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Somerset 2018


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8 minutes ago, Steve Shovlar said:

Bad crash for Doyle in heat one. High sided and hooked up cartwheeling with his bike. Looked like he knocked himself out and landed on his shoulder. Taken by ambulance to hospital.

All the very best to Doyley.

Just seen it, very nasty.

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  • 2 weeks later...

As a lions supporter I thought you had bad luck to start, first 2 races your guys ran into each other. After that though it showed that if JD not fireing then its going to be tough. When he rode for Lions at a post match interview after yet another loss he was asked "What happened in heat 1"? His reply.. "Strewth....do you expect me to win every race"?......well actually Jason, we did! Lawson not a heat leader! Dont worry guys I am sure you will get your reveng on Wednesday.

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If Doyle has an off night it's always going to be tough for this side away from home unless all 6 have a very good meeting. Doyle scoring 8+1 from 5 rides won't happen too often and add in Lawson not beating an opponent you just need to put it down to being one of those nights and move on to tomorrow's meeting.

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I think it's pretty fair last nights result is hardly a surprise. Leicester were one of the more fancied teams in the league and they were only strengthened by having Lambert and R/R replacing the two injured riders. Somerset's team is very much built to score big and win at home. That's where we failed last year especially at the start of the season. If we score well at home and then pick up the odd point away we won't of done too badly. No need to go into meltdown because we took abit of a hammering last night.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Great viewing over on FreeSports at the moment, with coverage of Torun's meeting in Poland this afternoon. Jack Holder absolutely flying with some fast starts and some big wins, and even replaced Iversen in one race. Doyle also riding for Torun too, let's hope they bring that form to Belle Vue tomorrow night.

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19 minutes ago, Najjer said:

Great viewing over on FreeSports at the moment, with coverage of Torun's meeting in Poland this afternoon. Jack Holder absolutely flying with some fast starts and some big wins, and even replaced Iversen in one race. Doyle also riding for Torun too, let's hope they bring that form to Belle Vue tomorrow night.

Form can be totally different from Poland to the UK.Some riders seem intent on saving their best for Poland at the moment.

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7 minutes ago, tellboy said:

Form can be totally different from Poland to the UK.Some riders seem intent on saving their best for Poland at the moment.

Oh yeah absolutely, completely different tracks and equipment, but it can and must still do wonders for your confidence. Banging in double figures in front of 13,000 on a Sunday must make Somerset feel very small fry when he comes back to the 'track in a field' on Wednesday.

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11 minutes ago, Harry The Goat said:

I was watching too and thinking similar things. Some great riding from JH. Interesting that he holds the current track record at Torun. That must be no mean feat.

Judging by the reactions from the other Holder too, you can see why he was desperate to be at Somerset with Jack too.

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From time to time the subject of crowd size crops up. Here's a bit of Unofficial Oaktree Arena Research which may (or may not) be of interest.

During all the tractor racing and hanging about at the 2nd May Somerset-Poole meeting, I did a quick visual head count in different areas of the OTA. Here are the results:

Home straight = 168 people

First bend (between the exit gates and the clubhouse) = 132

Outside the clubhouse & takeaway = 64

Back straight = 279

Third bend round to the illuminated score display = 60

TOTAL = 703 people

If you add in a number of uncounted people moving around / inside the clubhouse / in the toilets or the track shop etc then the real figure will be a bit higher.

Is this more or less than you'd have thought? I was expecting to reach four figures myself, but on reflection I don't think I'm very good at estimating.

 

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On 5/4/2018 at 11:34 AM, Harry The Goat said:

From time to time the subject of crowd size crops up. Here's a bit of Unofficial Oaktree Arena Research which may (or may not) be of interest.

During all the tractor racing and hanging about at the 2nd May Somerset-Poole meeting, I did a quick visual head count in different areas of the OTA. Here are the results:

Home straight = 168 people

First bend (between the exit gates and the clubhouse) = 132

Outside the clubhouse & takeaway = 64

Back straight = 279

Third bend round to the illuminated score display = 60

TOTAL = 703 people

If you add in a number of uncounted people moving around / inside the clubhouse / in the toilets or the track shop etc then the real figure will be a bit higher.

Is this more or less than you'd have thought? I was expecting to reach four figures myself, but on reflection I don't think I'm very good at estimating.

 

I think the crowds (so far) are better than last season, if it's enough to pay the extras of employing the current world champion I don't know? one thing for sure the M5 traffic is so much better on a Wednesday. Unlike most other tracks all revenue goes to one source - the Hancocks, who work very hard to make the Oaktree a success. I would like to see some form of grandstand built, this I think it would generate noise & atmosphere which is missing with the crowd spread out in the large arena with a typically average crowd.  Another secondary benefit of a grandstand would be spectator protection from the coastal winds!  It may be a planning issue that that a grandstand cannot be built (along with the restriction of the floodlight height) does anyone know?   

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53 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

I think the crowds (so far) are better than last season, if it's enough to pay the extras of employing the current world champion I don't know? one thing for sure the M5 traffic is so much better on a Wednesday. Unlike most other tracks all revenue goes to one source - the Hancocks, who work very hard to make the Oaktree a success. I would like to see some form of grandstand built, this I think it would generate noise & atmosphere which is missing with the crowd spread out in the large arena with a typically average crowd.  Another secondary benefit of a grandstand would be spectator protection from the coastal winds!  It may be a planning issue that that a grandstand cannot be built (along with the restriction of the floodlight height) does anyone know?   

I don't know the answer to what you're asking, but the floodlights are a right pain since I've been wearing glasses. They're at such an awkward height that they create a terrible sheen off of them. I often wonder if that effects the riders with their goggles on.

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On 04/05/2018 at 11:34 AM, Harry The Goat said:

From time to time the subject of crowd size crops up. Here's a bit of Unofficial Oaktree Arena Research which may (or may not) be of interest.

During all the tractor racing and hanging about at the 2nd May Somerset-Poole meeting, I did a quick visual head count in different areas of the OTA. Here are the results:

Home straight = 168 people

First bend (between the exit gates and the clubhouse) = 132

Outside the clubhouse & takeaway = 64

Back straight = 279

Third bend round to the illuminated score display = 60

TOTAL = 703 people

If you add in a number of uncounted people moving around / inside the clubhouse / in the toilets or the track shop etc then the real figure will be a bit higher.

Is this more or less than you'd have thought? I was expecting to reach four figures myself, but on reflection I don't think I'm very good at estimating.

 

I'm sure somebody said before as a rough guide with some theory involved, that when they're parked in the second car park it means the crowd is around the 1000 mark - obviously depending on how many people came in each car. One thing is for sure that at the tail end of our stay in the 2nd division we were never in the 2nd car park but we have been for both our home meetings this season.

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