British GP 2013

[iris123]

So, why was it wetter than anticipated?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even on a hard stand it can become soaking.Hard stand gets wet and water seeps up through the material rendering it crap.I see it all the time even when covered by tarps.

So in your expert opinion you could hardly call it a 'climate controlled facility' then.And once a pyramid of shale gets wet i would imagine it would be pretty hard to dry it out at any time,but particularly during winter and spring.Oh well i don't think many can velieve the speedway xtra article that it all works like clockwork and nothing is left to chance.A disaster was though avoided,but Mr Chance came a knocking

Edited June 3, 2013 by iris123

[Humphrey Appleby]

And once a pyramid of shale gets wet i would imagine it would be pretty hard to dry it out at any time,but particularly during winter and spring.

 

It's not even so much that the shale got wet, but cobblers that's apparently been spouted about it...

[Starman2006]

FACTS ... the material used this year was the same as in 2012. As previously posted, it looked and was lighter in colour because of the lime added on Friday morning.

 

The material is taken to a storage facility where it is built up into a pyramid, covered with tarpaulin with heavy tyres on top to ensure it is as far as possible watertight. The base is concrete. Once a month photographs of the covered material and read-outs of moisture measurements are sent to BSI.

 

So, why was it wetter than anticipated? That question has already been asked and the whole storage procedure, which let's face it has worked well over the past two years, being is re-examined.

 

Any suggestion that cost cutting was going on is complete rubbish. Anyone inside the stadium this week who saw the amount of equipment on hire and on hand will testify to that.

 

Ole Olsen's team includes some very experienced guys well versed in building roads, etc, and their record in recent years at Cardiff, Copenhagen and Gothenburg has been good. Believe me, they are as puzzled and disappointed as anyone that Saturday's track wasn't up to the high standards they set themselves and they are determined as anyone to solve the puzzle.

 

Of course, there had to be some watering on Saturday. The racing generates a lot of loose material which requires dampening down.

 

 

 

CERTAINLY has with British speedway fans

 

FACT, somebody is not doing their job properly, yes FACT the pile's of shale are piyramid shaped, and should be fully covered but somebody is still not doing their job properly.

Er, Phil, we are building and laying a speedway track, not a main road. Olsens team have some very experienced guys, in building ROADS, NOT speedway tracks, and i would go as far as to say one of our top Curators would make mince meat of Olsens lot. Now, there boys lay the road, and i would strongly suggest you enlist one of our Top Curators to do the track, for example Doc at Wolves... And, i will take a lot of convincing its the same stuff as previous seasons...

As i said in another post, this is OUR stage, this promotes British Speedway, in the past we have had good tracks and some very good racing, Cardiff is about the day, AND the racing, this year it was a bloody shambles, i do hope Olsen and his road builders take this on board. Speedway is finding it hard enough to attract fans as it is in this country, the last thing we need is a laughing stock for a GP. FACT...

[SCB]

Dont worry sold it now for face value 45 quid, they do have for 30 if you want a crap seat.

I got myself an £82 ticket for £20. Good job I didn't pay your price fair play to you for finding a sucker who did pay that price!

[Gresham78]

I don't think the the meeting was 'shambles' or a 'laughing stock'. Granted the track was sub-standard this year and they need to find out why and make sure it doesn't happen again but I don't think it turned the event into a farce. There was some decent racing and I thought the presentation was fine.

I enjoyed the day as I did last year; Cardiff's a nice city and I always like the atmosphere pre-meeting. The Millennium stadium's a great venue and although some people have complained about the cost of tickets, considering you're seeing the world's best riders in decent surroundings I think its good value.

[Adder]

We purchased tickets from the Stadium box office on Saturday morning. Paid £38 each and had a great view upper tire on the back row directly opposite the start line.

 

The track was very poor and some of the races were tedious but the experience of the whole weekend compensated for that.

 

If i'd have just gone down just for the meeting rather than the whole weekend of drinking, mingling and having the craic then i'd have been might p'ed off.

