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Ipswich Vs Berwick Thursday August 1st 7.30pm


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Track was a discrace! Can't understand why they have small tracks prepared like a motocross start gate! It should be prepared so all 4 riders can ride flat out side by side and having choice of different lines. Not strung out hanging on for life and made to look like a raw novice! It can't be hard can it????

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Reading the Berwick report of the meeting on the bspa site, Ashworth was actually excluded for knocking off Leigh Lanham, not the incident with Adam. This make more sense now as he clearly moved into Leigh and brought him down on the back straight. Maybe Adam should've been excluded aswell for being underpower as he was not attached to his bike at the time.

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Reading the Berwick report of the meeting on the bspa site, Ashworth was actually excluded for knocking off Leigh Lanham, not the incident with Adam. This make more sense now as he clearly moved into Leigh and brought him down on the back straight. Maybe Adam should've been excluded aswell for being underpower as he was not attached to his bike at the time.

I think that was the general consensus amongst the Bandits fans. To be honest, my attention was on the fallen rider, so I missed the Ashworth/Lanham incident. Looked to me like Ellis fell on his own accord, so should've been excluded anyway. Caught a lucky break there.

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Reading the Berwick report of the meeting on the bspa site, Ashworth was actually excluded for knocking off Leigh Lanham, not the incident with Adam. This make more sense now as he clearly moved into Leigh and brought him down on the back straight. Maybe Adam should've been excluded aswell for being underpower as he was not attached to his bike at the time.

I can only assume the ref thought he laid it down to avoid what was happening up front.

 

That didnt seem the case to me as I thought Adam was down first and very much on his own.

 

In general it seemed to me that there was too much grip at the entry to the bends which straightened a few up and took them into the deeper stuff at the wrong speed and angle to keep control.

 

Im sure there a a few more qualified than me that can confirm that or otherwise??

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The problem with a grippy track like that is, the back end doesn't break away which obviously means your heading towards the fence, this then makes less confident riders in those conditions to shut off, which then straightens you up sending you towards the fence even more. Obviously the best thing to do in those conditions is have very very big testicles and keep it wound on, but then as you see from adam rohan and then Adam again you hit the grip, your front wheel lifts and sends you towards or through the fence at pretty high speed. Personally I would have been riding a pretty big rear sprocket to help on a track like that, obviously some of the riders thought they could race it with their usual start gearing and set up.

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So one of the usual suspects is on here again knocking a rider who is coming back from a long line of injuries, and completely forgetting the consistent double figures he knocked in for us prior to that.

It also looks like almost everyone struggled due to track conditions last night. So it is unfair to comment, especially when you weren't there.

 

It's always easy to have a go sat next to a computer though...

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Whilst i applaud CL for trying to produce a grippy track, it obviously doesn't suit the riders. It's been the same for the past few weeks, awkward for 5/6 heats, then slicker and smoother for the rest of the meeting. Whether it's the way the bikes are set up these days, or that the riders just cant handle it, either way lets try a smoother surface and see what happens next meeting.

One of the biggest complaints in Speedway is about 15 mins action for your entrance fee, last night it dragged on for just over 2 hours, just about bearable on a nice evening, but unacceptable on a cold night.
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The problem with a grippy track like that is, the back end doesn't break away which obviously means your heading towards the fence, this then makes less confident riders in those conditions to shut off, which then straightens you up sending you towards the fence even more. Obviously the best thing to do in those conditions is have very very big testicles and keep it wound on, but then as you see from adam rohan and then Adam again you hit the grip, your front wheel lifts and sends you towards or through the fence at pretty high speed. Personally I would have been riding a pretty big rear sprocket to help on a track like that, obviously some of the riders thought they could race it with their usual start gearing and set up.

Keep this up and you will replace Kelvin with a summary like that!

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Whilst i applaud CL for trying to produce a grippy track, it obviously doesn't suit the riders. It's been the same for the past few weeks, awkward for 5/6 heats, then slicker and smoother for the rest of the meeting. Whether it's the way the bikes are set up these days, or that the riders just cant handle it, either way lets try a smoother surface and see what happens next meeting.

One of the biggest complaints in Speedway is about 15 mins action for your entrance fee, last night it dragged on for just over 2 hours, just about bearable on a nice evening, but unacceptable on a cold night.

It's also a myth that you need grippy conditions to produce good racing.

 

Heat 15 after the track slickened off last night a perfect example.

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as a first timer to foxhall i never understand that riders who have never seen a grippy track. Blame the weather (this is england!!)or what ever but, they must have seen one before.Rick Ashworth looked hopeless in his first 2 heats & then gated and robbed by a poor refereeing.

p.s. One point for Ipswich speedway, I stood on the back straight and couldn't see the start gate for a tractor parked in the way.Yes i moved but, the driver then also moved.

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Strange meeting last night, but i think that might be a case of sitting in the "big stand" as usual place was a building site! Seemed a totally different place from up there. What a shocker the ref had though, Can't see how he/she managed to exclude Tungate in heat 3 and not Ellis for exactly the same thing! Then not to see Smith rolling a couple of times and then to top it off exclude Ashworth for knocking off Lanham! Had to ask Jules about the last one as couldn't hear the PA from the gods!

As for the track.... well it was the same for both sides and to not get dust from a track with the weather we had was amazing. Personally would like to see the rakers stop raking the dirt back going into both corners, just creates rumble strips!

Also nice to see Ellis going so well, had a couple of scary moments in heat 2 and good to see the reserves swapped in 7 and 8.

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Some strange decisions tonight unless they have changed the rules. Heat 2 surely Barrett wasn't racing for 3 and half laps so shouldn't have got a point, Adam was still racing even though 3 quarters a lap ahead of third and nearly binned a few times. Ellis gos through the fence after finding too much grip the same as roh an did, but this time Ricky excluded for doing nothing although it should have been Adam. And doesn't anyone else see that the tapes in the middle go up much slower because they are so slack. It looks like the rider on the inside keeps making jump starts but most of the time they are not. And then when jump starts are clearly made, they are very rarely pulled back. As someone else has pointed out track far to grippy early on, it really made some riders look terrible, not a great advert for our track which has been great most of the season, hope it doesn't put the Berwick fans from bringing some great travelling support on their next visit.

 

The tapes have been doing it for a little while, if you look the posts that hold the tapes up lean in towards each other, it seems they've moved from however they're secured and the tapes are pulling them together creating some slack in the middle - looks like they need some wedges placed so the posts go more outward/upright to tighten the elastic.

The track looked very deep and heavy as I mentioned in my texts to the Updates site, obviously with a hot dry day it had to be watered heavily, it then seems that with little breeze in the air the track didn't dry out as much as hoped?

I also said to the people I go with about heat two, only two riders were "racing" - the Ipswich pair.

 

The only thing I can think of for the exclusion of Ashworth was that Ellis went down as a result of first bend bunching and the ref would of allowed all four back, but after Ashworth knocked Lanham off decided he should of been excluded for that action?

It's all I can come up with as we were all as confused as the next person on the terraces, and as I reported last night - the Berwick fans were rightfully unhappy with the decision, certainly seemed a strange one to me. I'd like to hear the ref's explanation for it.

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Concerning the starting gate, that has been like it for the past few seasons, often see the start line staff bashing wedges into the holes that the posts sit in. I think its about time they re-cast the holes so that they fit better and keep the post more upright. Maybe a job for the winter.

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