martinmauger

Good stuff Phil, glad to hear....

The track announcer and Rob Godfrey on his roaming mic can (mostly) be heard ok, but for some reason whenever Roger Westby speaks he always seems muffled & unclear. Just sayin'....

Bit disapponted heat times are not included in Speedway Star so far, and also team manager details, hope they will be in the future. Thing is in any race, in any sport, competitors are racing primarily against the clock, their opponents and also themselves. No one can make each and every meeting and reading meeting reports, studying heat details and also race times permits fans to gauge how a track rode, how teams are progressing, who was quick, etc. For example; Scunny's opener v Leicester in the Official Referee Scorecard against Jedd List's 2nd ride in heat 5, the result shows R, and also in the rider's individual scorechart. So people will most likely assume he retired from the actual race due to machinery problems, due no reasonable prospect of making progress following on-track incidents or mistakes, being too far behind, etc. I was at the meeting and in heat 5 List suffered a bike problem at the gate, his engine made a loud POP and he never left the start line, so I entered EF (engine failure) in my programme. Jedd List has since been replaced by Danny Ayres of course, I just used him as an example and wish him well. Speedway has been described as 'a mathematician or numeracy enthusiasts paradise' and while I wouldn't go that far, heat details with as much info as possbile allow fans to follow all meetings, leagues, teams & riders with the 'Star usually being the first source of such info....

I ws never gonna be able to make it but 'a little bird' who could confirmed some good racing on a chilly nite. So a good start to the season in the Borders then....

'I was there' too, rammed, packed it was....

Least they are finally getting on with the track work fascinating stuff, just need the 'Lego trucks' to arrive. One thought, would have been a lot easier and quicker if they just raced on the mini track in the centre green . I'm joking of course....

Sad news, enjoyed reading his speedway stuff RIP....

At Hull in 2005 each rider was issued with 2 fork covers & 2 rear wheel spoilers both of which carried the team sponsor who also featured on the front and back of the body colours and extensivley in the match programme. Just sayin'....

Always reckoned that if Billy (and everyone else that day) had not met Muller at Norden in 1983 he'd prob have been Champ that year, he was 2nd with Lee 3rd. And I also wish Penhall had stuck around a few more years to hopefully give Gundersen & Nielsen a run for their money. It's fun to compare rider & eras, but conditions are always different (bikes, tracks, competitions WF v GPs) so one ends up with 'if only's' & 'maybes'....

In 1997 one could have bought Hull's Craven Park stadium lock stock and barrel for, wait for it, just £600,000 - bargain mate ! A relatively new venue, built in 1989, in 1997 Craven Park was running speedway (yay!), rugby, thrice weekly greyhounds, and had many bookings in the function rooms and today with little alterations also hosts dance / excercise classes. This (together with speedway & dogs) would easily have fitted into the late Ian Thomas' mantra of 'not opening a shop for just one day a week but probably still paying rates for 12 months'. To say the least. Though understadably my interest in the activities at CP are nil there's zip chance of a speedway return as turns 3 & 4 had a blooming great stand built on them. Apart from that new stand and 99% disappearence of the speedway track (still a wee bit of shale here and there) the place looks the pretty much same as it did pre-2005, when speedway ended (sad). In fact the turns 1 & 2 area, especially the terracing, was knee deep in weeds the last time I looked. These days think the only activities taking place are rugby and the dance / excercise stuff. Sigh.....

I forgot about Rye House closing. So including Coventry at Leicester, though it could be argued Coventry had already closed the year or so before, that makes 5 clubs lost in the last year: Buxton, Coventry, Lakeside, Rye House, Workington. There's hope for them all (except possibly Lakeside at least in the immediate future) as the tracks still exist, but worrying just the same....

Big Al was a legend at Hull too, 1995-1998, many times he team-rode home 2nd strings & reserves....

Asking fans for help with pre-season tidying up is a common thing. At Hull , Craven Park there were promises of tea / coffee & biccies, with maybe fish & chips if the work extended past tea-time, sadly I was never able to join the fun as it was always on a week day. Two local girls regularly tidied up pits, changing rooms, etc. On one occasion help was requested to paint the safety fence, one enterprising chap turned up and painted the entire fence, kickboards on straights boards on the bends, all by himself taking some 8 hours. Refused any form of payment, now that's dedication. Also, pit accomodation for 2nd halfers was roomy, in front of the old dog kennels....

No not another speedway track as we know it (Jim) but Rockingham Motor Speedway. Someone at work asked me if a speedway track had recently closed, I asked of the sad list of 3 (or 4 Coventry at Leicester) "What Buxton, Lakeside or Workington ?", I was told "no, somehere in Northampton". Frustratingly I can't get links to copy & paste or work but type Rockingham Speedway and info & links should appear. A shame and is oldish news and hardly relevant to the sport of speedway, except the site is to be some kind of 'vehicle hub complex', whereas I'd have bet money on it being sold for housing or retail. Always thought the place was a bit of a white elephant TBH as with many existing, established race circuits (Brands Hatch, Donington Park, Silverstone, etc) there didn't seem to be a demand for a large 'stadium-type' facility, albeit with a large Indy Car-sized tarmac oval....

Some F1 fans and many drivers' wives / girlfriends used to do this, maybe they still do, record each car for every lap of a 70ish lap race covered....