Tractor Guys

[4thbender]

Sheffield seems to have had more than its fair share of track maintenance problems this season, but can any team claim to have a more annoying tractor guy than Sheffield? I've just been to watch the Championship Riders Final (or whatever they call it now) and clearly the tractor guy has formed the opinion that we all paid our money at the turnstile in order to watch him do his stuff. The regulation grading after every four heats seems to have been cut down to every two, and the process has become a work of art in itself. He does four laps in an anti-clockwise direction followed by four clockwise and then a little encore with the water bowser.

He even managed to hold up the start of heat 14 by abandoning his great big grading-scraping-thingy in the middle of the back straight, which had to be dragged away by four burly track staff. Had the referee not spotted it and halted proceedings it would have been like one of those stop-sticks the police use to deflate the tyres of toe-rag car thieves!  

Without a doubt the tractor guy added an hour to my grand-daughter's bedtime (she wasn't pleased either because the event finished so late that Norwood Chippy was closed and she had to forego her chip supper). 

Of the 3 hour duration of the event, 23 minutes was actual racing and 2 hours 37 minutes was tractor demonstrations. We are not amused.

[squall]

Bring back Graham Trollope

[cityrebel]

I think track curation is a dying art. These old guys are retiring or popping their clogs, like a lot of fans.

[Charlieboy]

It's another nail in the speedway coffin .Its the same every week and just winds people up.Apparently yesterday's hold ups where down to mr Cook who allegedly went round the other riders trying to get the meeting stopped because of track conditions.The same mr Cook who had a bad day with his machinery and hardly ever breaks down in other meetings.Very odd.I feel sorry for all the Glasgow fans who turned up to support him and paid to watch him.

[IainB]

I liked the tractor guy at Scunthorpe on Friday evening... we didn't see him until after heat 10... and then never saw him again. There were zero track rakers and the track was fine all night

Edited September 2, 2019 by iainb

[Parsy29]

If a track has dirt on it then the tractors are needed to keep it race-able with todays modern bikes. The slicker the track to start with then the less work needed. At Redcar we use 2 tractors along with a water bowser and because this work gets done every approx 4 heats the track at the end is still in great condition.

If you think Speedway is bad have you ever been to Ice Speedway ? After every 4 heats its about a 20 minute delay for grading and smoothing of the surface. Normally in about -10 degrees.

[4thbender]

http://www.sheffield-speedway.com/news.php?extend.2791 has some great action pictures of the 23 minutes of racing, but not a single picture of the 2 hours of track grading. The tractor man must be gutted.

[George Dodds]

7 hours ago, Charlieboy said:

It's another nail in the speedway coffin .Its the same every week and just winds people up.Apparently yesterday's hold ups where down to mr Cook who allegedly went round the other riders trying to get the meeting stopped because of track conditions.The same mr Cook who had a bad day with his machinery and hardly ever breaks down in other meetings.Very odd.I feel sorry for all the Glasgow fans who turned up to support him and paid to watch him.

... and yet back in the "golden" days the tractors came out at the end of every race and did a couple of laps. Meetings dragged on for two hours - only 13 heats in those days too - but everything was sunshine and lollipops. Admittedly at most tracks the music being played today is the same as we listened to as the tractors tootled round in the 1970s 

[IainB]

22 minutes ago, George Dodds said:

... and yet back in the "golden" days the tractors came out at the end of every race and did a couple of laps. Meetings dragged on for two hours - only 13 heats in those days too - but everything was sunshine and lollipops. Admittedly at most tracks the music being played today is the same as we listened to as the tractors tootled round in the 1970s 

Times have changed though... we live in an instant society these days, multiple forms of entertainment at your fingertips, food and shopping delivered to your door. I don't know where you were getting your 2 hours for 13 races from, at Coventry I seem to remember being away regularly at 8:45 - 9:00 with a 7:30 start

[George Dodds]

8 minutes ago, iainb said:

Times have changed though... we live in an instant society these days, multiple forms of entertainment at your fingertips, food and shopping delivered to your door. I don't know where you were getting your 2 hours for 13 races from, at Coventry I seem to remember being away regularly at 8:45 - 9:00 with a 7:30 start

Sheffield - started 7.30pm and usually bombing across the platforms to get the last train back to Donny at 10.18 

[TheScotsman]

1 hour ago, George Dodds said:

Sheffield - started 7.30pm and usually bombing across the platforms to get the last train back to Donny at 10.18 

But that's because the boozers were shutting at 10pm!!

