BIRMINGHAM v REDCAR WEDS JUNE 2ND

[speedwaysliders]

1 hour ago, Deano said:

From our point of view yes it does seem petty. Having been part of the group which included UkMartin, Brian Buck, Brian Bott, Chris Browne, Gerry Taylor, Kitten, Sue connop (bless) , little leddy  et all, it was touch an go speedway would get full permission just to race one night per week. With the flats appearing close by do we want to ruffle more feathers going forwards.

Good point with all the flats going up.Ill shut up!!

[Fromafar]

1 hour ago, mikebv said:

I think the feedback is so vociferous and angry because unfortunately Speedway Promoters dont have much "credit in the bank" when it comes issues like this..

When you have so many self inflicted 'own goals' such as actively letting riders miss meetings here to prioritise Poland, or even planning meetings in the first place knowing riders will be elsewhere. I would suggest it leaves many supporters, quite understandably, interperating this as "they dont care for their fans"..

Hence when we get a "biggie" all hell seems to break loose as it compounds other frustrating issues..

I think if they stopped a lot of the self inflicted, poorly planned fixtures, being subservient to Poland nonsense, then they would have a much healthier level of support and appreciation from the supporters.. 

Given the levels of support that Speedway has I think most of the fans are on the same side as the Promoters and just want to see the sport move forward through an operating model which has each team turning up each week with the riders that they should do (injuries permitting)...

Maybe starting to make that their fundamental priority would help the fans react a bit more calmly to issues like Wednesday's?

And let's be honest, why would you actively plan in to make your customers cheesed off? You wouldn't would you?

Yet Speedway seems to sadly make it some kind of 'hari kari' policy at times..

We fall into the same rider availability trap every year.Give them the ultimatum,fully commit to Uk or forget it.Declare line ups by end of year.Then you will know where you stand and what format the league (1 league) should run.These riders that are mucking us about are no superstars,junior riders replacing them would give just as much entertainment and would progress quicker.The standard MIGHT rise again given the standard we have fallen too.Is there really as big a shortage of riders.Entertainment is the name of the game.The riders that give us the biggest headache are the guys taking the money out of UK speedway.

Edited June 4, 2021 by Fromafar
Missed information

[The Dog]

A lots been said on this subject, most out of frustration at the way the evening played out, and rightly so, but I think every track in the world has probably experienced the sort of problems that Birmingham suffered on Wednesday. I arrived just after 5pm and the track was being watered tho I gathered there was some last minute issues with the segregation of fans that had been previously Ok'd. The fans started to arrive and were queuing outside patiently and at a safe distant. All appeared to be well organised.

Around 5.45 - 6pm the tractor dropped a lot of water on bends 1 and 2 which subsequently ran to the kerb on a hard track. The shale it picked up on the way turned a bit sloppy and probably looked worse than it actually was. Why the trackman did this instead of sprinkling as usual, I don't know. Maybe a more experienced trackman wouldn't have done this. Water gathered in the one or two low places that most tracks have and made it soft, hence the patchiness  that every rider hates. On track walk, both sets of riders agreed it needed blading and this isn't a quick fix especially when your short of equipment due to the well publicised vandalism recently. I'm sure a lot of the riders have ridden in a lot worse conditions but given that they've not been on a bike for a long time, understandably don't want any accidents early in the season. The top surface was taken off which left a slick and dusty track which if watered would have turned into an ice-rink. To the credit of all the fans they waited patiently with little information tho it was obvious what was going on tbh. The riders gave it their best in the circumstances and I don't think the accident had anything to do with the track, more of just a first bend coming together. I didn't see any riders having any difficulty in turning after the first set of heats and I'm sure the meeting would have been called off if they were struggling to turn by race 9 or 10.

The Masons have gained a lot of plaudits since taking over and have worked hard on the entertainment for fans, especially families, and having a team that wants to race and entertain.It would be a shame if all this was overlooked just because they had one bad night. Lessons will have been learnt and the sport and Birmingham in particular would be a poorer place without people like the Masons and Laurence Rogers and I hope they continue the good work they do.

For the record, I do think that Redcar should be awarded the tie but that's down to the authorities. 

 

 

[Yearbyred]

On 6/3/2021 at 7:37 PM, Biffa said:

Redcar had better have a really well prepared track for Friday or a lot of crap Will be coming our way. Pressures on track staff now I think. 

Well the track was great at Redcar on Friday, after many days of hot dry weather.

No dust and produced some fantastic racing.

(not a dig at Birmingham btw, just a response to saying the pressure was on Redcar to produce a good racing track)

Edited June 5, 2021 by Yearbyred

[SSL84]

2 hours ago, Yearbyred said:

Well the track was great at Redcar on Friday, after many days of hot dry weather.

No dust and produced some fantastic racing.

(not a dig at Birmingham btw, just a response to saying the pressure was on Redcar to produce a good racing track)

The last few years the track at redcar as always been well prepared and always will be to produce good racing. 

 

[SSL84]

The track at Birmingham when prepared good can produce some good racing too, especially if they get a good outside working. 

