Crap ( Quirky ) Tracks

[lucifer sam]

Nonsense. Once the momentum is up on flat, smooth full throttle tracks, there's little chance of gaining on your opponent unless he's a lesser rider who happens to have made the gate or he makes a mistake which is less likely on a flat, smooth full throttle track.

 

Rubbish. Scunthorpe is full throttle and smooth, and has more passing than any other track in the UK.

 

There are some outstanding tracks in the UK: Scunny, Somerset, Peterborough, King's Lynn etc. Unfortunately there's also some cr*p ones, where the track prep leaves so much to be desired.

 

All the best

Rob

Edited January 16, 2014 by lucifer sam

[cityrebel]

Somerton park was a bit dodgy but Bristol eastville must have been one of the trickiest of all trick tracks!

[SCB]

Until you actually get on a track on a bike you don't realise that a pot hole doesn't have to be that big to have a massive effect. It also makes me laugh when people say put dirt on the tracks, it doesnt take a lot of dirt to have the bike bouncing around and doing all sorts. And I was 100 second 4 laps around Scunny for it to scare the crap out of me!

[jim the whipper]

After Chris Holder's accident, he was asked what could improve British speedway in an interview and he replied the standard of tracks. I live abroad and watch good racing on permanent tracks however last year due to my son's involvement i got to see a few tracks in the UK . Oh my god !!

 

Put your wheel over the inside markers at stoke and yo disappear down a 2 foot hole, Go slightly wide at Rye house on the first bend and you hit an offset camber which pushes you to the fence, come steaming down the straight at poole and theres a massive hole / take off ramp between the start and the corner . . . . etc

 

I'm sure there's lots of other "quirky" tracks that fans and promotors will trot out the " well a good rider should be able to ride all kinds of tracks" line. But why can't some of the scant money in the sport be used to provide consistent, flat, safe racing surfaces ?

 

When the world champion ( at the time) points out the blindingly obvious, when will people start to listen and more importantly act on it ?

Good job Holder won't be riding at Stoke then , His favourite overtake manouvre is to barge up the inside of riders with both wheels on the grass

[foamfence]

I think if we got rid of the current silencers and used something that allowed a wider and more controllable power band, riders would feel more confident, even on some of the more dubious tracks. The current silencers are responsible for many of the nasty injuries that have occurred over the last few years, there always were dodgy tracks but serious injuries were much less frequent pre the existing silencers.

[TMW]

Kyle Howarth used to be awesome round BV when more experienced riders struggled but I haven't seen him recently .... I'm surprised BV hasn't been mentioned.

[Lord Skid]

The majority of Track guys have had their budgets cut to virtually nothing, one hasn't had any new shale for over two years, and still manages to produce one of the best tracks in the PL.

Perhaps they should all attend a track prep school at Ipswich, can't believe it's that easy to prepare a consistently great race surface, only trouble is, you're going to have problems on the normal crap tracks away from home.

[stratton]

Somerton park was a bit dodgy but Bristol eastville must have been one of the trickiest of all trick tracks!

Went to the Daily mirror individual meeting,the surface was sand based riders that day had big problems.

[IAN2]

No mention of Crayford then, now that was interesting to say the least, remember a certain Australian at Canterbury who rode for us and had what you might call an encounter with the first bend safety fence at full throttle in his first ride. He never got to turn the bike and walked away laughing.

[cityrebel]

Crayford was a tricky little track with the big dip at the tote board end, but it was a venue i always enjoyed going to. The food outlets were excellent as well!

[g13webb]

 

 

To me, the quality of the racing is far more about preparation than size and shape anyway.

 

100% agree with that . A crap track can be any shape and size. Just because the track is of an ideal size, it can still be badly prepared..

If track men followed Buster's work ethics, crap tracks would be few and far between.

[vog]

I also agree with the comments on the inside line at Stoke. It looks dangerous to me!

 

Having spent the majority of my speedway watching time at Stoke, the inside entry isn't used, and wasn't used when there was no hole on the infield! Stoke has always been a track where you tend to ride best in the middle to the outside of the track, with the only real exception being a cutback off bend 2/4. The issue with Stoke is in the preparation, because I would argue that it is one of the best shaped tracks in the country.

[Tsunami]

 

Having spent the majority of my speedway watching time at Stoke, the inside entry isn't used, and wasn't used when there was no hole on the infield! Stoke has always been a track where you tend to ride best in the middle to the outside of the track, with the only real exception being a cutback off bend 2/4. The issue with Stoke is in the preparation, because I would argue that it is one of the best shaped tracks in the country.

 

Agree. If the 3rd/4th bend could be changed to the same as the 1st/2nd bends, that would be perfection, and a bloody good blueprint to the perfect track for new promotions.

When I have been on the centre green, the worse feature was the tyre ruts and the water inside the ruts, due to stockcars leaving and parking up during their meetings. A real mess most times.