[Fromafar]

3 hours ago, George Dodds said:

... and yet back in the "golden" days the tractors came out at the end of every race and did a couple of laps. Meetings dragged on for two hours - only 13 heats in those days too - but everything was sunshine and lollipops. Admittedly at most tracks the music being played today is the same as we listened to as the tractors tootled round in the 1970s 

The entertainment on the track was worth the wait in these “golden” days.That is the difference.IMO.

[MD]

1 hour ago, Fromafar said:

The entertainment on the track was worth the wait in these “golden” days.That is the difference.IMO.

Many tracks no longer fit with modern engines. Look at what is served up at some tracks that were superb even less than 10 years ago. Whilst its not the only reason for the lack of entertainment, team owners need to adapt their product (track shape/width etc) to suit the modern era. Very few have or will bother to do so.

Entertainment IMO is about passing not necessarily speed and the ridiculous gulf between abilities at the top and bottom of the riders averages wont achieve that. Nor will poorly prepared tracks.

If last night the riders were on £250 for the meeting that is likely to be around a quarter of what most of the top enders will take home. I'm not surprised they don't take it seriously or put themselves out. There is no prestige in these events and wont be again unless the competitors are adequately rewarded for taking part. Speedway doesn't even give out medals to the league winners far less reward the riders and their teams for being better than the rest over a season. The whole ethos up is fundamentally flawed but we already know that. Unfortunately we also accept its not going to change.

[EnglishRoundabout]

Ez was the archetypal track curator at Somerset. He genuinely cared about the masterpiece he had prepared every Friday night. You’d see him stood away from everyone during the meeting, gazing from his elevated position in the pits, alone with his thoughts, always looking like the whole world was on his shoulders. 

Inevitably, his track produced brilliant racing, but also inevitably, he’d have several disagreements with riders during the meeting. Normally home riders. 

Never one to communicate particularly well with those riders, Ez, would seek the quiet of his little place away from everyone until the meeting had finished. He’d then be in his element, returning to the track with his tractor, carrying out numerous circuits of the track, always looking over his shoulder, always looking concerned, long after the supporters had headed to the bar, and riders to the motorway and their next meeting. 

[Andrew]

Until about a decade ago,the Sheffield track was graded after every heat.The 10/15 minute interval was taken after heat ten and the entire time the tractors went round.Then they came out before heats 13 and 15 and the meeting would be over by 9.10 after starting bang on 7.45.

Then for some reason,we got the 'every four heats' grading that we all know and love,meetings started to get dragged out and the track started to become what it is today.

 

[jenga]

11 hours ago, Andrew said:

Until about a decade ago,the Sheffield track was graded after every heat.The 10/15 minute interval was taken after heat ten and the entire time the tractors went round.Then they came out before heats 13 and 15 and the meeting would be over by 9.10 after starting bang on 7.45.

Then for some reason,we got the 'every four heats' grading that we all know and love,meetings started to get dragged out and the track started to become what it is today.

 

and the rakers vanished . 

[Andrew]

No,there's still a few left! 

[leander]

On 9/2/2019 at 12:57 AM, 4thbender said:

Sheffield seems to have had more than its fair share of track maintenance problems this season, but can any team claim to have a more annoying tractor guy than Sheffield? I've just been to watch the Championship Riders Final (or whatever they call it now) and clearly the tractor guy has formed the opinion that we all paid our money at the turnstile in order to watch him do his stuff. The regulation grading after every four heats seems to have been cut down to every two, and the process has become a work of art in itself. He does four laps in an anti-clockwise direction followed by four clockwise and then a little encore with the water bowser.