 

Shout out especially to the Long Eaton boys who we met in Walkabout and the Worky fans in the Prince of Wales on Friday and the Ippo fans we saw in Cafe Jazz on Saturday. Good meeting you all and hope you had safe trips home.

[Grand Central]

We purchased tickets from the Stadium box office on Saturday morning. Paid £38 each and had a great view upper tire on the back row directly opposite the start line.

 

The track was very poor and some of the races were tedious but the experience of the whole weekend compensated for that.

 

If i'd have just gone down just for the meeting rather than the whole weekend of drinking, mingling and having the craic then i'd have been might p'ed off.

 

That was pretty much exactly my experience.

 

Just a couple of words on the Presentation last Saturday.

 

I thought the pre meeting parade worked OK. It was different and created a bit of theatre. It just went a little flat when the riders just had to scuttle off back to the pits when it was over. It meant that the crowd never got their usual opportunity to blast out their voices and horns in that parade cacophony as the whole field of riders toured the track.

Mind you the 'first race is always ready to start at 12 minutes past the hour' had been well broken by that stage.

I was just a bit surprised as I had seen about 20 of those Trike Chopper machines arrive in the morning but only three got used for the lap of honour at the end; so plans must have changed.

 

I thought the music was lacking this year through the night and instead we had two brain-dead 'presenters' who may be all the rage on cBeebies, for all I know, but they left me ice-cold.

 

I really don't understand why at the showpiece event, which has just about every person in UK Speedway on site, yet we have I have interviews WITH people that know nothing about Speedway BY people who know even less.

The only Speedway person interviewed was The Official Most Boring Person, Tony Briggs!

 

We ended up missing the Semi Final Draw and then having two abortive and pitiful attempts at Mexican waves immediately before the Semi and Final.

 

When BSI have their endless series of meetings 'when nothing is left to chance' perhaps they should be a little more self-critical than usual.

 

The truth is some of us really enjoyed our weekend DESPITE them not BECAUSE of them.

 

 

.

Edited June 4, 2013 by Grand Central

[noaksey]

Probably they didn't want to risk the choppers on the track surface

[foreverblue]

I got myself an £82 ticket for £20. Good job I didn't pay your price fair play to you for finding a sucker who did pay that price!

Well done sounds a bargain, was that with all yours friends that you wanted to sit with.

[Grand Central]

Probably they didn't want to risk the choppers on the track surface

 

I'm sure you're quite right.

 

No doubt Torben's Bible will have a page bookmarked 'What to do when when the track is a soft as blancmange'.

After all Post #1 of this thread proclaims 'BSI/IMG meticulously ensure that nothing is left to chance'.

Edited June 4, 2013 by Grand Central

[Fourentee]

The lay down almost seems to be a lost art. I don't know what riders are taught a training schools these days but back in the day no rider would get a sniff of a second half at Hyde Road if he couldn't demonstrate a controlled lay down at the training school no matter how good a rider he was.

I have a vague idea that riders have to demonstrate a proficient laydown before being issued with a licence. Perhaps someone out there can give a definitive answer.

[bigcatdiary]

 

 

That was pretty much exactly my experience.

 

Just a couple of words on the Presentation last Saturday.

 

I really don't understand why at the showpiece event, which has just about every person in UK Speedway on site, yet we have I have interviews WITH people that know nothing about Speedway BY people who know even less.

The only Speedway person interviewed was The Official Most Boring Person, Tony Briggs!

 

The truth is some of us really enjoyed our weekend DESPITE them not BECAUSE of them.

.

 

Would have been nice to actually be able to hear what was said over the speakers, we were middle tier on the second bend and couldn't hear or understand anything said, and not for the first time either.

 

[Long Eye]

I have a vague idea that riders have to demonstrate a proficient laydown before being issued with a licence. Perhaps someone out there can give a definitive answer.

