barrybishop Posted April 30, 2021 Report Share Posted April 30, 2021 OFFICIAL BACKING FOR WIGHTLINK WARRIORS The Isle of Wight Shale Track Racing Club has been given the green light to push ahead with their summer of sensational two wheeled sport. Warriors’ bosses Martin Widman and Barry Bishop are celebrating and relieved after the British Speedway Promoters’ Limited (BSPL) Board of Directors backed their plans for a full programme of events at Ryde’s Smallbrook Stadium. Warriors’ co-owner Barry Bishop revealed: “Martin (Widman) and I are absolutely delighted to have secured the support of the BSPL for 2021 which goes some way to easing the pain of the last months. The Island club withdrew from the National Development League (NDL) and the BSPL earlier this year after a fall-out over decisions made over the NDL’s future which, they believed, impacted severely on speedway’s future at Smallbrook, however the co-owners affiliated to the Island club to the NORA Motorsport organisation who licence clubs and riders in a variety of different forms of off-road disciplines on two and four wheels. Bishop added: “We have received an email that confirmed ‘at a recent Board meeting the Directors and the BSP Ltd discussed your advertised amateur events.....The BSP fully support you running amateur and practice events with Nora 92.’ “In my view this is a huge step forward for the Isle of Wight and the sport in general. We are of course saddened that we had to leave the Speedway Control Board (SCB) and BSPL but we feel this is a good start to improving our relationship with each other for the betterment of the sport, our riders, fans and overall product. “Martin and I, along with I am sure everyone else associated with our club, fully welcome their decision and we have informed the SCB, Auto-Cycle Union and BSPL of the amateur NL standard team we intend to have, that BSPL fixtures will be given priority over ours in the event of a fixture clash, and that we remain fully open to an SCB/ACU track inspection at any time that will enable the Isle of Wight to host the fantastic Great Britain Young Lions training camp in February annually and a round of the ACU British 1000cc Sidecar Championships should either express an interest to use Smallbrook Stadium. “Now we fully look forward to opening on Thursday, June 24 with an excellent season ahead, and we wish everyone involved in speedway and shale track racing the most wonderful of seasons and I implore all fans to get behind their clubs in 2021.” The Warriors have already announced an 11-meeting season, racing every Thursday (with one Tuesday exception) between June 24 and September 2. Events will include five National League level challenge matches; three rounds of the Island Masters Championship, two American-style handicap meetings and a Best Pairs. In additional to conventional speedway there will be additional attractions at every meeting, including sidecars, Formula 2 speedway, youth events for riders aged from 5 to 16, and challenges between riders on a variety of different engines, both lay-down and upright. Full information on the calendar of meetings is available at www.warriorsspeedway.com 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foamfence Posted April 30, 2021 Report Share Posted April 30, 2021 If I were an Island fan (I'm not) I'm not sure I'd be happy with a few Mickey Mouse events in place of league racing. Anyway good luck to all concerned. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topsoil Posted April 30, 2021 Report Share Posted April 30, 2021 6 hours ago, foamfence said: If I were an Island fan (I'm not) I'm not sure I'd be happy with a few Mickey Mouse events in place of league racing. Anyway good luck to all concerned. Much rather have league racing myself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barrybishop Posted April 30, 2021 Report Share Posted April 30, 2021 10 hours ago, foamfence said: If I were an Island fan (I'm not) I'm not sure I'd be happy with a few Mickey Mouse events in place of league racing. Anyway good luck to all concerned. You see I dont view any meeting as "Mickey Mouse", although I admit some maybe more attractive than others. However we put on a show, week in, week out... and this is what people want to see now. It's true to say in my view we risk having a sport where the only entertainment is whether your team gets the league points or not and not the "show" on the track. For me, it's showtime every time. All the best 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sings4Speedway Posted April 30, 2021 Report Share Posted April 30, 2021 2 minutes ago, barrybishop said: You see I dont view any meeting as "Mickey Mouse", although I admit some maybe more attractive than others. However we put on a show, week in, week out... and this is what people want to see now. It's true to say in my view we risk having a sport where the only entertainment is whether your team gets the league points or not and not the "show" on the track. For me, it's showtime every time. All the best Best quote/post i have read for a long time. Whilst no team meetings are truely even the IOW promotion have a great opportunity to provide equal level oppositions for the matches and greatly enhance the chances of a close run entertaining contest. Looking at any league fixtures for any club there are often very few that provide a shock/interesting result. By stacking the deck slightly in favour of the visiting sides and providing a track brilliantly suited to racing im sure IOWSTRC will provide many entertaining evenings. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foamfence Posted April 30, 2021 Report Share Posted April 30, 2021 25 minutes ago, barrybishop said: You see I dont view any meeting as "Mickey Mouse", although I admit some maybe more attractive than others. However we put on a show, week in, week out... and this is what people want to see now. It's true to say in my view we risk having a sport where the only entertainment is whether your team gets the league points or not and not the "show" on the track. For me, it's showtime every time. All the best While there's some truth in that, it does appear to broaden the grey line between sport and entertainment and that's something that many have struggled to find credible about Speedway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halifaxtiger Posted May 1, 2021 Report Share Posted May 1, 2021 (edited) 21 hours ago, foamfence said: If I were an Island fan (I'm not) I'm not sure I'd be happy with a few Mickey Mouse events in place of league racing. Anyway good luck to all concerned. If truth were told, I think Warriors fans (and I think you have to take all circumstances into account before forming a view) would prefer league racing. Having said that, I am not aware of one of them that does not fully support the decision to pull out of the NL. Its a view shared by many others across the sport, including Peter Oakes, Bruce Cribb, Bert Harkins and James Easter as well as fans from other clubs. At the very, very least, it is completely understandable. That's because of the particular way Isle of Wight have been treated, which is shabby at best. Forced to accept a points limit that they believe - entirely reasonably - will damage their business without any consideration whatsoever and at the behest of and by clubs who have no involvement in the NL whatsoever, they have had enough and that's scarcely surprising. Perhaps what sticks in the craw most is if there had indeed been a vote by NL clubs alone - I doubt if anyone does not accept that that was not the correct way forward (after all why should Glasgow have more say about the Warriors future than the Warriors themselves) - the 34 point limit would almost certainly have been thrown out, which is probably why it was imposed. They now at least have far more choice over their own destiny, and its not difficult to argue that that is better than being subject to the incompetent, selfish and inept control of the BSPL - because if there is indeed anything 'Mickey Mouse' about Speedway, its that. 10 hours ago, foamfence said: While there's some truth in that, it does appear to broaden the grey line between sport and entertainment and that's something that many have struggled to find credible about Speedway. I'd say a major part of Speedway's problems have stemmed from the fact that there has been so little attempt to make it entertaining and a reliance on taking its fans for granted because its a sport. The two, in my view, are indelibly linked. Edited May 1, 2021 by Halifaxtiger 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bagpuss Posted May 1, 2021 Report Share Posted May 1, 2021 I would also suggest that those who rock up to the track while on holiday on the island won’t really care what competition they’re watching as long as they have a good night out. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arnieg Posted May 1, 2021 Report Share Posted May 1, 2021 On 4/20/2021 at 1:39 PM, barrybishop said: e, none of our meetings planned on the IOW in 2021 will involve "league" racing. I'm sure most fans would prefer to see a league fixture against a real Kent team rather than one against a made up Reading team. BUT That is trumped by my desire to see a well run entertaining meeting, with a good atmosphere, and where you sense that the promoters cherish the spectators rather than regarding them as an inconvenience. ..so I will be continuing my sponsorship of the club, and look forward to an exciting adventure into the unknown. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikebv Posted May 1, 2021 Report Share Posted May 1, 2021 (edited) On 4/30/2021 at 9:46 AM, foamfence said: If I were an Island fan (I'm not) I'm not sure I'd be happy with a few Mickey Mouse events in place of league racing. Anyway good luck to all concerned. Mickey Mouse events? A few seasons ago the Premier League Play Off Final (the flagship event of the whole UK Speedway season) was set to have two riders guesting who were actually going to 'swap' teams after the first leg... Meaning each would ride for BOTH teams... Whatever the IOW do in the coming season I would suggest that they would be very hard pushed to be more 'Mickey Mouse' than that. .. In fact, I would think even Disney would struggle to be so... Best of luck to the IOW this season... Edited May 1, 2021 by mikebv 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trees Posted May 2, 2021 Report Share Posted May 2, 2021 On 5/1/2021 at 7:13 AM, Bagpuss said: I would also suggest that those who rock up to the track while on holiday on the island won’t really care what competition they’re watching as long as they have a good night out. Exactly, they're the people that the Isle of Wight rely on surely? They need to promote a show/good night out not a league basically. Every promoter needs to strive to "put on a show" around their main meeting. It's easier to do that particularly for the kids on a Sunday afternoon or Saturday evening with no time restrictions ..... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trees Posted May 2, 2021 Report Share Posted May 2, 2021 21 hours ago, mikebv said: Mickey Mouse events? A few seasons ago the Premier League Play Off Final (the flagship event of the whole UK Speedway season) was set to have two riders guesting who were actually going to 'swap' teams after the first leg... Meaning each would ride for BOTH teams... Whatever the IOW do in the coming season I would suggest that they would be very hard pushed to be more 'Mickey Mouse' than that. .. In fact, I would think even Disney would struggle to be so... Best of luck to the IOW this season... With the lack of riders over here this year I'm not sure what's going to happen if our clubs have lots of injuries. Our promoters try to keep teams as even as poss, the fans want it that way but it may be difficult ..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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