TonyE

Lakeside 2018.

Hasn't Stuart retired?

In what way did they do that?

Totally agree - we are all 'internet warrior's and I have no issues with opinions and suggestions. The point I was trying to make was to highlight the fact that it is the promotion that takes the financial risk on new initiatives.

No one seems to know the answer unfortunately. Plenty of 'internet warriors' come up with suggestions but it isn't their money at risk. I certainly do not know the solution - Lakeside had Mark sexton as a community officer and I know he specifically tried to get the younger element interested in the sport (school liaison etc) . The one time Arena Essex as then was, offered free entry (in a meeting against Belle Vue and sponsored by a company), it certainly produced a good crowd. There were certainly first timers there but whether or not they were hooked is another issue.

The is that it the newbies don't come the promoters lose even more money when discounted admission is available. Just how do you differentiate between a newcomer and a die-hard regular. The Hammers tried it a few seasons back and quickly had to drop it.

The planned second Thames crossing must afford some opportunities and, above all else, will maintain (ultimately) ease of access to Kent based supporters.

Lots of Friday's - that will not go down well in certain quarters!

As I understand it, there were, potentially, two dates that we could have run. The problem was that we had two league matches, a Championship Shield and likely Play-Off meetings to fit in.

I still fail to see the logic applied by the BSPA in making Lakeside race ALL their outstanding fixtures at Rye House rather than only those they were unable to stage at Arena.

The aim should be to keep any new facility as close to the river crossing (or the new one) as possible to maximise the catchment area.

No surprise for me. Still feeling a great loss though.

Unfortunately the future of virtually all tracks is at risk from 'developers'. The Showground in particular from what I have heard.

You were doing reasonably well until that last bit. Riders averages are based on 4 rides, 7 riders per team equals 28 rides equals 14 heats - so 42.50 should win you the meeting!

I could ask the same question of you. You are entitled to your opinion of course and there has already been a rebuttal of a couple of your viewpoints. Watching from a little further back allows a greater field of vision, especially when we have 'the two races in one' scenario and, also, in my opinion Arena was a much safer track. Rye House is too narrow and had Nick Morris had the same type of incident as happened in the first attempt to run Heat 15 against Glasgow, he would have piled into the fence - no wrap around the corners airbags at RH! As for the quality of racing, I find it really difficult to even put RH in same league as Arena which at least offered riders options on the lines they take rather than just open the throttle and blast round for four laps.