 

No. You need to buy an ACU licence and then when you have that you can get your SCB Permit and away you go.

[Grand Central]

Would have been nice to actually be able to hear what was said over the speakers, we were middle tier on the second bend and couldn't hear or understand anything said, and not for the first time either.

 

I feel I must reiterate how much I liked my Cardiff experience .... Before going on to agree with each bit of criticism.

 

I've sat just about everywhere around the Stadium now and the sound quality has always been pretty terrible.

Friends are going to see Bon Jovi there next week so I just hope they do a fair bit better on that score for them.

 

One other nark - again the Stadium, not BSI - was the £4 for a small luke-warm bottle of Fosters. And nothing 'For The Ladies' without queuing at the one bar that sold a iffy white wine.

 

Again this did not spoil things ... But you would think it could be better organised after all this time.

 

 

[SCB]

One other nark - again the Stadium, not BSI - was the £4 for a small luke-warm bottle of Fosters. And nothing 'For The Ladies' without queuing at the one bar that sold a iffy white wine.

TBF, that how it works at major stadiums. I went to the Walkers Stadium in Leicester a few years ago for football and couldn't get a packet of crisps! Had to have a Yorkie. Went to Wembley about 14 months ago for the football and had a warm pint of flat lager.

 

Stadium food is always expensive and bad and the bigger the stadium the worse it gets. It's why I was so shocked to find a beer in the Marketta Stadium a few years back used to cost slightly less than the pub outside, as long as you were happy to queue for 30 minutes.

[Grand Central]

TBF, that how it works at major stadiums. I went to the Walkers Stadium in Leicester a few years ago for football and couldn't get a packet of crisps! Had to have a Yorkie. Went to Wembley about 14 months ago for the football and had a warm pint of flat lager.

 

Stadium food is always expensive and bad and the bigger the stadium the worse it gets. It's why I was so shocked to find a beer in the Marketta Stadium a few years back used to cost slightly less than the pub outside, as long as you were happy to queue for 30 minutes.

 

Oh I'm realistic. I don't expect better.

It's still a shame that we are worn down to expect such treatment.

And pay through the nose.

And just go away quietly.

[Starman2006]

TBF, that how it works at major stadiums. I went to the Walkers Stadium in Leicester a few years ago for football and couldn't get a packet of crisps! Had to have a Yorkie. Went to Wembley about 14 months ago for the football and had a warm pint of flat lager.

 

Stadium food is always expensive and bad and the bigger the stadium the worse it gets. It's why I was so shocked to find a beer in the Marketta Stadium a few years back used to cost slightly less than the pub outside, as long as you were happy to queue for 30 minutes.

 

Yeh, and i bet it cost you the Earth...

[SCB]

Oh I'm realistic. I don't expect better.

It's still a shame that we are worn down to expect such treatment.

And pay through the nose.

And just go away quietly.

We're our own worst enemies, we continue to pay it. As it was, one of my mates works in one of the bars so I could have had a half price pint or pie but I was on the 2nd bend tier two and he was working bend 4 top tier and there was no way I was going that way even for a £2.20 pint!

 

I just had a sausage roll off dietbowers mrs in the afternoon and had some chips from chippy alley in the evening. who needs stadium pies?!

Edited June 4, 2013 by SCB

[Shadders]

I just had a sausage roll off dietbowers mrs in the afternoon

According to him it was HIS sausage roll you ate.

[topaz325]

Have not read most of the posts on this topic but....a few positives from my weekend at Cardiff...

 

Good train journey from the North West but expensive tickets....

Good Hotel at Cardiff, ideal location and paid average city price..

Great seats at the Millenium stadium but expensive for food and refreshments, eg about £4.00 for a bottle of cider or can of bitter, £1.50 for bag of crisps!

 

Is it just me or are the bars getting rougher and seedier every year near the stadium....i like a pint or two but ......!!

 

The racing at Somerset on Friday is usually on par with the racing at Cardiff!!