SCB and amatuer racing.

[martin297]

Quick question, can the SCB take action on riders competing in amatuer leagues? Myself and a few other amatuers have signed up to an amatuer league and it would appear that SCB wouldnt be impressed if youngsters (not us middle aged deluded wobblers) were to compete ( a few riders have had a reserve spot here and there in league meetings)?

Surely the next generation need more track time and amatuer racing is a way of acheiving this, why would the SCB be against this, im not throwing wild accusations around, i just struggle to understand the logic.

[Scunny Stag]

I'm not sure what action can or will be taken Martin but I think the SCB's problem is that the track isn't licensed by them.  I think that is the logic, whether we agree with it or not.  We do offer plenty of amateur racing at Scunthorpe and it is certainly available at Leicester too.

[martin297]

Hi mate, thanks for the reply, I know about liecester and scunny, But I am nearer to France that scunny! So maybe the track is the issue.

[Sings4Speedway]

Obviously the major issue that the SCB object to is that it will not be run under their banner and therefore they deem it unlicensed along with some petty personal vendetta's. There have been threats like this made in the past towards riders competing at Lydd i believe but as far as i am aware no action has been taken against anyone in the past. The big issue now that is scaring many off is will they use the new venture to finally act and make an example of one/a few? I personally think its mostly sour grapes because in principle it sounds like a good idea that would benefit all involved with precious track time but because it isn't a SCB ratified idea it must be a bad thing although what the SCB are actually doing to aid the future of the sport is often questionable.

[Tsunami]

1 hour ago, adonis said:

Maybe they could ask the SCB to sanction it , then they (SCB & BSPA) can treat it like something stinky they have trod in   ,  like they do with MDL,SDL, and NDL, or better still allow the teams to sign foreigners , they would be happy then .

Total over reaction and not true. It's NJL BTW.

[Vince]

The ACU have tried many times over the years to threaten riders with licences being revoked if they compete with other organisations, it even went as far as court with the AMCA back in the 70's. It's always been bluff and bull and they aren't allowed to do it. Unless a rider has already entered to ride elsewhere there is nothing that can be done to penalise them.

[*JJ]

What is this amateur league, anyway? Is it team racing or individual racing like Scunthorpe and the others?

[False dawn]

This unlicensed issue.....

Is it to do with insurance and ensuring that tracks operate to certain standards e.g. safety fences? I don't know, but generally in other sports, sporting venues are unlicensed to save money but the money saving can be the determent of the participants in the event of a serious accident for example. I would love to see the speedway authorities put their arms around the amateur part of our sport but we must recognise the value of standards and safety in what is a potentially dangerous sport. Who would suggest, for example, that we abandon the use of air fences to save money?

[martin297]

8 hours ago, *JJ said:

What is this amateur league, anyway? Is it team racing or individual racing like Scunthorpe and the others?

Hi mate it's teams made up of novices intermediates and juniors.

[martin297]

8 hours ago, False dawn said:

This unlicensed issue.....

Is it to do with insurance and ensuring that tracks operate to certain standards e.g. safety fences? I don't know, but generally in other sports, sporting venues are unlicensed to save money but the money saving can be the determent of the participants in the event of a serious accident for example. I would love to see the speedway authorities put their arms around the amateur part of our sport but we must recognise the value of standards and safety in what is a potentially dangerous sport. Who would suggest, for example, that we abandon the use of air fences to save money?

Track has air fence and every meeting will have medics in attendance.

[iris123]

8 hours ago, False dawn said:

This unlicensed issue.....

Is it to do with insurance and ensuring that tracks operate to certain standards e.g. safety fences? I don't know, but generally in other sports, sporting venues are unlicensed to save money but the money saving can be the determent of the participants in the event of a serious accident for example. I would love to see the speedway authorities put their arms around the amateur part of our sport but we must recognise the value of standards and safety in what is a potentially dangerous sport. Who would suggest, for example, that we abandon the use of air fences to save money?

Sure it is just to do with stopping anyone coming along and trying to set up their own 'pirate' league or competition,just as it was mooted a couple of years back

[False dawn]

My only (sad) experience of this sort of problem was in the early 2000's. I was in my late 40's and decided, before it was too late, I'd better start training to be the next speedway world champion. Don't laugh, this is serious. As a result, I used to go up to Owlerton, Sheffield, most Saturdays and practice on their training track. I even had a half share in a bike for a while. I'd been to Owlerton many times over the years to regular speedway matches and never knew they even had a training track, which was situated behind the main track, out of sight. Well I never made WC (despite what my profile picture seems to indicate!). I did go on to have an 8 year "career" as a sidecar passenger and raced on grass as well as half the speedways in England and Wales (nowt against Scotland, but the nearest I got was Berwick).

