Swedish El Vs British Pl

[weatherwatcher]

When waqs it that things started to change. I think it was the late 70's or or early 80's. Up until then. It was mainly a part time amatuer sport. Where riders rode for the love of the sport. with a rider sitting in his shed at the bottom of the garden tinkering with his back when he got home from a hard days work. Then strapping it on the back of his old van or car and setting off for a meeting.

Then along came the drop down engines and a new era amerged.

With bikes becoming much faster and some of the big names using some of the top engine tuners to get thier bikes in top order.

Along came the GP'S and the big stars started to emerge, with it along came some big sponsers and they found out that they could call the shots with the promoters for racing at thier club. I think some of them ride now not so much out a love of the sport, don't get it wrong they still enjoy it but the love love has gone.

It is now a matter of how much money can be earned, with some riding for 4 or 5 different clubs around the world.

Gone are the days of one man and his bike it is now one man and his 6 or 7 bikes scattered at different work shops around the world. With team of machanics to get them ready for racing at any given time. With the top engine tuners preparing thier engines.

Until we get some sense back into the sport and aleter the engines and make them so they could only be prepared by the firms that make them and to a single specification.

Then do we get back to days of close racing instead of what we have now.

Speedway in this country doe's not have to relay on the big worlds top riders. What it doe's relay on is some good riders that will give us entertainment.

[tyretrax]

I didn't even realise there was any Speedway on TV tonight at all!

So I'm grateful for this thread!

 

I watch Speedway on Sky Go, so I will possibly watch a bit of the Swedish Speedway, but will probably switch it over at 7.30pm. Seen some Swedish stuff in the past but find it harder to get into.

W.T.C. was on Quest as well and also on Wednesday and Thursday.

[Tsunami]

When waqs it that things started to change. I think it was the late 70's or or early 80's. Up until then. It was mainly a part time amatuer sport. Where riders rode for the love of the sport. with a rider sitting in his shed at the bottom of the garden tinkering with his back when he got home from a hard days work. Then strapping it on the back of his old van or car and setting off for a meeting.

Then along came the drop down engines and a new era amerged.

With bikes becoming much faster and some of the big names using some of the top engine tuners to get thier bikes in top order.

Along came the GP'S and the big stars started to emerge, with it along came some big sponsers and they found out that they could call the shots with the promoters for racing at thier club. I think some of them ride now not so much out a love of the sport, don't get it wrong they still enjoy it but the love love has gone.

It is now a matter of how much money can be earned, with some riding for 4 or 5 different clubs around the world.

Gone are the days of one man and his bike it is now one man and his 6 or 7 bikes scattered at different work shops around the world. With team of machanics to get them ready for racing at any given time. With the top engine tuners preparing thier engines.

Until we get some sense back into the sport and aleter the engines and make them so they could only be prepared by the firms that make them and to a single specification.

Then do we get back to days of close racing instead of what we have now.

Speedway in this country doe's not have to relay on the big worlds top riders. What it doe's relay on is some good riders that will give us entertainment.

Here we go again.

[weatherwatcher]

No its not here we go again it is the plain truth. I people can't see it then that has what has gone really wrong with the sport and the fans. They just can't face up to the facts.

[timetoturnleftagain]

I'll just watch the PL..I have watched some of the Swedish meetings, but I can take it or leave it to be honest.

Agree, although the quality of riders are better I find it no better entertainment wise.

[Tsunami]

No its not here we go again it is the plain truth. I people can't see it then that has what has gone really wrong with the sport and the fans. They just can't face up to the facts.

Or get sick of some tired oldies repeating it ad norsium. Change the blo*dy record.

[weatherwatcher]

Sounds like tsunami is have a bit of a tropicle storm. Just face the facts watching 4 riders going around the track, that are like an episode of Majic Roundabout, is just not very exiting. Most of the GP's are like this now. We see the odd good race but even most of the other race are won from the tapes, with the other 3 following along, Like they are stuck in a set of cones on the M1 on a Friday night. No thanks I would rather see some good tight competative racing.

[Tsunami]

Sounds like tsunami is have a bit of a tropicle storm. Just face the facts watching 4 riders going around the track, that are like an episode of Majic Roundabout, is just not very exiting. Most of the GP's are like this now. We see the odd good race but even most of the other race are won from the tapes, with the other 3 following along, Like they are stuck in a set of cones on the M1 on a Friday night. No thanks I would rather see some good tight competative racing.

Just like the 'old days' that never existed. My recollections, and film of the time backs it up, shows it didn't happen then just the same as it doesn't happen every race now.

 

But I don't harp on about it.

[Gemini]

Afraid I've got to agree with Tsunami. I can't recall the racing being any better years ago than it is now - just a mixture of a few good races, the rest a bit processional and a nail biting exciting one if we were lucky. I've got a couple of Leicester v Coventry videos from 1982 and apart from the close score and the obvious rivalry the matches were nothing special. Same with the Wembley 1981 World Final that everyone seems to rave about - play it back and the racing wasn't that brilliant, apart from 3 or 4 races. I'm old and have been a fan since 1949 but I definitely don't yearn for the 'old days' or one off World Finals. What's wrong with speedway now is not down to the racing but many other things which have been discussed over and over again on the forum so I won't repeat them. It would also probably mean me saying that dreaded word 'Poole' at some point so I won't bother.

[waiheke1]

Sounds like tsunami is have a bit of a tropicle storm. Just face the facts watching 4 riders going around the track, that are like an episode of Majic Roundabout, is just not very exiting. Most of the GP's are like this now. We see the odd good race but even most of the other race are won from the tapes, with the other 3 following along, Like they are stuck in a set of cones on the M1 on a Friday night. No thanks I would rather see some good tight competative racing.

