DaveWayne

The stadium is owned by Spedeworth.

I think you are getting a few crossed wires here. The first meeting back at Odsal was under covid restrictions with a crowd limit of 4,000. This sold out as we had been waiting nearly 25 years to get back there. Later that year the F1 World Final was held with a crowd of possibly 10k, but that was not the norm. As I said in my other post, F1 meetings would pull crowds of 3-5k on average. The other meetings that don't involve F1s have much smaller attendances. F1 drivers do not pay to enter, they actually receive start money and also each driver gets 3 additional mechanics/family in free. The other formulas 'pay to race' but these are the meetings with the smaller crowds.

It's such a big stadium that it's hard to estimate, but 10k is very ambitious. I would say the average attendance for an F1 meeting would be around 3-5k. Bigger meetings obviously drag a few more, maybe 6-7k, but the only time it might have reached 10k since the reopening would have been the 2021 World Final. Sadly for the promoters, it was their turn to host the WF again this season, but instead of having the opportunity for a big payday in the best stadium they have now had to hire Northampton for the weekend instead.

It's all about the money !! In 1997, both Stock Cars and Speedway were kicked out of Odsal by the Bulls as the Super League had recently come into existence and Sky were throwing money at it, so they no longer needed the rental income. Plans for a fully enclosed 'Superdome' were published, which obviously would have made motorsports unfeasible. From 2012 to 2017, the Bulls went into administration 3 times, also dropping out of the Super League in 2014, and the 3rd one ended in liquidation. The Bulls that exist now are a completely new entity formed in 2017. During that first period of administration the RFL had to step in and purchase the leasehold on the stadium to help keep the club afloat. At the end of the 2019 season, they were still struggling financially and could no longer afford the rent so they moved out to Dewsbury for 2 seasons, leaving the RFL with an empty stadium. During the winter of 2020, the last Stock Car promotion to run at Odsal (Startrax), negotiated a return to Odsal with the RFL and made agreement with the Bulls to come back in with them. Allegedly, this was very beneficial to the Bulls, as rumour is that they had fallen out with the Dewsbury chairman and were going to be homeless in 2021. Since the return, the pitch has never met the minimum size specified in the rule book, but the RFL seemed happy to overlook this. However, now they have been 'promoted' back to the Super League, it has become more of an issue. Unfortunately for Stock Car racing, this promotion means the Bulls will be far better off financially, and it also coincides with the Bulls taking over the leasehold on the stadium from the RFL, giving them far more control over what happens. Despite the Stock Car promoters still having several years on the lease agreement, they are no longer welcome at Odsal, and I believe legal proceedings have taken place, but the rumour is that this was more about compensation than any possible return. The fact is, that without Startrax reopening Odsal in 2021 (a massive gamble as we were still under Covid restrictions at the time), the Bulls would not be playing there now, and would certainly not have been in the position to be rejoining the Super League. Then their fans wonder why all stock car fans are wishing for them to get relegated, go bust, or both !!

Because the new stand on the pits turn has supporting legs that are very close to the outer edge of the track. The likelihood of a stock car going over the fence is far less than that of a speedway rider, and even if they did they would be protected by the car they were in. I know that riders clearing fences doesn't happen often, but it does happen, and therefore the risk could not be taken.

Nobody did. Sadly, the stock car promoter was ready for retirement so allegedly gave up his remaining lease for a sweetener. Had he held out on his further year, both speedway and greyhounds could have also continued in 1998 and the administrators would have been forced to advertise it for sale as a 'going concern'. As a stock car fan I will never forgive him for this.

Completely ignoring the fact that out of the 8 they lost their opponents scored 50+ points on 6 occasions. Compare that with 2 for Sheffield, 3 for Ipswich, and 4 for Leicester. Hence the reason I mentioned the need for huge home wins to pick up many aggregate bonus points. Belle Vue had the best home record in the league last season but finished 4th in the table, 5/6 points behind the other 3. Away form was their downfall and with 3 of those 4 riders returning this year it could be the same again this season.

Not sure about Belle Vue at number 1. They couldn't buy a win away from home last season due to the top heavy team building, and with the same leading pair and a lower average to work to I can't see this year being any different. Probably go pretty much unbeaten at home, but will need to rack up some huge home scores if they want many bonus points.

He is a team player as well. None of this riding off into the sunset and letting his partner fend for themselves. The effort he puts in to support every rider in the team both on and off track is second to none. He will increase the average of any rider in his team that is happy to listen to his advice.