Anyway the point of the story was that a few years after I stopped going to the Sheffield training track, the SCB closed it down on safety grounds. And this was before bouncy castles were the thing. So what was a great facility, for new riders (Ben Wilson was starting out when I was there) and professionals who needed a place to shake down equipment etc. (Simon Stead used to ride there) was lost forever. A great shame and not in the spirit of getting new amateurs on track for not a lot of money. We have to consider carefully where our sport is heading. The strength of the amateur scene is set to become even more important in the future. There is a move in the lower end of the sport towards semi professionalism and as we move away from the heady days of a few years ago, training tracks will start to emerge. Think on SCB, embrace this side of the sport or risk killing the whole concept of a new breed of riders for whatever future the sport has to look forward to.

[Sings4Speedway]

Yep welcome to speedway.

Interested in having a ride around on your own while you learn how to actually ride a bike? You may be lucky to live near one of the few existing training tracks (most of which the governing body disapprove of)

Progressed with your learning and want to test your abilities with some racing? There are a few (amazing) amateur events running but they are very limited (most of which the governing body disapprove of)

Got good at the amateur meetings and want to showcase your talents? Here you are extremely unlikely to get any laps after a meeting unless your face fits despite only asking for 5-10 minutes additional time unless you can get one of a few precious places in the (amazing) development leagues.

Got a development league place? Now you can drive up and down the country for the "chance" to get 3 very rapid rides after the main meeting providing the main event hasn't dragged out due to prima donna antics, excessive interviews weather watching etc in which case it will be cancelled and you will be sent home with nothing but loads of expense incurred.

Like i said welcome to Speedway you are our future, still want to stick around?

I must add that all those who run practice days, amateur meetings, development teams along with the band of volunteers are truly amazing beyond words and are the reason the sport continues in this country. Without you it would be finished already so i salute you all.

[*JJ]

23 hours ago, Sings4Speedway said:

Yep welcome to speedway.

Interested in having a ride around on your own while you learn how to actually ride a bike? You may be lucky to live near one of the few existing training tracks (most of which the governing body disapprove of)

Progressed with your learning and want to test your abilities with some racing? There are a few (amazing) amateur events running but they are very limited (most of which the governing body disapprove of)

Got good at the amateur meetings and want to showcase your talents? Here you are extremely unlikely to get any laps after a meeting unless your face fits despite only asking for 5-10 minutes additional time unless you can get one of a few precious places in the (amazing) development leagues.

Got a development league place? Now you can drive up and down the country for the "chance" to get 3 very rapid rides after the main meeting providing the main event hasn't dragged out due to prima donna antics, excessive interviews weather watching etc in which case it will be cancelled and you will be sent home with nothing but loads of expense incurred.

Like i said welcome to Speedway you are our future, still want to stick around?

I must add that all those who run practice days, amateur meetings, development teams along with the band of volunteers are truly amazing beyond words and are the reason the sport continues in this country. Without you it would be finished already so i salute you all.

This agrees very well with my own experiences (not as a rider, but a helper).  How did you get to know this?

[Hot Shoe]

On 1/31/2018 at 11:54 AM, adonis said:

amateur speedway opens the door for many new faces , without it there would be no new faces in speedway at all,  , so if the amateur scene falls apart where will any new riders come from ,  all other forms of motorcycle sport have an open door , if you want to ride MX do a few practises ,then book yourself into a race meeting , trials potter round your own back garden ,enter a trial ,road racing , practises enter a meeting , Speedway buy a bike and equipment turn up at your local track and immediately walk into a closed door . Practise ,sorry mate we don't do that here , Novice races  sorry mate not here , Oh so how do I get started then ?  That's easy , get your sister to go out with a top rider , find a mate who's already riding to recommend you , find a relative who used to ride , then you'll get a team spot , without any of those you might as well look into another sport 

Amateur speedway has never been more popular and there are more opportunities to ride a speedway bike now than in any time in the history of the sport.

You can buy a speedway bike and some secondhand equipment and be riding within days. Try that with road racing where almost any decent road race bike and clothing will cost more  far more then you need to get a licence to race then practice which is anything from £95 for a day with limited track time then enter your first race which will be around the £200 mark (£400 if it's a weekend meeting and you ride both days) for a few rides. Take that plus the tyres you are going to need etc into consideration and you'll soon see how cheap and accessible speedway is in comparison.

