HGould

It's been a shale track for Cars Very very different prparation for Bikes. It is not the clay surface at KIngs Lynn as an example.

A bit smaller but it reminded me of Dudley Wood in terms of the shape of bends relative to length of straights

An excellent Crowd for the first night and if the novelty value ensures 50% come back on a meeting by meeting basis they should wipe their noses. The track will need time to bed in fully. It reminded me a bit of Dudley Wood , a bit smaller but similar shape.

Speedway Forum, with all due respect a lot of dinosaurs , like all social media, full of negativity. I wasn't at Plymouth last night, I never watch BSN, I am occasional Speedway attender these days. I went to Plymouth earlier in the eason VIBRANT . PACKED , FULL OF NEW FANS... Now go and take a look at Plymouth Gladiators Social Media. Excellent non Speedway Fans media Team started last season, combined with and overseen by the always excellent Andy Hague. Bumper Crowd again last night Did they moan about "no passing" "long air fence delays" " three hours to finish a meeting" "queues to get in"?? Well if the did nO ONE seems to have moaned "Brilliant" "Exciting" "First Time i'll be back" "Great Atmosphere" "Fantastic spectacle" "Great night thanks to the electrician who found my childs earbud under the NHS Stand" Massive positivit from NEW fans, returning fans , curious to have a look at what its all about fans. No extinction level event in Devon Dinosaurs face extinction. Plymouth, as i've banged on about for 12 months , bucking the trend , MAKING EACH RACE NIGHT A ONE OFF EVENT! The Score doesn't matter The Delays don't matter It's like a one off Concert / Theatre / Circus / type Event. Speedway as E N T E R T A I N M E N T not as a Sport! Gloaters can gloat, moaners can moan, Plymouth seem to have found a magic elexir! (No disrespect meant to any poster, just trying to open up minds !)

You miss one obvious fact When 16 - 17 year old British lads turn up with the sponsored van festooned in Stickers, 3 CL Class bikes festooned in Stickers, dad and mom and 10 relatives all wanting free tickets and a couple of PL level mechanics and wanting more a point than most CL teams pay an experienced second string plus bonuses and all other sorts, then actually keen potentially progressive early 20's European riders who are here to race and learn can overall be a far more economical option. Then when these 16-17 year olds do anything remotely notwworthy they feck off to one of the "big clubs". That's after they have signed for your NDL team at 15, only agreeing because you promise them a CL place if they perform well, and when they do, they still feck off to another CL Team, then its not hard to wonder why some young british riders who think the Sport has the money it had 20 years ago are quite simply pricing themselves out of the market.

Dropped in on my way back home from a week in Hayle. More incredible progress since last there, new Bar, new Small Stands. Massive Crowd compared to early last season when I last visited. Nothing wrong with Track, was windy so they had watered it, came ideal by heat 5 or so. Home riders attacked it, Slick Sam Masters did what he used to do at Monmore when it was wet, - went missing started moaning - rest of Oxford team followed him Some good racing later on, with Barker a proper 3rd heat leader at home and Joe T in there and Klima excellent last night, if they could find an adequate replacement for Tobias, they won't be far off the Play Offs. Someone mentioned Bowtell but I'd imagine they would want some one better Away where points will be key. Another amazing leap forward from the SW outpost. My next speedway sojourn will no doubt be to Northampton.

The great irony here is timing. Had SIS have pulled out a month ago, the future of Oxford Speedway may have been far more assured for 2026. The BSPL and PL Promoters would have shelved the very costly Northampton project, that must be costing them more that £100,000 and pumped £20,000 a month rent in to Oxford and run an Oxford Team in the PL. To optimise income, they could still have run an Oxford Team in the CL. That would have given a further 12 months to properly market and develop Northampton, if it was still needed after a bigger reorganisationfor 2027. Timing!

Foxes? The progress is glacial!

Many Clubs have done this over the years. Some riders are very adept at it. Nothing new to see here but commendations to Poole fpr finally joining in and trying to raise their average fan age below the 70 mark. I hope that the younger fans are a lot less rude and abusive than the current rabble if you try to sit in an unreserved seat!

Martin Clunes Doc Marten

exactly! Weekend has definite possibilities Monday / Thursday YUK The other elephant in the Room BRANDON! Brandon reopens, that surely kills Northampton stone dead!

Sorry to be a part pooper. Anyone who thinks that you could drive from anywhere west of Coventry (e.g Greater Birmingham, Black Country, Staffordshire, Worcestershire or further west) in anything under 2 hours to remote Northamptonshire is living in cloud cuckoo land. It can take an hour to get from Wolverhampton to Birmingham or Birmingham to Coventry. The only way a Track in Braefield can attract any fans further west than Coventry would be to run on Saturday night or Sunday. Fans would literally have to take a day off work / school and fork out £40 / £50 in fuel. They may do it once or twice for novelty value but that is all. Its a financial disaster on the Perry Barr scale waiting to happen.

The other Yank who rode in that 81/82 team from memory, who I thought on his day was as good as Penhall was Ronnie Preston. I was told years ago that he wasn't in the Costa Mesa Californian group which almost all of the others were, so was always a bit off the radar. Not sure how true that was but he always went underrated in my opinion.

Put it like this... If shale contaminates the doggy sand at Mildenhall, then the dogs will be quickly told to like it or lump it only not quite so politely! If Arc do take over Oxford dog licence and Ownership, I'd fear a similar scenario to Monmore...where the dogs would rule!

The mind can play tricks at my age, but I have looked back and double checked. The Speedway Star last week suugested that 5 Clubs had confirmed / requested to join in 2026, that the League hoped to have 8 teams. Whether there are enough teams to stock 8 teams would be a moot point, so I am not sure if they would have a 4 + 4 split. It may be that 5 or 6 teams is the limit for one League Oxford Buxton have publically confirmed they wish to race, not sure anyone else has formally confirmed. It would be strange without Edinburgh and almost certainly Redcar, and equally, with their facilities, Leicester. Whether Belle Vue retain their long association, or Kings Lynns impressive roster want to return in unclear. Scun/Sheff; Plymouth and Workington seem to have made absolutely no comments at all and it has been publicised that Kent are trying to tie up a long term stadium agreement to justify considerable investment in a new air fence. Mildenhall have confimed they want to run NORA and I wonder if a few more in the South like Kent / Plymouth / IOW might go down that route.