Newcastle 2020

[martinmauger]

9 hours ago, Tsunami said:

There was an electric ignition system produced and used in the early 00's. It was a small lever on the handle bars which detuned/retarded the ignition so producing more grip from the start with less spins. Once in front the rider flicked the ignition back to normal having gained from the gate advantage. I caught a very fast starting Exeter rider at our away meeting at Exeter using one, but the rider hid his bike from me and the machine examiner wouldn't do anything about it. I reported it to the Ref and the SCB, but I never heard anything after that. It was illegal cos in 1997 there was a vote amongst riders as to whether programmable ignitions could be introduced into British Speedway, but they voted against them mainly on the basis of cost. Hope that helps.

Thanks and inrteresting stuff, 'in a former life' I did car & motorcycle mechanicking so know a little about such things.  From what I remember, it was in a former life.  So a kind of 'launch control system' then, which surprisingly is a standard option mode in some new cars with automatic gearboxes.  I know Sam Ermolenko had such a switch fitted to the left handlebar one of his bikes in Hull's 1999 Elite League season, he explained it to Kelv & Nige live on Sky that it was to select 1of 2 ignition timing settings. It was the June '99 match v Belle Vue, the one where Joe Screen post race went 'handlebar to handlebar' with Jimmy Nielsen on the back straight, yes that one....

Edited April 26, 2020 by martinmauger
spelling

[jenga]

mechaniking  ! ! !

[soupy]

1 hour ago, jenga said:

mechaniking  ! ! !

It is a German word lol

[TotallyHonestJohn]

On 4/25/2020 at 2:36 AM, martinmauger said:

I once asked the late, great Ivan Mauger, who knew a thing or two million about the Brough Park / Newcastle Stadium track, why he chose Newcastle for son Kym's first club.  He replied (words to the effect) "it's a bit of a tricky track but if you master it you should ride all tracks better or at least you will improve as a rider.  Plus the Geordies up there are great, friendly people and if they can see you are trying your best, then they will support you all the way which is very important especially when you are starting out".  Couldn't have put it better myself....

On Ivan's last visit to the UK to promote his book around 2010/11 "Ivan Mauger: The Will to Win: The Autobiography" I bought myself a copy and in there he said "if you can ride Brough Park you can ride any track in the world" and that was when the track was not only longer than today's track but approximately a whole lane narrower and the bends didn't really open out as much as they do now... so much more of a trick track back then I would say.

The best laugh was I was standing in the pits with Kenni Larsen whilst Dalbers was interviewing Ivan on the centre green and he asked "Well Ivan what do you think of the track these days" Ivan's response was "you've ruined the place! you've made it far to easy to get round now" and Kenni turned round and said "whose this old nutter who thinks this is an easy track to ride" and when I explained who Ivan was and what he had done winning six world titles and when at Newcastle had an average of over 11 points... Kenni who had never heard of him previously was in awe of the guy and by the end of the interview was well impressed... Kenni even had a chat with him later on in the meeting and Ivan said he was impressed with Kenni's starting ability and his style on a bike. (which I think was fair praise indeed)

Great talent Ivan and a true speedway legend sadly missed (and on the track side of things at Newcastle you could say the same about Kenni)

Regards
THJ

[andys]

Just a thought about the current situation, I know the cut off for racing is normally 31st October but is it possible to use stadium past that point... Although I'm personally thinking this season is going to be written off totally, don't mean to be a doom merchant just my gut feeling... 

[Justgotmecpc]

50 minutes ago, andys said:

Just a thought about the current situation, I know the cut off for racing is normally 31st October but is it possible to use stadium past that point... Although I'm personally thinking this season is going to be written off totally, don't mean to be a doom merchant just my gut feeling... 

New cut off date could be the eve of the man who gets stuck in the fire breast 

Edited April 29, 2020 by pienpeesman
Mistake

[martinmauger]

13 hours ago, TotallyHonestJohn said:

On Ivan's last visit to the UK to promote his book around 2010/11 "Ivan Mauger: The Will to Win: The Autobiography" I bought myself a copy and in there he said "if you can ride Brough Park you can ride any track in the world" and that was when the track was not only longer than today's track but approximately a whole lane narrower and the bends didn't really open out as much as they do now... so much more of a trick track back then I would say.

