DaveWayne

There were no bangers or hot rods last weekend. 😉

3 day meetings are few and far between, especially on shale, but this was a major championship weekend for 2 formulas, with 2 other formulas in support, and many drivers from overseas. It was programmed a year ago (I booked my accommodation in October) so it's not like it was a surprise. Last night's meeting was supposed to run on 27th August, but was postponed and with the Foxes already having matches programmed on 3rd and 10th September, last night was the only option to run before the cut off. Good job they didn't qualify for the play offs as there is another 3-dayer at the end of the month, due to another promotion hiring the track for their major event.

To be fair to the stock cars, there wouldn't even be a speedway track without them. 😉 What you have to bear in mind is that the 3 day meeting was planned before speedway was even confirmed for this season, and was a major championship meeting for 2 different formulas with many competitors from overseas. It couldn't just be rearranged to accommodate a speedway event a few days later. The stock car promoter worked very hard on the track over the weekend. After the Saturday event finished at around 7.30pm he was working on the track until the early hours of Sunday morning. The rain on Sunday certainly didn't help matters. Funnily enough, several people commented to me over the weekend about the 'speedway dip' on the home straight, so the damage works both ways.

I see. So neither of the Holders have said it publicly then ? Just promoter waffle telling the fans what they want to hear. 😉

Recently ? I can imagine this being said when they still had an affiliation, but after 6 seasons at Owlerton I can't see Jack going anywhere else in a hurry (unless Sheffield fold).

The statement on the website said rain between 4pm and 8pm. Surely better to judge at the end of that time period rather than at the start of it ?

Always best to know what you are talking about before clicking the submit button. 😉 No driver in any stock car or banger formula is allowed to exit their car either on track or on the infield without the permission of the steward, unless the car is on fire. The circumstances you mention may have happened in the past, but not in recent years due to a driver being killed due to being hit after exiting his car.

Even if Sheffield ran without guests for their remaining 4 meetings they would most likely finish in front of Lynn. The best you can possibly end the season on is 25 points. To do that you have got to beat Leicester home and away, having already lost both legs of the R1 fixtures, and win away at Northampton which you failed to do in R1. Sheffield are on 20 points and more than likely going to take 3 from the Northampton home fixture, and would probably beat Belle Vue at home even if they ran with R/R for Holder. Having missed the 2022 playoffs through injury, Fricke has obviously decided that he may as well get settled in with his 2026 play off team early to give himself a good chance of a medal. 😉

Sorry but I don't understand how you are going to make that work. Are you basically saying you want to make 12 riders 'unemployed' just so they can be called on as and when needed ? If not a squad system where riders are aligned to a particular team even if not riding, then would that be a central pool of riders that anyone could call on ? How is that different to the current guesting rules ?

The model would have to change massively for a squad system to be used. A wage/retainer would have to be paid to all squad members as they wouldn't accept points payments if they weren't getting the chance to score them. Would this really be sustainable with teams already losing money ?

Unfortunately, it really isn't that profitable. The meeting that you are looking at for £15 admission is a 'domestic' meeting which will probably get a crowd of 500-100, so £7,500-15,000 admissions. Drivers will total 20-30 per class so about 90-100 for a 3 or 4 formula meeting, usually around £25 per car to enter, so about £2,500. A long way off your £40-50k estimate, and then you need to deduct the costs of putting on the meeting. The 2-3,000 crowds that you have heard about are for the big championship meetings or maybe 1-2,000 when F1s are on. The difference with F1s is that they don't pay to race, they actually receive start money and prize money, and also get 3 free admissions per driver for their mechanics, so the crowd figures will include up to 200 non-payers. The payout to drivers for an ordinary 40-50 car meeting is in the region of £6-7,000. I'm not saying there isn't profit to be made, but it is nowhere near the figures you are suggesting. As an example, most of the meetings at Buxton (High Edge) are for the 'domestic' formulas rather than the national ones. The promoter has openly stated that he has to run long meetings with 6 or 7 formulas just to break even, as the drivers paying to race plus their pit crews and families paying admission will just cover his costs of putting the meeting on. Any paying spectators (often less than 200) is profit, plus profit on food and drink, but many people take their own rather than buying it.

I was forgetting the additional 5% only applies at home - Fricke at home and Iversen away then. Or fingers crossed his average slips over their 4 remaining matches.😂

With the terrible news about Jack's injury, it looks like the only hope Sheffield now have of a decent tilt at the playoffs is if Kings Lynn fail to qualify and we can persuade Fricke to guest for us at number 1. 😉

From where we were stood on turn 3/4 it looked like Etheridge realised Fricke had beaten him to the outside dirt line and he tried to cut back inside onto the home straight but he turned too tight and locked up causing him to slow and giving Cook nowhere to go. There was no intent to cause a collision and had he not locked up he would probably have got away with it. But, even as a Tigers fan, I immediately said that Etheridge has to go as he was the cause of the accident. Was very surprised to see Cook's light come up.

Coventry had greyhounds from 1968 to 1986, then intermittently from 2004.