It is a delicate and ongoing legal situation, so no 'paying off' has taken place. The stock car promoters have stated that there will be no racing there in 2026, and have taken their fixtures to other venues for the coming season, but at present have not ruled out a return in 2027. Stock car fans are not happy as the same thing happened in 1997 when the Sky money first poured into the Super League and they forced us out to build their fully enclosed 'Superdome'. Since then they have bounced from one financial disaster to another, and when Startrax reopened Odsal in 2021 the Bulls had been absent for 2 seasons as they couldn't afford to play there. Without stock cars they would still be playing home matches at Dewsbury (although rumour was they were getting kicked out of there due to a dispute at the time). To then screw the ones that got them back into Odsal 5 years later shows them in a very bad light.

The lease was far longer than that. I believe there were about 17 years left. The rubgy club have even lifted the shale without telling the stock car promoters !!

2 x 3 day meetings, both Friday to Sunday, so in theory shouldn't impact too much on speedway being run on a Monday or Thursday. Deane Wood works very hard on the track over these weekends, often starting the prep for the following day as soon as the meeting has finished, then back on it again from early morning. The 2 meetings are 11th-13th and 25th-27th. The only dates that may be unavailable for speedway in that month would be the Mondays immediately following those weekends.

You should try working on a car in there on a cold wet night !!

That doesnt resolve the rubbishty floor that you find in most stockcar pits. If you ever go to Kings Lynn, have a look at the stock car pits on the back straight, and then tell me speedway riders would be happy in there.

Not sure how you work that one out. Stock cars don't have nice concrete pits with cover like speedway does, so you couldn't just chuck a few bikes in there, and they can't give up space for extra speedway pits to be be built as some bigger stock car meetings have to restrict car numbers as it is due to lack of pit space.

But as gets said on many threads, as an away rider you are up against track specialists. When he guested in 2024 he scored a paid maximum 10+2 at number 2. Only beaten twice by Jack Holder.

Do they have his other 2 clubs correct for 2026 ? And was he one of their announced riders before his accident ?

I was more talking about people on here rather than the 'powers that be'. Some are talking as if it is just as simple as "it's a shale track so we can race on it". It's also going to need a lot of work on track prep during the season or we will see a hell of a lot of rain offs. Having been to a few wet meetings there in the last few years, I have seen it resemble anything from a ploughed field to an ice rink. It's a very different surface to some other shale tracks.

Have any of the people assuming that Northampton is an option actually been to the track in recent years ? I don't know the rulings on 'infields' for speedway, but the inside of both corners does not have an inner kerb any more, so the race track literally goes up to a plate fence several feet high. This could be counteracted to some degree by white line marking an 'inner kerb' further out and narrowing the corners, but there is still the issue of a rider potentially losing control on the straight and ploughing into the end of the raised banking. These raised areas can't just be removed as they create the 'safe zone' for the stock car marshals.

Playoffs/shootouts/etc. have their place in sports where there are a large number of competitors. In football, it has had the impact of keeping more teams in with a shout of promotion towards the end of the season. This means there are a lot less 'dead rubbers' so it keeps the crowd numbers up and benefits the clubs financially. In F1 stock car racing, we had the issue of the 'national points championship' often being decided with 2 months of the season still to go, meaning numbers on both sides of the fence tended to drop off after the World Championship in September. By bringing in an end of season shootout, the battle for the silver roof goes to the final meeting of the season, and the crowd numbers for the 12 shootout rounds are far higher than they would have been in previous years. The difference is though, that in football the top 25% in each division are in with a chance of promotion, in stockcars you are looking at 16 out of over 100 drivers can win the silver roof. To have a season long tournament where 60-80% of the competitors can still win at the end of the season, irrespective of how far behind they might be does seem very farcical.

Absolutely no chance of shale going down again at Skegness. The shale track was massively off putting for the midweek holiday crowd for stock car meetings. What they have there now is one of the best tarmac stock car tracks in the country in terms of a mix of speed and action, with minimal track preparation required, and far cleaner for the 'once a year' holiday makers to have a family night out.

Not sure that would go down well with the Witches fans. After the abuse he has been given on here over recent years, it would be interesting to see if they are fickle and suddenly love him when he wears their colours, or if they stay away in protest. 🤔

Sorry, I was at a family party so I went for the quick option on wiki. Holder still had a higher GSA than Fricke in both 2023 and 2024.

2025 Fricke 10.19 Holder 9.52 2024 Holder 9.48 Fricke 9.18 2023 Holder 9.65 Fricke 8.82 2022 Fricke 8.62 Holder 8.56

One season. Holder had better average for the previous 2 years. Honestly don't think there is much between them, but Fricke was more dominant than Holder at home last year.