marko

There is actually a weather warning now issued for Sunday, it’s more about strong winds than anything else, another event happening Sunday is an air show at Duxford, that’s likely to be serverly affected by the weather, unlike speedway though you have to buy tickets in advance and there is no refund. what is the situation at Rye regards available dates?

We have no choice but to use R/R for Newman. As for Zach I have looked at the green sheet averages and there isn't much choice out there, the best pick for the home leg could be Broc Nicol, Theo Pijper would also fit and is a very experienced rider and would be a good pick for Peterborough, I have no idea on his history at Rye.

Does Rye still have a tarmac base?

I started going at the end of 1988, introduced by a pal at school and until I passed my driving test I had to rely on parents to take us there, most of those early years you had the strange thing of paying on entry before you parked the car, this caused a real problem at one stage as I had very unreliable drivers electric window on my old Renault 21, we always used to joke about the state of the road leading up to the car park which was really bad until they resurfaced it many years later. Never counted how many times I went to Arena Essex but some rough maths would suggest it would be around about 450 times I reckon over the 30 years. Most enjoyable years were 1991, 1993 and 2003, the worst years were 1996, 2005 and 2006

Horrible crash, that split second where you see he was going to clip the back wheel AJ but could do nothing about it.

It was a race at Arena Essex in 1993 involving Brian Karger, Josh Larsen and Belle Vue's Jason Lyons, Jason went between both Hammers to go from third to first then Brian took back first place and Josh pipped Jason to the line to regain the 5-1 for the Hammers

I know it looks a straight run of A10 and A1M but still probably best part of a 2 hour drive if you stick to the speed limit?

Yes, nothing was cut and even though it was a very late finish there was no shortage of patrons who took the opportunity of doing the track walk afterwards, it was a real eye opener to see the track close up and how different it looks when your actually on it, and also the feel of the track under foot and how in some places it was like a very hard slightly sandy base but out towards the fence there was a lot of loose shale which I personally I wouldn't want to put a back wheel in knowing how these modern bikes can take off when they hook up.

I can't go as I will be working tonight but I cannot imagine this meeting being allowed to go beyond 11pm with so many houses near by, I know there is no curfew as such but I wouldn't be surprised if the second meeting is called after ten heats.

It was a really good crowd, I hope a few influential people were there last night to witness the fact there is still very much support there for a speedway track in Essex. As soon as I got in the car park you could see this was going to be a big crowd, I was really worried that they were going to run out of programs but I got lucky and still managed to get one, I would have been well and truly gutted if I had not because this was a lasting souvenir to our time at this venue, the meeting ended up dragging but to be honest I wasn't even aware of the time until later because it was just so nice to catch up with those who have not been for some time. It was what should have been a sad night but to me felt more like a celebration of the venues existence for all these years despite the many times that the stadium or the club itself has been up in the air as to whether it would see another season. The biggest thing was that it wasn't the end of the club full stop, we keep going at another venue for the time being and I do intend to support that now where I can because although my head says we will never have a track in Essex again, my heart says otherwise. So we still have a team, we have somewhere to race, now we just need an organisation who can run British Speedway properly and orderly.

Yes that is not fair on anyone, they should have had the option of using the rained off program as part admission for the double header, how much extra surplus is fair for a double header? well £10-12 probably.

I am just not convinced its being done for the reasons they say, one week we are being told they want to stay at Arena either as sole tenants or with another motorsport promotion and then the next we are told not motorsports can take place at Arena Essex after this year, time will tell I guess but I wouldn't be surprised if this time next season the site looks exactly as it does today albeit with a few extra weeds growing around the place. At the end of the day its about what is in here (the heart) and that for me is the place, not the name of the team who races there as such, being old school I will always be an Arena Essex Hammer, the whole Lakeside thing has never sat well with me (its like they tried to bury the past because Arena Essex was always seen as a cinderella club but they still won more than Lakeside have) but its still Arena Essex, take away the Arena and I have very little left to be emotionally invested in, so sure you can move to another track, call it Lakeside (even though its 40 miles away) but that's not my past, Arena Essex is my past.

OK, well if its going to be exactly the same at Rye House then I would like to offer some constructive advise if I may, please announce the starting line ups in the proper order White - Yellow - Red - Blue, I understand you have been going to speedway long enough to know this is how its done, Re the music, I don't really care what you play so long as it is different on week by week basis and not just the exact same song recycled from the previous, I mean I like R.E.M but every meeting I have been too this season (and only missed 2 or 3) I am sure you have played "losing my religion" now its a good song but its not that good! We were promised before the season starting that presentation and the show in general was going to be made better, it hasn't, suddenly moving tracks isn't going to fix that, its part of the overall package and should not be ignored no matter how good the racing is on the track itself.

