after Stock Car meetings over the weekend. If too many teams go Monday as their regular day then there could be problems with fitting in fixtures.