The best laugh was I was standing in the pits with Kenni Larsen whilst Dalbers was interviewing Ivan on the centre green and he asked "Well Ivan what do you think of the track these days" Ivan's response was "you've ruined the place! you've made it far to easy to get round now" and Kenni turned round and said "whose this old nutter who thinks this is an easy track to ride" and when I explained who Ivan was and what he had done winning six world titles and when at Newcastle had an average of over 11 points... Kenni who had never heard of him previously was in awe of the guy and by the end of the interview was well impressed... Kenni even had a chat with him later on in the meeting and Ivan said he was impressed with Kenni's starting ability and his style on a bike. (which I think was fair praise indeed)

Great talent Ivan and a true speedway legend sadly missed (and on the track side of things at Newcastle you could say the same about Kenni)

Regards
THJ

A similar thing happened at Hull in 2000.  I found out too late but Ivan turned up unannounced (as was his wont) to the Hull's press day, with Peter Collins and Dave Jessup (though not 100% sure about DJ), and wandered around the pits talking to the riders about bikes, the track, etc.   When Ivan spoke us lesser mortals listened, right ?  Well one rider (name wittheld) asked "who is that bloke and what does he know about speedway ?"   I intended mentioning this to Ivan at his Hull book singing /  'meet & greet' in 2010 as he was known for his wry sense of humour, but I'm afraid I bottled it as I'd already bent his ear for 10mins+ talking about my photos I took of of him which I gave to him, but I'm sure he would have laughed when hearing about the Hull pits episode ....

Edited April 30, 2020 by martinmauger
spelling

[Justgotmecpc]

13 hours ago, pienpeesman said:

New cut off date could be the eve of the man who gets stuck in the fire breast 

Just for a laugh it's Xmas day proud panther

[jenga]

2 hours ago, pienpeesman said:

Just for a laugh it's Xmas day proud panther

could be o so true . 

lets give covid 19 a second chance to kill us all off  and hold a speedway/football and any other sport meeting/,game and ruin the work that has been done and ruin  the world as we know it . 

sorry about jumping in with a non topic post ..

[IronScorpion]

10 hours ago, martinmauger said:

A similar thing happened at Hull in 2000.  I found out too late but Ivan turned up unannounced (as was his wont) to the Hull's press day, with Peter Collins and Dave Jessup (though not 100% sure about DJ), and wandered around the pits talking to the riders about bikes, the track, etc.   When Ivan spoke us lesser mortals listened, right ?  Well one rider (name wittheld) asked "who is that bloke and what does he know about speedway ?"   I intended mentioning this to Ivan at his Hull book singing /  'meet & greet' in 2010 as he was known for his wry sense of humour, but I'm afraid I bottled it as I'd already bent his ear for 10mins+ talking about my photos I took of of him which I gave to him, but I'm sure he would have laughed when hearing about the Hull pits episode ....

He did "karaoke" too.

[Tsunami]

12 hours ago, martinmauger said:

A similar thing happened at Hull in 2000.  I found out too late but Ivan turned up unannounced (as was his wont) to the Hull's press day, with Peter Collins and Dave Jessup (though not 100% sure about DJ), and wandered around the pits talking to the riders about bikes, the track, etc.   When Ivan spoke us lesser mortals listened, right ?  Well one rider (name wittheld) asked "who is that bloke and what does he know about speedway ?"   I intended mentioning this to Ivan at his Hull book singing /  'meet & greet' in 2010 as he was known for his wry sense of humour, but I'm afraid I bottled it as I'd already bent his ear for 10mins+ talking about my photos I took of of him which I gave to him, but I'm sure he would have laughed when hearing about the Hull pits episode ....

With Ivan's love of Newcastle, every time he came back to this country, he used to plan his time here and then ring Joan English to advise her of his visit. I believe he used to meet a family he knew in the afternoon, and then travel on to us. His visit was never announced and he was often in the office at the beginning of the meeting but the fans  didn't know. At some stage he would come out and stand in the office doorway and then the news went around that Ivan was with us. Another reason he used to visit us was to check on the progress of David Bargh and Mark Thorpe. He never forgot the New Zealanders. As soon as he arrived and met people, he was away and gone. Very low key.

[arthur cross]

23 hours ago, andys said:

Just a thought about the current situation, I know the cut off for racing is normally 31st October but is it possible to use stadium past that point... Although I'm personally thinking this season is going to be written off totally, don't mean to be a doom merchant just my gut feeling... 

The 31st October has been the final day of the speedway season for many years for various important reasons, most notably as the final day for at least some of the sport's insurance policies and as the marker for Australian & New Zealander riders arranging long-haul flights home for their summer Down Under.

In this coronavirus-wrecked season, it ought to be possible (definitely worth checking) before any fixtures are revised to see if the final insurance day can be reset (for this year only) to a later date to permit more fixture flexibility - meanwhile, the Australian & New Zealander riders who headed home in a hurry mid-March to beat any coronavirus travel shutdown need to know first when they should try travelling back into the UK, never mind sorting out what marker date this autumn to use for arranging their next UK-to-Down-Under flight home !!