This reminds me of 1996 when Terry Russell took his licence and assets and moved it to Hackney, new club, new name, the London Lions neither carried on the history of Arena Essex or the Hackney Kestrels, it started a fresh, but it was a disaster of a season and whilst I went to all the meetings at Hackney it never felt like home, Fortunately Arena Essex carried on in the development league, it wasn’t great but it allowed the club to transition back to lower league racing which was always its natural place. Stuart and Jon are entitled to take their promoting licence whoever they choose but it won’t be Arena Essex, they decided not to try seek a future their, what they have done is no different to Terry Russell, he moved when he saw an opportunity to go to a better stadium, Stuart and Jon are doing exactly the same except Terry never pretended to be Arena Essex, he targeted a London based fan base and any others hoping on board would be a bonus.

For me I will go on Friday for one last time, not for the benefit of the current promotion but for old time sake, it’s like I have always said, the owners and riders will come and go but the fans always remain, it’s our club and that club is closing this Friday, it might continue at Rye for the remainder of the season but after that, it is the end, there will be no track, no Arena Essex, no Lakeside, the current promotion can move to Rye full time if they like but it won’t be our club, it will be theirs.

Potential disaster running two meetings on the trot with only six riders, that's a lot of wear and tear on the other six, our reserves could easily end up having 12 rides each over the course of the night if there are any further problems, rider replacement always means bigger gaps between heats with riders having two on the trot, we only have one man who can drive the tractors so grading breaks take longer, will Rye track staff be allowed to help or will Ken insist on doing everything himself as normal? grading and watering takes longer if there is only one man doing it. We need to get these meeting on, I understand that, but a 7pm is really just not a sensible idea.

I agree 6pm would have been more sensible, does Rye House have a curfew at all being so close to housing? If I choose to go it could be very touch and go as to whether I would be able to stay for all of the second meeting as I will be on night shift and then I have to worry about whether I will be able to get out of the car park as I could be boxed in, too many ifs and buts for me to risk it. Also no mention of what the price will be for the double header, with a meeting on the Friday too, pricing will have to be kept sensible otherwise for two adults you could be looking at the best part of £100-£120 if you include programs over two days.

Its always been a pet peev of mine when people say a track is ridable, fans do not pay money to come and watch "riding", they pay to come and watch "racing".

Did it? They either kept that quiet or I must have missed it.

The sport will never move forward in this country whilst the majority if not all the promoters are set fast on trying to screw all the other clubs. They are killing their own future and they just fail to see it.

Probably Arena was at its trickiest when it was fenceless, it was the safest track around but not always the easiest to do well on, it’s amazing to think looking back how well Steve Lawson always did when he visited and now we have his son riding for us and is one of the most popular riders ever to wear the crossed Hammers, you wonder if it’s in his families genes.

We need a national league, and considering you have teams like IOW running almost every week even if its a wacky formatted challenge meeting which on paper shouldn't draw fans but must do because they are still in business, must mean its a very viable league if the costs are kept sensible. Speaking of which the loss of Arena Essex will also mean the loss of the Hagon shocks training facility there. The trouble is see though with only having a two league structure is that the promoters will end up trying to chase away what few top riders we still have, they will make it almost for the likes Jason Doyle to carry on riding over here, we need more riders not less.

But even if they were in different divisions which would race when? Let’s say hyperthetically they wanted to alternate Saturdays? Would either run against a Grand Prix? There would be a Saturday lost for the Cardiff GP anyway and probably a second for the Speedway of Nations. And personally I’m sick of doubling up, I would rather see one big league of 16-18 like the original national league system, Rye could run Saturday nights (they own the stadium so they should have the prime time slot) Lakeside could run Sunday afternoon or early evening.

That’s another good point, they can’t both run Saturday nights and Friday would be even more of an issue than our current home, the combination of the M25 and A10 or M11 ? No thanks

q It would be a very risky decision to hope there is cross platform support between the two clubs, it could end up breaking both of them and then having nothing at all there. When Lakeside dropped into the third division they instantly lost a load of support to those that already followed Kent in that league, the idea is you could double your fan base, in reality you end up halving it.