[ch958]

i watched my speedway at Cleveland Park and reckoned that really good riders could master it while pure throttle merchants struggled

[E I Addio]

would you rather watch lakeside style tracks or torun type?? you just know someone will say lakeside!!!!

 

 

Unfortunately Torun is not in England so that is not a fair comparison, but a good meeting is a good meeting whatever track it is on.

 

You can't make a sweeping statement that one is better than another. Last August in Heat 15 of the Lakeside -Poole meeting Lakeside needed a 3-3 to take all three points, Ward and Hancock made the gate then Hancock was passed first by Peter Karlsson the inside then by Piotr Swiderski on the outside. Great end to the meeting. I think you could safely say you wouldn't see that happen if Greg made the gate at Torun! There are many, many factors that go to make a good meeting and it is nonsense to make sweeping generalisations. They all have exciting and boring meetings.

Perfect race tracks is the amount if dirt not the size or speed.

 

 

Amazing how the amateur track curators think that dirt is the answer to everything.

 

If you put dirt down nothing will happen until you put some water with it. Getting the right amount in the right weather conditions is not an exact science and takes a lot of experience which even then can be messed up by a change in wind direction or the sun unexpectedly coming out just before the start. The "experts" than turn up and moan that the trackman is useless because there is not enough dirt, but in fact the amount of dirt tends to be pretty much the same week to week, it is the weather that changes

<personal abuse removed, valid points left in post>

 

 

Oh dear, sounds like Gavan touched a raw nerve

[Gavan]

 

 

Unfortunately Torun is not in England so that is not a fair comparison, but a good meeting is a good meeting whatever track it is on.

 

You can't make a sweeping statement that one is better than another. Last August in Heat 15 of the Lakeside -Poole meeting Lakeside needed a 3-3 to take all three points, Ward and Hancock made the gate then Hancock was passed first by Peter Karlsson the inside then by Piotr Swiderski on the outside. Great end to the meeting. I think you could safely say you wouldn't see that happen if Greg made the gate at Torun! There are many, many factors that go to make a good meeting and it is nonsense to make sweeping generalisations. They all have exciting and boring meetings.

 

 

Amazing how the amateur track curators think that dirt is the answer to everything.

 

If you put dirt down nothing will happen until you put some water with it. Getting the right amount in the right weather conditions is not an exact science and takes a lot of experience which even then can be messed up by a change in wind direction or the sun unexpectedly coming out just before the start. The "experts" than turn up and moan that the trackman is useless because there is not enough dirt, but in fact the amount of dirt tends to be pretty much the same week to week, it is the weather that changes

 

 

Oh dear, sounds like Gavan touched a raw nerve

he cant handle truth or facts and basically Poole is poorly prepared but its anti-poole if i say it

[Bagpuss]

 

100% agree with that . A crap track can be any shape and size. Just because the track is of an ideal size, it can still be badly prepared..

If track men followed Buster's work ethics, crap tracks would be few and far between.

 

You are right, but there are tracks like Eastbourne and both Ipswich & Poole prior to being widened which are just too narrow to provide much passing, however well prepared they are.

[SteveLyric2]

he cant handle truth or facts and basically Poole is poorly prepared but its anti-poole if i say it

...and incorrect too!!

[Halifaxtiger]

Crayford was a tricky little track with the big dip at the tote board end, but it was a venue i always enjoyed going to. The food outlets were excellent as well!

 

I only went there a couple of times but Crayford was a terrific little track and stadium.

 

The issue with Stoke is in the preparation, because I would argue that it is one of the best shaped tracks in the country.

 

Spot on. Always been my opinion that it is one of the best (if not the best) shaped in Britain.

 

Over recent seasons, however, the preparation has been inconsistent at best, couldn't care less dreadful at worst.

 

 

You are right, but there are tracks like Eastbourne and both Ipswich & Poole prior to being widened which are just too narrow to provide much passing, however well prepared they are.

 

I am not sure if Eastbourne's shape has changed but back in the 1980's it was a terrific little race track. What is certainly true is in my experience its nowhere near as good as that now.

 

would you rather watch lakeside style tracks or torun type?? you just know someone will say lakeside!!!!

 

I'll say Lakeside. I must admit I am not totally familiar with Torun but some of the speedway I have seen on Sunday afternoons from Poland has been rubbish.

 

Lakeside is a far better racing circuit than some would have you believe.

[Rockets]

Just about to say Crayford myself. If you were on the opposite side to that dip at ground level you virtually lost the riders.

Of modern tracks Peterborough is my favourite. Of those now defunct the old hackney track. Fair to all with lots of different racing lines.

I'm a rye fan and despite what some say its a better race track than many think. The camber has been there forever and the only ones who now get caught out by it are those who don't bother finding out how to ride or avoid it. Be interesting to see whether when installing the air fence Len brings the fence in to nullify it.