Answering your question about the availability of Newcastle's stadium into November, it hasn't needed to become an issue previously simply because of speedway's general 31st October deadline rather than any specific rule about whether Newcastle's track could be used so late in the year - therefore, in the current circumstances, checking with the greyhound landlords whether it could be used in November pretty much sits alongside the re-setting of any insurance dates.

But ... and it's a big but ... any attempt to extend UK speedway into November greatly increases the risk (especially for the Anglo-Scottish group of tracks from Redcar northwards) of the tracks becoming too permanently sludgy heading into the winter to have any realistic hope of staging fixtures even if they've been scheduled with the best of intentions to catch-up a little of the missing coronavirus months - once even the highest daytime temperatures aren't even reaching about 12-Celsius, you're into proper sludge territory with only any wind rather than any warmth helping to dry out the track surface.

Looking at this year's calendar & Newcastle's home day on a Sunday, there's an obvious case for having November 1st available if possible given all the other tracks will have just had their final October home date anyway and it would be harsh for just Newcastle to miss out on that week of fixtures as an option.

But sludgy weather-wise, even November 8th would be pushing it, the 15th certainly worse than a 50-50 chance of going ahead regardless of dry weather that day and anything after that would be totally risking a lot of pre-meeting effort for little chance of seeing any action - it's very easy to remember just the odd freakish warm spells in November and December while forgetting what the weather's like for the majority of those months.

Don't forget, one of Workington's late October meetings not too many seasons ago was abandoned when it became clear any water being put on the track was actually freezing the surface rather than helping to moisten it !!

At the moment at Newcastle's stadium, the greyhounds are awaiting their whole sport getting any go-ahead to resume closed-doors racing (something they did successfully at Newcastle in the week of Wed-18 to the afternoon of Sat-21-March when they still raced all 4 of their meetings shown via online betting/streaming and just scrapped the Saturday night card that's for the stadium crowd only) - rather like the SCB & BSPA awaiting any general motorcycling news from the Auto Cycle Union before deciding how the sport of speedway should pick up, the dogs are reliant on decision making by the Greyhound Board of Great Britain who answer to 2 different government departments, DEFRA (for greyhound welfare) and DCMS (for the betting side of that sport).

Once the ACU and the GBGB update their respective stances for their whole sports, we'll have a much better idea what's going on at Newcastle's track whether it's on 2-wheels or 4-legs.

[Tsunami]

1 hour ago, arthur cross said:

The 31st October has been the final day of the speedway season for many years for various important reasons, most notably as the final day for at least some of the sport's insurance policies and as the marker for Australian & New Zealander riders arranging long-haul flights home for their summer Down Under.

In this coronavirus-wrecked season, it ought to be possible (definitely worth checking) before any fixtures are revised to see if the final insurance day can be reset (for this year only) to a later date to permit more fixture flexibility - meanwhile, the Australian & New Zealander riders who headed home in a hurry mid-March to beat any coronavirus travel shutdown need to know first when they should try travelling back into the UK, never mind sorting out what marker date this autumn to use for arranging their next UK-to-Down-Under flight home !!

Answering your question about the availability of Newcastle's stadium into November, it hasn't needed to become an issue previously simply because of speedway's general 31st October deadline rather than any specific rule about whether Newcastle's track could be used so late in the year - therefore, in the current circumstances, checking with the greyhound landlords whether it could be used in November pretty much sits alongside the re-setting of any insurance dates.

But ... and it's a big but ... any attempt to extend UK speedway into November greatly increases the risk (especially for the Anglo-Scottish group of tracks from Redcar northwards) of the tracks becoming too permanently sludgy heading into the winter to have any realistic hope of staging fixtures even if they've been scheduled with the best of intentions to catch-up a little of the missing coronavirus months - once even the highest daytime temperatures aren't even reaching about 12-Celsius, you're into proper sludge territory with only any wind rather than any warmth helping to dry out the track surface.

Looking at this year's calendar & Newcastle's home day on a Sunday, there's an obvious case for having November 1st available if possible given all the other tracks will have just had their final October home date anyway and it would be harsh for just Newcastle to miss out on that week of fixtures as an option.

But sludgy weather-wise, even November 8th would be pushing it, the 15th certainly worse than a 50-50 chance of going ahead regardless of dry weather that day and anything after that would be totally risking a lot of pre-meeting effort for little chance of seeing any action - it's very easy to remember just the odd freakish warm spells in November and December while forgetting what the weather's like for the majority of those months.