[brianbuck]

Track preparation is always going to be more of a problem for those clubs who are of necessity, subserviant to Greyhound racing. No disrespect at all to Redcar, but they are one of the fortunate clubs who do not have this problem. The GRA who until recently, were the landlords at Birmingham, were always co-operative, providing whatever was planned had no detrimental effect on greyhound racing - just as an example, numerous visiting supporters have queried why there is no roof on one section of the temporary stand on the first bend. The reason is, that the roof obstructed the view of part of a small part of the dog track, so it had to be removed.

The stadium's new owners (so I am told) are less knowledgeable about speedway, so can be expected to be more cautious on what they will allow and what they won't, at least until they are more familiar with the speedway operation, but certainly as far as Perry Barr is concerned, there is never likely to be a situation whereby the speedway people would be allowed unlimited access on any day and at any time.

[East End Fan]

24 minutes ago, brianbuck said:

Track preparation is always going to be more of a problem for those clubs who are of necessity, subserviant to Greyhound racing. No disrespect at all to Redcar, but they are one of the fortunate clubs who do not have this problem. The GRA who until recently, were the landlords at Birmingham, were always co-operative, providing whatever was planned had no detrimental effect on greyhound racing - just as an example, numerous visiting supporters have queried why there is no roof on one section of the temporary stand on the first bend. The reason is, that the roof obstructed the view of part of a small part of the dog track, so it had to be removed.

The stadium's new owners (so I am told) are less knowledgeable about speedway, so can be expected to be more cautious on what they will allow and what they won't, at least until they are more familiar with the speedway operation, but certainly as far as Perry Barr is concerned, there is never likely to be a situation whereby the speedway people would be allowed unlimited access on any day and at any time.

This situation has been a thorn in Speedway's side since time immemorial. In day past, dog racing was restricted to 3 meetings a week by law,  But that

is far from the case these days.  No restriction on numbers and far fewer tracks has resulted in many more meetings at all tracks.  The knock on effect

is less prep' time for Speedway. So, on odd occasions we are bound to see things that are less than perfect.  It's either that or no Speedway. To be fair, on

the whole the various track curators handle the situation well and should be congratulated for their work.  Never seen it on this forum !!!!!

[Trees]

On 6/3/2021 at 10:27 AM, GiveusaB said:

The track was ready to go at 7.30pm....Redcar riders made a massive issue about it not being rideable...

I'm not a track technician, so we will have to wait for a club statement about proceedings......may be ?

From what I could see/tell....may be the track was watered with hoses and it wasn't evenly spread, causing some 'soft' patches in places ?

Once racing started, there was no track issues at all apart from 'dust' and rider trepidation.

That explains it then, they did a Poole on it ....... 

[Biffa]

A good  race track last night, plenty of passing & close racing. Just my opinion but bend 2 exit looked rough/rutted from my position on back straight. Main match handled it ok but the second half didn’t. Experience I presume. 

[MartinBSN]

39 minutes ago, Biffa said:

A good  race track last night, plenty of passing & close racing. Just my opinion but bend 2 exit looked rough/rutted from my position on back straight. Main match handled it ok but the second half didn’t. Experience I presume. 

I think you'll find they just aren't used to dirt. And with the way the weather was, and the pressure of producing a brilliant track to combat Wednesday it was quite grippy!

[uk_martin]

18 hours ago, Biffa said:

A good  race track last night, plenty of passing & close racing. ... Main match handled it ok but the second half didn’t. 

Now I'm confused. Is this the same meeting that we're talking about here? By "second half" are you referring to heat's 5-9, after which point the meeting was abandoned? According to Speedway Updates, only 2 races out of the 9 had any overtaking at all - https://speedwayupdates.proboards.com/thread/20052/redcar-championship-koc-02-2021 

[SSL84]

30 minutes ago, uk_martin said:

Now I'm confused. Is this the same meeting that we're talking about here? By "second half" are you referring to heat's 5-9, after which point the meeting was abandoned? According to Speedway Updates, only 2 races out of the 9 had any overtaking at all - https://speedwayupdates.proboards.com/thread/20052/redcar-championship-koc-02-2021 

Martin think they are talking about the meeting at redcar?

[Biffa]

Yes, sorry , moved on to Redcar home match. 

[StevePark]

On 6/3/2021 at 6:37 PM, Petecc said:

Sorry to put you right but, that was the last bags meeting on a Wednesday. Hopefully by next week the problems with the tractors will have been fixed.

Sorry to put you right, but here are today's (9th June) results from the BAGS Meeting:

https://greyhoundbet.racingpost.com/#result-meeting/track_id=62&r_date=2021-06-09&r_time=11:13

[Historian]

Quote from this weeks Brummie prog by Chris Harris.  quote  " Ive ridden plenty of tracks that have  been a a lot worse than Birmingham was last Wednesday but I have been around a lot longer than some of these boys nowdays I guess.  I know I'll probably get moaned at but when its like that, you've just got to use your head a bit more but you can still race." un quote