Chris116

Poole meeting was removed from the fixture list. Wolverhampton was cancelled due to rain and at the late stage of the season a new date could not be arranged.

I knew what was meant and only made fun of it when the original mistake was brought to everyones notice.

Most as in all except Poole.

Productive text is alive and well!

The two speedways are definately are not as close as the two stock car tracks. But I suspect in both sports there would be a few people who would like to go to both tracks to follow their sport which is currently not possible. Being someone who enjoys both sports if I lived in that area I would want speedway on two weekday evenings and the stox on Saturday and Sunday to get four meetings in a week! Back in the day I used to do Crayford speedway on a Tuesday, Aldershot stox or Wimbledon speedway on a Thurday, Crayford stox on a Friday, Wimbledon, Coventry or Harringay Stox on a Saturday and a choice of stox at Ipswich, Brafield, Wisbech and others on a Sunday.

It must be a Scottish thing to run on the same night! The Cowdenbeath and Lochgelly stock car tracks to run on the same night as well.

I missed the Christmas Eve information and the BSPA site made it the main news story today. My fault for missing the original message but the new one has a different slant on the news. I must remember not to pass on news from the BSPA site in future without checking everywhere that they are not putting out old news.

But currently the latest item on the BSPA website as per the heading below PANTHERS OWNER HAILS HARRIS Thursday January 02, 2020

Maybe it was but only appeared on BSPA this morning.

Chris Harris confirmed as a Panther on BSPA website by Buster, seven days after it was originally announced on the BSPA website. Must be a slow day for news!

The tide must have been out for longer than usual!

In my opinion it has been shown time and again that one season proves nothing. Riders can take one season or five seasons to make the grade and move up the leagues.

The Belle Vue stock car promotion, Startrax, have stated that they are not even considering the NSS as a possible replacement. Living in London I am far more concerned that during my lifetime I have seen cars and/or bikes at Wimbledon, West Ham, Harringay, Walthamstow, Romford, Crayford, Hackney, White City, Earls Court 2, Rayleigh, New Cross, Staines and Arena Essex. They have all been redeveloped meaning the local population increased while the amount of local entertainment decreased which is almost as stupid as railway lines being closed in the 1960's just as big new housing estates were built around the now closed stations and then the politicians wondered why there was so much traffic causing grid lock.

The Hi-Edge Raceway is a tarmac oval but Kirkmanshulme Lane is a shale track so transferring fixtures would not be to Hi-Edge but another shale track and the Hi-Edge promotion would not allow the Belle Vue promotion to run on the Buxton Speedway track even if the Buxton Speedway wanted to have the cars on their track.

Forward planning for next year, maybe?

As the adverts for financial services always say - Past perfomance is no guarantee of future performance. But averages are a useful guide and the way team building has to be done so they have their place.

My last visit to the Racewall was in May 2003 so things could have well altered since then. I was assisting with the commentary and throughout the weekend Ray Gunn and his family made me feel very welcome supplying me with bacon rolls and tea. Tragically Ray was killed in the Saloon Stock Car Scottish Championship in what became the last race of the weekend. Ray is the only driver or rider I have seen killed at a meeting and that afternoon still haunts me to this day.

At Cowdenbeath they have a proper fence around the football pitch on the inside of the Racewall track. The two meetings held at the old Wembley had a barrier round the football pitch but at the second meeting an F1 car jumped the barrier and went end over end across the grass with the front bumper digging holes in the pitch, that was the end of cars at Wembley!

In 1960 Ronnie Greene told a large group that included my father that there was no way Stock Cars would ever be allowed at Wimbledon and in September 1962 the Formula Two Stock Cars made their debut at Plough Lane with Stan Ingle winning the second Spedeworth World Final. Sadly it was the same day as that years Speedway World Final at Wembley so my parents took me to Wembley and we went to the Stock Cars at Wimbledon for the second meeting, the first time we had seen non-Control Board racing. I would agree it is most unlikely but NEVER say NEVER!

Cowdenbeath Racewall is around a football pitch and they have solved the problem of cars on the grass by having a full safety fence on the inside of the track. The posts slot into suitable holes and are removed for the football. The resulting holes then have a short post under a flat plate which covers the hole. Seems to work well and keeps the cars off the grass very well. Maybe a similar solution could be found for NSS if stock cars were to race there but from comments on the Startrax website the stock car promoter has not even considered the idea at the present time.

On that subject the flats that are being built on the site of Wimbledon stadium are looking as though they will soon be finished but the area where the football stadium is going to be built is empty! I fully expect that AFC Wimbledon are going to find they don't get the stadium they have been looking forward to for the past decade. The developers have been sponsoring the football club and my bet is the sponsorship will end just before the building starts meaning AFC Wimbledon will not be able to afford it. At that point the developers will be rushing back to get a change in the planning permission so they can drop the stadium and build more flats.

Startrax, who run the Stock Cars at Belle Vue (and also used to run Stoke) have had a very bad end to 2019 but have said that they have not even thought of trying to run cars at the NSS as there would be more problems for them they want. They are still expecting to be able to run for the first half of 2020 at Kirkmanshulme Lane and will be continuing their fight to force the supply of a new stadium or at the very least ground to build one on. As was proved with Wimbledon, they have an uphill fight but fight they certainly will.

Do we or the council trust the present owners to do what they would have to promise based on previous events?

So what happens to the current three standalone clubs? We know that Plymouth want to go into the Championship but would Mildenhall and Isle of Wight be able to make the move and if not that would mean the loss of two tracks and being fair that is speedway shoting itself in the foot big time. The sport needs more tracks not fewer.

Kent Kestrels?