MDL 2023

[dukes]

20 hours ago, Fortythirtyeight said:

Covid meant that no newbies got on a speedway bike, the current issues are due to lack of investment in providing any sort of opportunities for people to try speedway without committing to purchasing a bike and everything else and now we are seeing the results of this, a lack of riders and a lack of opportunities. How many tracks have second half racing outside of the NJL and Birmingham ?

How out of touch can people on here be?

Scunthorpe offers opportunities to all by supplying Bikes, Body Armour, Kevlars, Moto Cross Gear, Helmets, Gloves, Goggles,  Boots and Helmets.

Together with a great tutor for a superb experience.

AMSA, Ride and Skid It and My First Skid are a few more who also offer great opportunities for new riders.

Instead of criticising, why not understand what's out their and promote it and then more will know what's on offer

[Fortythirtyeight]

1 hour ago, dukes said:

How out of touch can people on here be?

Scunthorpe offers opportunities to all by supplying Bikes, Body Armour, Kevlars, Moto Cross Gear, Helmets, Gloves, Goggles,  Boots and Helmets.

Together with a great tutor for a superb experience.

AMSA, Ride and Skid It and My First Skid are a few more who also offer great opportunities for new riders.

Instead of criticising, why not understand what's out their and promote it and then more will know what's on offer

Try reading my post again. I have said there are opportunities out there, particularly at the northern tracks who run NJL etc but they are limited. Outside of those , most tracks don’t bother with second half racing, the Premiership junior league never even got started but yes, there is AMSA and the Carter school but what are the rest of the tracks doing ?

 

[Fortythirtyeight]

5 hours ago, *JJ said:

Eh? Which track was that? We travelled all over the country - he rode for Weymouth a few times - and I never turned down any rides.

As I said, short memory, you were offered rides at Redcar but said it was too far.

[Fortythirtyeight]

6 hours ago, Sings4Speedway said:

In the early years of the MDL it was a genuine competitive breeding ground for emerging riders and a genuine route to get noticed by NL promotions and gain opportunities as guests etc. However as the numbers fell so did the interest and there were much fewer graduates through the development league (and those that did were already on the radar anyways). 

At one point teams were well spread throughout the country so a good distribution of teams and riders and variety of tracks to race at provided motivation as lets face it the prospect of 3-4 hours travel at a riders expense on the hope that maybe they would get 20mins at the end of a meeting to hurriedly get 6 heats done was never an incentive.

The league has been on a slide for a good few years and the ghost teams ban drove the last few passionate volunteers away. Its a credit to all those who got it off the ground and have continued to breath some life into it as long as they have as there has never been any backing/support from the BSPL and the steady demise can sit firmly at their self interest/no interest door.

Why blame the BSPL ? They have done nothing to support the NJL for 13 years and it’s still running so it’s not their fault that others gave up.

[*JJ]

17 hours ago, Fortythirtyeight said:

As I said, short memory, you were offered rides at Redcar but said it was too far.

They must have offered it directly to the rider, who never mentioned it. You have to remember that our transport was an old age pensioner's car, the diesel paid for mostly from my pension.

[Sings4Speedway]

16 hours ago, Fortythirtyeight said:

Why blame the BSPL ? They have done nothing to support the NJL for 13 years and it’s still running so it’s not their fault that others gave up.

They haven't exactly helped. Fee's for volunteers went up drastically, fees to enter teams were driven up, board members wanted nothing to do with the leagues and then ghost teams were driven out. Yes the chances of getting these teams back was slim but there were pockets of dedicated fans who attended meetings up and down the country just to watch the 2nd half. 

If the board have been supportive of the NJL then that is fantastic and its great that the league is currently flourishing (certainly better race nights and a progressive format helps) sadly though i don't see any way back for the MDL.

[JamesHarris]

10 hours ago, Sings4Speedway said:

They haven't exactly helped. Fee's for volunteers went up drastically, fees to enter teams were driven up, board members wanted nothing to do with the leagues and then ghost teams were driven out. Yes the chances of getting these teams back was slim but there were pockets of dedicated fans who attended meetings up and down the country just to watch the 2nd half. 

If the board have been supportive of the NJL then that is fantastic and its great that the league is currently flourishing (certainly better race nights and a progressive format helps) sadly though i don't see any way back for the MDL.

I think it will at some point return to a decent number again. Do the Premiership tracks still run a second half league because I've heard nothing about it since they "launched it"?

Full credit should be given to Lawrence though for keeping the league running even if it is 3 teams. Some may not be aware though that when the league was first launched albeit "unofficial" in 2011 we only had 5 teams running out of three tracks (1 from Leicester, 2 from Scunthorpe and 2 from Sheffield). 

[Fortythirtyeight]

11 hours ago, Sings4Speedway said:

They haven't exactly helped. Fee's for volunteers went up drastically, fees to enter teams were driven up, board members wanted nothing to do with the leagues and then ghost teams were driven out. Yes the chances of getting these teams back was slim but there were pockets of dedicated fans who attended meetings up and down the country just to watch the 2nd half. 