 

 

 

[Hot Shoe]

On 1/31/2018 at 12:29 PM, Sings4Speedway said:

Yep welcome to speedway.

Interested in having a ride around on your own while you learn how to actually ride a bike? You may be lucky to live near one of the few existing training tracks (most of which the governing body disapprove of)

Progressed with your learning and want to test your abilities with some racing? There are a few (amazing) amateur events running but they are very limited (most of which the governing body disapprove of)

Got good at the amateur meetings and want to showcase your talents? Here you are extremely unlikely to get any laps after a meeting unless your face fits despite only asking for 5-10 minutes additional time unless you can get one of a few precious places in the (amazing) development leagues.

Got a development league place? Now you can drive up and down the country for the "chance" to get 3 very rapid rides after the main meeting providing the main event hasn't dragged out due to prima donna antics, excessive interviews weather watching etc in which case it will be cancelled and you will be sent home with nothing but loads of expense incurred.

Like i said welcome to Speedway you are our future, still want to stick around?

I must add that all those who run practice days, amateur meetings, development teams along with the band of volunteers are truly amazing beyond words and are the reason the sport continues in this country. Without you it would be finished already so i salute you all.

You can ride at more than just training tracks as an amateur. Scunthorpe, Buxton, Leicester, King's Lynn, Rye House, IOW etc all have amateurs ride there so you aren't just limited to training tracks.

Once you have progressed yes you can ride in amateur meetings and most in my experience are sanctioned by the SCB.

Why would anyone who is an amateur (unless a youth rider) get track time after a professional speedway meeting?  That would be like asking if you could have a kick-about after a Premier League football match at Old Trafford. On saying that if you can ride a speedway bike well then it may be possible to get a second-half ride if you have potential to get into a league team and i've seen it done. The problem is that many (not all) amateur riders think they are better than they actually are.

As for development leagues they should be limited by age so young riders get a team place and the teams aren't filled with 30+ age riders with no chance of ever developing into a league rider.

There is a lot wrong with speedway but the amateur side of the sport has never been healthier and there are far more opportunities now for an amateur to rider a speedway bike than ever in the history of the sport.

 

 

[Hot Shoe]

1 hour ago, adonis said:

I Know how expensive road racing is , and if I wanted to take part  all i have to do is have enough money , and providing I can ride fast enough ,there is nothing standing in the way of me going all the way to MotoGp  , unlike speedway  where ability is a lesser consideration than  your face fitting .. 

Someone's face fitting is much the same in  road racing as it is in speedway and that's more to do with human nature than either of those sports. There are plenty of riders whose face didn't fit that have succeeded in their chosen sport and speedway is no different.

Where anyone ends up in road racing is down to many things like dedication, sacrifices made and of course talent but being fast in road racing doesn't guarantee anything. I think you'll find that even if you were fast there would be plenty of things stopping you getting to Moto GP.  Plenty of very fast riders never get beyond the club road racing scene.

[Mimmo]

AMATEUR MEETING (LEICESTER) - 17th February 2018

OPEN CLASS

Dan Bewley 11 Danny Ayres 9

FINAL: 1st Danny Ayres 2nd Dan Bewley
SUPPORT CLASS
Tom Spencer 12 James Chattin 8 Sheldon Davies 5 Mick Sutton 3

FINAL: 1st James Chattin 2nd Sheldon Davies 3rd Mick Sutton

NOVICE CLASS
James Spencer 11 Callum Foy 8 Mark Anderson 8 David Chiles 4

FINAL: 1st Callum Foy 2nd James Spencer 3rd Mark Anderson 4th David Chiles

UPRIGHT CLASS

Mick Skinner 12 Lee Coleman 8

FINAL: 1st Mick Skinner 2nd Lee Coleman

YOUTH 250cc CLASS

Jacob Clayton 12 Eli Meadows 8 Harry Ogier 6 Erin Ogier 0
FINAL: 1st Jacob Clayton 2nd Eli Meadows 3rd Erin Ogier 4th Harry Ogier
YOUTH 125/150cc CLASS

Jack Bell 11 Cameron Taylor 10 Max James 9 Thomas Vinning 7

Mickie Simpson 6 Finley Dimmock 6

B FINAL: 1st Mickie Simpson 2nd Thomas Vinning 3rd Max James

A FINAL: 1st Jack Bell 2nd Cameron Taylor 3rd Mickie Simpson 4th Thomas Vinning