martinmauger

Without re-reading all the prev pages, is Chris Holder defo riding in the UK in 2023 ?...

This^^, a tad biased, perhaps, but Moore (& Briggs), Mauger, Olsen & Nielsen (& Gundersen) all team rode, I know as I saw them all do it with the exception of Moore, & they turned their teams into succsessful ones. TRick was a very good rider, granted, you don't get 6 World Championships just handed to you, but was more for himself than his teams....

Adding my 2P's worth (though a good few years off being an OAP myself), one very well known ex-promoter didn't offer an OAP discount - despite actually being an OAP .....

Yes often, whether using AOL, Bing, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Google, Yahoo, etc, etc, seems slow quite randomly at times.....

Ah 'Two Jags' Prescott, locally known to be a huge fan of Hull Kingston Rovers rugby club who over the last few years have added very nice developments to the Craven Park stadium. A fan of speedway, probably not so much....

Knew that I finished my copy yesterday, PC & Mort both have their reasons still a shame neither are currently involved....

Indeed. Shame neither PC nor Mort involved at Belle Vue, one day perhaps....

Reccomend having a chat with Rob Godfrey, discuss how Scunny solved their unwanted incursion problems of a few years ago ....

My PC book arrived today, signed to me as requsted . Can confirm it's 500 pages and not filled up with facts figures & stats, can't wait to get started on it, weekend probably. Thanks to Tony Mac and to PC himself....

Quite. Speaking generally on the subject of farewell meetings, we never had one at Hull. In 1981 when speedway ended at the Boulevard; huge shock years of 2 hours enjoyment once a week - gone, don't think anyone saw it coming, was reported the very next nite in local paper, Hull Daily Mail. Similar with speedway ending at Craven Park in 2005 with 2 matches outstanding, though thinking back and reading between the lines, prob less of a massive though unpleasant surprise, still upsetting. Same as happeend at Worky; following a very successful season + massive wage bill due to the many pastings handed out, financial issues affecting the next season. Least if fans see a farewell meeting they get to say 'goodbye' to their team & track (though hopefully not forever) they have some kind of closure. Makes a difference. My advice, as always 'enjoy your speedway while you can, wherever & however you get to enjoy it'. But good news for Monarchs fans, Scottish speedway and speedway in general....

This ^ ....

Speaking as neutral this was also my take. Not surprised at the score, expected it would go right to heat 15 & would be in Sheffield's favour, expected them to score better at Belle Vue then be a lot stronger at home. Still kind 'a good result' either way I guess: Sheffield's 1st ever top league win or Belle Vue's 1st since 1993....

Big shame. I don't know Phil Morris as such but bought some speedway videos off him and he was great to deal with - sent 'em before my forgetful self posted the cheque. Condolences Phil....

Fully get the historical importance of this footage with so many quality riders; wow, just wow !....

And me ....

Just thinking out loud, don't and have never followed rugby league so no idea of their season, my only reason to visit rugby grounds has been when speedway has been staged within....

Think Scunny have a long term lease on the land there but possiby don't actually own the site, probably Scunny council do ?...

Odasl would probably be good GP venue if the track could be widened quite a bit, say after the rugby league season when pitches are usually completely dug up and relaid anyway, sadly think it's too big to be economical for a league speedway venue. As others have said, we have the very excellent NSS at Belle Vue so best to concentrate on increasing the crowd capacity there....

Good to see so many riders do a lap of honour and wave to the crowd and enjoy doing it. A couple of times at Scunny I've seen teams where their fans, including children - hopefully the fans of the future, will have travelled 100's of miles in support, yet their riders couldn't manage an extra 300m or so to them a wave....

When Hull Vikings won the treble in 2004, the attendances hardly went up at all, staying at circa 1,100 - 1,200,. Like with the Comets I'm sure the amount paid out for higher points in 2004, as all those hugely enjoyable home & away pastings with trophys won almost for fun had to paid for, had a huge & similar impact on the club the following season. Think the final speedway crowd at Craven Park in 2005, when the Vikings closed with 2 matches outstanding, was around 650 ....

What Dean says is true; in the old Weslake days speedway bikes revved to around 9,000RPM, now they often rev to 12,000 or more (!), which is too much for a 4-stroke single cylinder engine. A bit like riding a regular i.e. not sporty, bike on the road or driving your car in 1st or 2nd gear all the time. There was an excellent 'lockdown interview', could been by Lee Ashby ?, with Shawn Tacey and one of the posted questions was if 'speedway bikes rev more and produce more power, why aren't more track records being broken ?'. Tacey said due to the higher revs and modern tyres the back wheel is spinning so many more RPMs faster, I forget the actual figures quoted, & tracks are slicker to cope so not producing hardly any more speed, if any. I recall a series of Speedway Star articles on the Czech Golden Helmet meeting in Pardbuce (sp?), the 'Star' interviewing winners like Jeremy Doncaster & Jason Doyle. I forget which it was but one said he was amazed that the winner's times in the older 2valve JAWA days with spindly telepscopic forks and lower power outputs were not that different from more the modern machinery of higher revvimg GMs with leading link forks, better frames etc. Think this was when Ole Olsen semi-seriously suggested changing back to 2 v JAWAs, I don't think the Pardubice (sp?) track has changed since it was built, possibly a bit slicker surface ?. So, yeah, as Dean said; spend more to stay the same....

Jumping in very late; Bewley still won though admittedly only just made the final. Still not a huge fan of the format as riders really just need to pace themselves to score ideally 9 or more to make the semis, finish top 2 to transfer to the final itself then go flat out, Smarzlik does this and makes it work so gotta say good luck to him.....

Bewley did it again, this time he kicked the Poles backsides in their own backyard. Look out Smarzlik, Dan Bewley is coming to get you !...

Me too , loved that, if the Poles gated on him they may have made it, difficult, either way Dan IS The Man of Cardiff 2022. Get in !...

Heard on BBC Radio2 this morn "we are on our way to the Principality Stadium in Cardiff for the Speedway GP, shout out to all the riders", from Martin Jones think it was, either way good on him. Tough luck for Ellis after all the issues re; missing last year & British Final....