If the board have been supportive of the NJL then that is fantastic and its great that the league is currently flourishing (certainly better race nights and a progressive format helps) sadly though i don't see any way back for the MDL.

Again…,read my post slowly. I said the BSPA , as was, have done NOTHING to help the NJL in 13 years but it still runs.

There are no fees to pay for junior teams , no fees for volunteers , never have been as Ive run teams since the mid 80’s and still doing it now, our only cost is race jackets.

The MDL should have embraced the 125cc concept , the midlands is full of them but they travel ‘up north’ to get rides , then the MDL may have survived.

[phillwhitewasmad]

10 hours ago, Fortythirtyeight said:

Again…,read my post slowly. I said the BSPA , as was, have done NOTHING to help the NJL in 13 years but it still runs.

There are no fees to pay for junior teams , no fees for volunteers , never have been as Ive run teams since the mid 80’s and still doing it now, our only cost is race jackets.

The MDL should have embraced the 125cc concept , the midlands is full of them but they travel ‘up north’ to get rides , then the MDL may have survived.

The 125 format within the Njl is fantastic as a team we will be forever grateful to Berwick for giving our rider the chance to develop at such a young age. Living 15 minutes from our home track which ran Mdl but having to travel 4 hours for Njl was the only downside .

[Sings4Speedway]

11 hours ago, Fortythirtyeight said:

Again…,read my post slowly. I said the BSPA , as was, have done NOTHING to help the NJL in 13 years but it still runs.

There are no fees to pay for junior teams , no fees for volunteers , never have been as Ive run teams since the mid 80’s and still doing it now, our only cost is race jackets.

The MDL should have embraced the 125cc concept , the midlands is full of them but they travel ‘up north’ to get rides , then the MDL may have survived.

Thats the 3rd time yesterday i missed a single word out of something and completely changed the outlook. Home teams paid no no fees whereas ghost teams paid hefty entry fees. Its certainly easy to argue that the 125cc concept whilst less interesting as a spectacle (in my opinion) does generate a natural progression pathway. The NJL also benefits from more weekend based race nights which is more suited for travelling and the MDL has lost the majority of tracks that ran on those nights or the teams that do/did run weekends have become disillusioned with it. 

[Fortythirtyeight]

12 hours ago, Sings4Speedway said:

Thats the 3rd time yesterday i missed a single word out of something and completely changed the outlook. Home teams paid no no fees whereas ghost teams paid hefty entry fees. It’s certainly easy to argue that the 125cc concept whilst less interesting as a spectacle (in my opinion) does generate a natural progression pathway. The NJL also benefits from more weekend based race nights which is more suited for travelling and the MDL has lost the majority of tracks that ran on those nights or the teams that do/did run weekends have become disillusioned with it. 

Can’t agree with your opinion on 125’s , but that’s your opinion,  they can produce fantastic racing on a good track, they are the future. As for  reasons for the MDL not running, they refused to adapt to 125’s, look what’s happened !

If you really want to something to happen, you commit to it and make it happen, the NJL has !

[Sings4Speedway]

12 hours ago, Fortythirtyeight said:

Can’t agree with your opinion on 125’s , but that’s your opinion,  they can produce fantastic racing on a good track, they are the future. As for  reasons for the MDL not running, they refused to adapt to 125’s, look what’s happened !

If you really want to something to happen, you commit to it and make it happen, the NJL has !

I was really bad at getting my point across yesterday and apologies to all 125 riders. Often the 125 & 250 classes are the most entertaining during meetings my point about the spectacle was that the NJL has 3 heats of the same 4 riders in each class and that can often (not always) produce the same result 3 times.

I think for the MDL to survive they need more weekend tracks to participate, those that do run meetings need to make a much bigger effort to get them on (a lot of wasted travel occurs due to curfews met) and as covered to make it sustainable consider the switch to include 125 riders and generate the natural progression. In its hey day there was a strong amateur scene that enabled riders to compete against a similar level, then progress up and into the MDL etc safely. Sadly over the past few years the gulf in ability has been vast and bordering on dangerous in places which certainly doesn't help the cause. 

[JamesHarris]

10 hours ago, Sings4Speedway said:

I was really bad at getting my point across yesterday and apologies to all 125 riders. Often the 125 & 250 classes are the most entertaining during meetings my point about the spectacle was that the NJL has 3 heats of the same 4 riders in each class and that can often (not always) produce the same result 3 times.

I think for the MDL to survive they need more weekend tracks to participate, those that do run meetings need to make a much bigger effort to get them on (a lot of wasted travel occurs due to curfews met) and as covered to make it sustainable consider the switch to include 125 riders and generate the natural progression. In its hey day there was a strong amateur scene that enabled riders to compete against a similar level, then progress up and into the MDL etc safely. Sadly over the past few years the gulf in ability has been vast and bordering on dangerous in places which certainly doesn't help the cause. 