The quality of racing in the gps is, generally speaking, miles better than the old world finals. Partly due to the fact that all riders have something to race for every heat, and you dont have a quarter/third of the field being sub-standard riders.

[SCB]

I quite enjoy sitting and watching "good old days" speedway on video and more recently youtube - but in the main, it was as dull, boring, slick, unprofessional and downright crap as it can be these days. But the other half the time it was wild, exciting and controversial - bit like today! The only differences I see are that they had crowds back then and crowds make noise and atmosphere and that will always make people think something is better. Its why we enthuse about Cardiff - its not the racing but the fact there 45,000 of us going mad. Watch it at home with the sound of and it's just another meeting.

[Trees]

 

I quite enjoy sitting and watching "good old days" speedway on video and more recently youtube - but in the main, it was as dull, boring, slick, unprofessional and downright crap as it can be these days. But the other half the time it was wild, exciting and controversial - bit like today! The only differences I see are that they had crowds back then and crowds make noise and atmosphere and that will always make people think something is better. Its why we enthuse about Cardiff - its not the racing but the fact there 45,000 of us going mad. Watch it at home with the sound of and it's just another meeting.

So it's up to us to create the atmosphere Get out the drums, have a drink and chant and sing aka Poland

[SCB]

 

So it's up to us to create the atmosphere Get out the drums, have a drink and chant and sing aka Poland

In part yes. But thats where good presentation works. If you have a great race that has the fans on there feet going mad, having a 10 minute gap while the trackman does some work and playing a big of easy listening mellow music will kill all the atmosphere.

[orion]

I quite enjoy sitting and watching "good old days" speedway on video and more recently youtube - but in the main, it was as dull, boring, slick, unprofessional and downright crap as it can be these days. But the other half the time it was wild, exciting and controversial - bit like today! The only differences I see are that they had crowds back then and crowds make noise and atmosphere and that will always make people think something is better. Its why we enthuse about Cardiff - its not the racing but the fact there 45,000 of us going mad. Watch it at home with the sound of and it's just another meeting.

Spot on post big crowds make any sporting event feel better than it is .. When you go to speedway these days even Wolves that used to be quite nasty is dead .

 

The memory of great tracks and passing in every race in the old days is a bit of a myth .

[Trees]

In part yes. But thats where good presentation works. If you have a great race that has the fans on there feet going mad, having a 10 minute gap while the trackman does some work and playing a big of easy listening mellow music will kill all the atmosphere.

TOTALLY agree, hence you need someone with passion for the sport out on the centre green/grey! :-) And track staff who whilst doing their job professionally also show unity when the home team are doing good :-)

[moxey63]

I feel, and it is my opinion folks, that the first two or three years you watch speedway are the best. After that, you begin to notice the things that used to keep you entertained.. are no longer as entertaining as they used to be. It is like a perfume or air freshener, you get immune to it and the fizz isn't as attracting as it used to be.

 

In saying that, give me the olden days over now.

 

I'm not saying my taste or smell was better back then, but there was a sense of a more fun sport, no thrills or gizzmos on bikes or on riders' racing attire, just seemed to be more thrills on the 70 seconds over four laps. More unpredictable.

 

Arguments will be endless, but the bygone days are more appealing when I want to read about speedway or watch footage.

[uk_martin]

...big crowds make any sporting event feel better than it is ..

Not sure that a big crowd makes an event feel better than it is. More like a big crowd turns the event into what it is. i.e. an evening of entertainment.

 

it comes down to whether speedway is best optimised as a live event to be enjoyed in the stadium by those there, or whether it is to be optimised for television coverage.

 

Having been stood frozen on the terraces whilst SkySports have their interviews, play adverts, then more interviews etc etc, I know I'd rather that the sport be optimised for the fans in the stadiums, and the TV presentation worked around that, than the alternative. It's a formula that works in Poland and could be better for us here.

 

So it's up to us to create the atmosphere Get out the drums, have a drink and chant and sing aka Poland

A recipe for genocide. All those grannies and grandads dying of heart attacks and shock on race nights. British fans aren't in the prime of their youth any more!

[moxey63]

After a decade and half of live speedway on television, I would much rather all the heats put into a 60 minute package for airing later that night or that week.

 

The novelty of live speedway has long passed and I hate the needless gaps between heats, makes me wanna get up and do something completely different. It is quite off putting.

 

That's actually putting off this sad individual watching in the comfort, warmth of my own four walls. What does it say when there's 20 minute gaps between heats and you're freezing your Terry Tulloch's off in a breezy stadium?

Edited August 15, 2014 by moxey63

[Ghosty]

After a decade and half of live speedway on television, I would much rather all the heats put into a 60 minute package for airing later that night or that week.

 

The novelty of live speedway has long passed and I hate the needless gaps between heats, makes me wanna get up and do something completely different. It is quite off putting.

 

That's actually putting off this sad individual watching in the comfort, warmth of my own four walls. What does it say when there's 20 minute gaps between heats and you're freezing your Terry Tulloch's off in a breezy stadium?

 

Well said, however many of todays fans will question "Terry Tulloch's" who's he! well he was one of the many Neil Street protégées unfortunately when he started to knock-up the points big time he packed up returned to Aussie to shoot kangaroos......known as TT.

[moxey63]

Terry Tulloch... you don't even get names like that anymore, so the sport is less attractive for it!

 

Remember him racing for Weymouth in the late-70s.