He even managed to hold up the start of heat 14 by abandoning his great big grading-scraping-thingy in the middle of the back straight, which had to be dragged away by four burly track staff. Had the referee not spotted it and halted proceedings it would have been like one of those stop-sticks the police use to deflate the tyres of toe-rag car thieves!  

Without a doubt the tractor guy added an hour to my grand-daughter's bedtime (she wasn't pleased either because the event finished so late that Norwood Chippy was closed and she had to forego her chip supper). 

Of the 3 hour duration of the event, 23 minutes was actual racing and 2 hours 37 minutes was tractor demonstrations. We are not amused.

 

The main problem on sunday was that the track was cr*p at the very start. The tractor driver was "doing his stuff" at the request of the referee and the riders ( who weren't happy with conditions from heat 1). At one stage, some of them didn't want to continue, Cookie never got started and Rasmus Jensen was gesturing to the referee that it was too deep on the corners after his first three races, despite winning his third. The guy on the centre green announced after heat 8 that there would be an extensive track grade (and there was) so they would do the interval then. Fair enough. They then had another long interval after heat 12. On top of which the racing was at best poor! The other problem with these meetings is the gap between heat 20 and the semi's, then another gap between semi's and the final. Why can't there be six back wheels with new tyres on ready to be put straight into the necessary bikes after heat 20 and a random draw for gate positions instead of all this inspecting gate positions, putting tyres on bikes, etc. That must of added at least 20 minutes on to meeting (as usual).

[Fromafar]

2 hours ago, leander said:

The main problem on sunday was that the track was cr*p at the very start. The tractor driver was "doing his stuff" at the request of the referee and the riders ( who weren't happy with conditions from heat 1). At one stage, some of them didn't want to continue, Cookie never got started and Rasmus Jensen was gesturing to the referee that it was too deep on the corners after his first three races, despite winning his third. The guy on the centre green announced after heat 8 that there would be an extensive track grade (and there was) so they would do the interval then. Fair enough. They then had another long interval after heat 12. On top of which the racing was at best poor! The other problem with these meetings is the gap between heat 20 and the semi's, then another gap between semi's and the final. Why can't there be six back wheels with new tyres on ready to be put straight into the necessary bikes after heat 20 and a random draw for gate positions instead of all this inspecting gate positions, putting tyres on bikes, etc. That must of added at least 20 minutes on to meeting (as usual).

Fans are getting totally pi##ed off with riders attitude towards tracks, they seen to be unable to alter their set up to suit.Do Promotions do enough track work prior to race day or are they just “winging it” and hope things will be alright on the night.A grippy track is a grippy track they are meant to professional sportsmen yet just whinge and moan if the track is not like a motorway.Gate and go is all you get in GB speedway nowadays.

[IainB]

15 hours ago, leander said:

The main problem on sunday was that the track was cr*p at the very start. The tractor driver was "doing his stuff" at the request of the referee and the riders ( who weren't happy with conditions from heat 1). At one stage, some of them didn't want to continue, Cookie never got started and Rasmus Jensen was gesturing to the referee that it was too deep on the corners after his first three races, despite winning his third. The guy on the centre green announced after heat 8 that there would be an extensive track grade (and there was) so they would do the interval then. Fair enough. They then had another long interval after heat 12. On top of which the racing was at best poor! The other problem with these meetings is the gap between heat 20 and the semi's, then another gap between semi's and the final. Why can't there be six back wheels with new tyres on ready to be put straight into the necessary bikes after heat 20 and a random draw for gate positions instead of all this inspecting gate positions, putting tyres on bikes, etc. That must of added at least 20 minutes on to meeting (as usual).

The delay between heat 20 and the semi and the final are the reasons I don't go to this anymore... any tension built up through the meeting is lost when it takes half an hour to run the final 120 seconds of racing