Correct. This has worked for the NJL and I have no argument against that. But this is the very same reason the MDL was created. The riders will not benefit if they are racing against the same 3 other riders in consecutive races. The result will more or less be the same and the crowd that have stayed behind to watch will soon get bored. The MDL provided a proper competition for those just below the NL. It was designed to be a mini-meeting with each team having 2 NL reserve standard riders and 2 Scunthorpe amateur open class riders. The highlight would be heat 6 where all 4 NL reserve riders raced against each other. Prior to the MDL most tracks just operated a few races billed as stars of tomorrow which were a dull affair comprising of the same 4 riders.  

[Fortythirtyeight]

1 hour ago, JamesHarris said:

Correct. This has worked for the NJL and I have no argument against that. But this is the very same reason the MDL was created. The riders will not benefit if they are racing against the same 3 other riders in consecutive races. The result will more or less be the same and the crowd that have stayed behind to watch will soon get bored. The MDL provided a proper competition for those just below the NL. It was designed to be a mini-meeting with each team having 2 NL reserve standard riders and 2 Scunthorpe amateur open class riders. The highlight would be heat 6 where all 4 NL reserve riders raced against each other. Prior to the MDL most tracks just operated a few races billed as stars of tomorrow which were a dull affair comprising of the same 4 riders.  

Sorry but can’t agree with your thought process. What will a rider learn from riding against a different rider once ? If he gets to ride against a slightly quicker rider twice or more he can possibly learn his line etc but that’s all a matter of opinion I suppose.

the NJL has used this format for several years now and has flourished, the MDL has finished so that suggests something.

The crowds that stop back and watch the NJL meetings have always stopped to the end without being ‘bored’, indeed they often comment how improved a junior might be in his third ride against a better rider than his first ride , but I guess MDL crowds must be different ?

I do hope someone gets the MDL back , in whatever state, preferably to include 125 riders but it needs riders willing to do it and others willing to run it. The riders are there, 50% of the 125 riders in the NJL reside in the midlands and the south, we have NJL 500’s riding at Wolverhampton , Birmingham and Belle Vue  so they are willing to travel for rides.

 

[JamesHarris]

19 hours ago, Fortythirtyeight said:

Sorry but can’t agree with your thought process. What will a rider learn from riding against a different rider once ? If he gets to ride against a slightly quicker rider twice or more he can possibly learn his line etc but that’s all a matter of opinion I suppose.

the NJL has used this format for several years now and has flourished, the MDL has finished so that suggests something.

The crowds that stop back and watch the NJL meetings have always stopped to the end without being ‘bored’, indeed they often comment how improved a junior might be in his third ride against a better rider than his first ride , but I guess MDL crowds must be different ?

I do hope someone gets the MDL back , in whatever state, preferably to include 125 riders but it needs riders willing to do it and others willing to run it. The riders are there, 50% of the 125 riders in the NJL reside in the midlands and the south, we have NJL 500’s riding at Wolverhampton , Birmingham and Belle Vue  so they are willing to travel for rides.

 

The MDL is still running though - albeit with 3 teams. But it is still running. 

[Fortythirtyeight]

3 hours ago, JamesHarris said:

The MDL is still running though - albeit with 3 teams. But it is still running. 

With one midland club and the help of a NJL club.

[Speedway fan]

MDL FIXTURES 2023

APRIL

SAT      15       REDCAR CUBS  V  BIRMINGHAM BULLS                                MDL

WEDS 19       BIRMINGHAM BUFFALOES V BIRMINGHAM BULLS            CHALLENGE

WEDS  26      BIRMINGHAM BUFFALOES V REDCAR CUBS                        MDL   

 

MAY

WEDS     3       BIRMINGHAM BULLS V BIRMINGHAM BUFFALOES        CHALLENGE

 

 

JUNE

WEDS      7     BIRMINGHAM BULLS   V  BIRMINGHAM BUFFALOES       MDL

 

JULY

 

WEDS    12     BIRMINGHAM BUFFALOES  V  BIRMINGHAM BULLS       MDL

 

AUG

WEDS    9       BIRMINGHAM BULLS  V REDCAR CUBS                              MDL

 

REDCAR CUBS V BIRMINGHAM BUFFALOES TBC

** BIRMINGHAM WILL RUN 2^ND HALVES EACH MEEING STAGING SOME AS CHALLENGE MATCHES V WOLVERHAMPTON AND SOME AS INDIVIDUALS PLUS 125CC AND 250 CC RACES .

 

[*JJ]

On 3/31/2023 at 8:54 PM, Fortythirtyeight said:

With one Midland club and the help of a NJL club.

At least somebody is doing something, unlike most promoters.

[Fortythirtyeight]

On 4/2/2023 at 9:29 AM, *JJ said:

At least somebody is doing something, unlike most promoters.

All 6 northern promoters are ‘doing something’, good that Laurence is joining in.

[*JJ]

20 hours ago, Fortythirtyeight said:

All 6 northern promoters are ‘doing something’, good that Laurence is joining in.

Nice to know; I wish that the rest of them would do something!