Belle Vue National Stadium

[Wendy]

So the National Speedway Stadium won't even be FIM standard? Holy crap it gets worse.

My goodness boys, you caught a big 'un there!

[MattK]

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/belle-vue-sports-village-artist-7222703

 

Only 380 parking spaces as part of the development though.

 

Presumably the greyhound stadium has parking, as well as the big cinema complex?

[Rob B]

Only 380 parking spaces as part of the development though.

 

Presumably the greyhound stadium has parking, as well as the big cinema complex?

Yes a deal has been done with Showcase cinema for overflow parking, lots of parking there across the road, I'm sure the GRA will want to make some money and charge to use their car park too.

[Trees]

Are you happy with it all Rob?

[SCB]

My goodness boys, you caught a big 'un there!

So now the people running this are trolling people? What a wonderful professional bunch. Just proves what some of us have been saying - wrong people for the job.

[Rob B]

Are you happy with it all Rob?

Yes mostly. There has had to be some changes due to the covenant land issue so it has had to be squeezed in a certain area, because the track size and shape is most important and couldn't be compromised there is now no terracing around the apex of the bends. Car parking is limited but that was always going to be the case in the built up area.

 

This document is the most interesting provides most of the details :

 

http://www.publicaccess.manchester.gov.uk/associateddocs/selecteddoc.aspx?106133-dsx-0001.pdf

[Midland Red]

Which dwarf are you then? I could guess!

 

Honest, the track is not 4 handlebar-widths wide. It was a Joke!!!!

 

If the racing is processional, as seems the norm these days, it won't matter if the track is not 4 handlebar-widths wide

[Stokielee]

because the track size and shape is most important and couldn't be compromised there is now no terracing around the apex of the bends.

This is by far the most important thing stated on the whole 13 pages of this thread.

DO NOT balls-up or compromise the size, shape, or surface of the track under ANY circumstances!

[Rob B]

This is by far the most important thing stated on the whole 13 pages of this thread.

DO NOT balls-up or compromise the size, shape, or surface of the track under ANY circumstances!

Yep the shape was the most important thing for Chris Morton designing it, it's a mixture of Hyde Road, Bydgoszcz and Torun. Straight fairly short with longer bends. Straights have a slight kink in them like Hyde Road did

[Daniel Smith]

Yep the shape was the most important thing for Chris Morton designing it, it's a mixture of Hyde Road, Bydgoszcz and Torun. Straight fairly short with longer bends. Straights have a slight kink in them like Hyde Road did

So is none of those but an identical Peterborough track

[Trees]

Sounds good :-D

[John Leslie]

So is none of those but an identical Peterborough track

They're having an astroturf centre green, so they couldn't copy Peterborough due to there being no grass to take a short cut over.

 

I've spoken to Chris Morton a couple of times about their new stadium, and each time his main talking point has been ensuring the best possible track is the no.1 priority. And I think he knows a bit about the best racing tracks.

[Trees]

He's got that 100% right IMO :-D

[Stokielee]

I've spoken to Chris Morton a couple of times about their new stadium, and each time his main talking point has been ensuring the best possible track is the no.1 priority.

That should be the absolute priority of any new promoter/anyone building a new track.

Most of them talk it up but very, very few actually manage to produce a decent track (size & shape).

Time will tell on this one...

[tyretrax]

You do realise that the guy who said the track would be the width of 4 handlebars (about 12 ft) and narrower on the bends, was having a joke?

Should have posted in the joke section. It was about as funny as some of the "jokes" there.

[Stokielee]

There is no passing at Leicester beyond the second bend. The track has fundamental flaws in terms of the relationship between the length, width and shape. It's big but somehow has no space!

I've not been to Redcar but it's small and I'm told that the banking on the third/forth bends cannot be used effectively due to the small nature of the track.

Buxton is too small, narrow, rough and not even level.

Weymouth was too small and narrow.

I never saw Trelawny but it was small. The same goes for Plymouth.

Somerset is an interesting one. I've been once (Somerset v Stoke) and considering how people talked it up I was totally unimpressed. I remember one race, Cunningham v Staechmann. The best Staechmann could manage was to get his front wheel level with Cunningham's back wheel. There were some close races but precious little passing. I also saw a Somerset match on Sky, that was good admittedly. I would say Somerset is one of the better tracks in the country but most others are pretty poor so it's not saying much. I think it could be better still.

Scunthorpe I've not seen, it's talked up like Somerset is but I think it's smaller?

Wimbledon was narrow and had a poor surface I understand.

Birmingham isn't particularly conducive to passing from what I've seen on the TV, I don't know the reason for that, whether it's size, shape, width, surface or a combination of all those. Also viewing is poor at the stadium, how bizarre.

Have I missed any? Probably.

The rules in regards to track size need changing, min length should be 300m. The minimum widths on straights and bends need to be increased.

The common thread running through this is that most modern tracks have been short.

Proper speedway tracks are big, wide and fast with multiple lines.

The Polish and Swedish tracks I've seen on TV are far better than most British tracks, length, width and surface.

I'd guess you'd disagree with most of what I say above as you think they are all "fine".

[John Leslie]

I never saw Trelawny but it was small. The same goes for Plymouth.

 

With all due respect, the above proves you haven't a clue what you're talking about.

Trelawny was a superb racing track with loads of racing lines. It was nothing like Plymouth which is a small, tight track and not one of my favourites at all.

 

 

Buxton too small and narrow? It's one of the widest tracks there is. It's great for less experienced riders as fallers rarely hit the fence due to the track being so wide.

 

Somerset is one of the best tracks in the country.

 

As for Swedish and Polish tracks being far better, that's nonsense. Swedish tracks are quite similar to ours. Polish tracks on the whole tend to be bigger and faster, but not necessarily better.

[New Science]

6,000 is standard capacity, original plans were temporary extra grandstands can be added round bends and back straight to make capacity 15,000 for big events

Just had a look at the plans and it seems as previously mentioned that there will be no longer standing all the way round as previously shown but 4 smaller stands housing 4142 spectators.Will it still be possible as per the original plans to increase the capacity to 15,000 plus for world events as I can't see it mentioned in the latest documents.

[Rob B]

Just had a look at the plans and it seems as previously mentioned that there will be no longer standing all the way round as previously shown but 4 smaller stands housing 4142 spectators.Will it still be possible as per the original plans to increase the capacity to 15,000 plus for world events as I can't see it mentioned in the latest documents.

Yes but been told it is 13,000 now

[Bruiser McHuge]

I think people forget that speedway tends not provide races and races full of passing and incident whatever the track so if you catch a particularly poor meeting then you tend to think that track is rubbish....the fact is that it isn't easy to pass at speedway whatever the track , but some give more chance than others obviously..

Hyde Road was obviously a great track but even there I saw some dire meetings with strung out racing and no passing ...it wasn't all thrill a minute racing even there, although Collins and Morton did their best to help in that regard !

Kirky Lane is actually a decent track and there were some fantastic races there and when prepared well it was as good as most places if you attacked the bends....it's problem at times was preparation ..I remember being on it and you could see it's base and kick all the uneven bricks on its base....things like that brought it down but when prepared well it was a pretty good track to be fair, although it would be great to get a purpose built track with good viewing all round...fingers crossed.