Don't forget, one of Workington's late October meetings not too many seasons ago was abandoned when it became clear any water being put on the track was actually freezing the surface rather than helping to moisten it !!

At the moment at Newcastle's stadium, the greyhounds are awaiting their whole sport getting any go-ahead to resume closed-doors racing (something they did successfully at Newcastle in the week of Wed-18 to the afternoon of Sat-21-March when they still raced all 4 of their meetings shown via online betting/streaming and just scrapped the Saturday night card that's for the stadium crowd only) - rather like the SCB & BSPA awaiting any general motorcycling news from the Auto Cycle Union before deciding how the sport of speedway should pick up, the dogs are reliant on decision making by the Greyhound Board of Great Britain who answer to 2 different government departments, DEFRA (for greyhound welfare) and DCMS (for the betting side of that sport).

Once the ACU and the GBGB update their respective stances for their whole sports, we'll have a much better idea what's going on at Newcastle's track whether it's on 2-wheels or 4-legs.

I remember that very well. As the meeting went on it was obviously that track grading etc, was actually making it worse. I believe there was a small delay between two later races due to the concerns. Ritchie Worrall was riding for us and he was doing well, but it was more like skiing, or ice racing on a bike without spikes, rather that driving it like on normal wet shale. I think the water was actually coming from up the shale, and then freezing.   

[Neila]

3 hours ago, Tsunami said:

I remember that very well. As the meeting went on it was obviously that track grading etc, was actually making it worse. I believe there was a small delay between two later races due to the concerns. Ritchie Worrall was riding for us and he was doing well, but it was more like skiing, or ice racing on a bike without spikes, rather that driving it like on normal wet shale. I think the water was actually coming from up the shale, and then freezing.   

2018 comets v lakeside 29 October was called off due to ice after the 1st heat of the second match, the riders were coming into the corners then sliding up to the fence, a bit like Bambi on ice  but on motorbikes

[proud panther]

15 hours ago, pienpeesman said:

Just for a laugh it's Xmas day proud panther

We need our speedway fix in the warmer weather lol. Most of us are feeling the cold more in our old age !!

[jenga]

5 hours ago, Tsunami said:

I remember that very well. As the meeting went on it was obviously that track grading etc, was actually making it worse. I believe there was a small delay between two later races due to the concerns. Ritchie Worrall was riding for us and he was doing well, but it was more like skiing, or ice racing on a bike without spikes, rather that driving it like on normal wet shale. I think the water was actually coming from up the shale, and then freezing.   

hi , can you copy the meeting for me  , cos i cannot remember it . cheers J....

[Tsunami]

16 hours ago, Neila said:

2018 comets v lakeside 29 October was called off due to ice after the 1st heat of the second match, the riders were coming into the corners then sliding up to the fence, a bit like Bambi on ice  but on motorbikes

Yes, Our meeting went the full distance, but it was not pretty to watch with anxious faces to see if anybody was going to get hurt. Not great, but the coldness was coming up through the track. With the sea just over the railway line, the air temperature was usually cold which initially you didn't feel when the fans were allowed to be nearer on the 1st/2nd bends. When moved to the top ridge beside the van and the  toilet block, the wind off the sea used to hit you in the back all night.  Bloody cold. 

[East End Fan]

43 minutes ago, Tsunami said:

Yes, Our meeting went the full distance, but it was not pretty to watch with anxious faces to see if anybody was going to get hurt. Not great, but the coldness was coming up through the track. With the sea just over the railway line, the air temperature was usually cold which initially you didn't feel when the fans were allowed to be nearer on the 1st/2nd bends. When moved to the top ridge beside the van and the  toilet block, the wind off the sea used to hit you in the back all night.  Bloody cold. 

sounds wonderfully inviting.....

[jenga]

2 hours ago, Tsunami said:

Yes, Our meeting went the full distance, but it was not pretty to watch with anxious faces to see if anybody was going to get hurt. Not great, but the coldness was coming up through the track. With the sea just over the railway line, the air temperature was usually cold which initially you didn't feel when the fans were allowed to be nearer on the 1st/2nd bends. When moved to the top ridge beside the van and the  toilet block, the wind off the sea used to hit you in the back all night.  Bloody cold. 

so was that the 2018 double header on the last day of the season  with newcastle on first and then the champship/ko cup thing v lakeside .  the old grey matter seems to be fading ! ! !

Edited May 1, 2020 by jenga

[Tsunami]

9 minutes ago, jenga said:

so was that the 2018 double header on the last day of the season  with newcastle on first and then the champship/ko cup thing v lakeside .  the old grey matter seems to be fading ! ! !

NO, I doubt think it was a double header. Obviously it wasn't the  abandoned Lakeside meeting.