FTM

Come on Mick sign Robbo he loves riding Brandon and he aint no slouch around Arena and there aren,t many 2nd strings who can ride it as well .A True and genuinely nice guy who has time for the fans of all tracks and always gives %100 when riding for whoever is employing him

How the hell do you know whether people on this thread have only ever worked for one company or not and whether they would move on or not if offered I am not a wolves fan I am a Speedway fan and I think Tai has made a big mistake as far as his popularity with a lot of fans will now suffer.. As far as I am concerned he needed BL racing to bring on his world championship aspirations and now he has pulled the mat from under an awful lot of fans in the uk not the true meaning of a World Champion If he wins the WC again I shan,t be jumping through hoops to go and see it

Great to hear Terry I don,t think anyone (apart from other trackmen) realise just how much it takes over your life .I have been helping out with the Stox since may and a couple of speedway meetings but only on raceday as I am back driving trucks for a living its good to know at the end of your shift you get to go home in a normal week .

Hi Terry how are you mate are you still involved anywhere or have you hung up your rake and keys

Unfortunately for Steve his name is in the programme as he is the curator for the Dogs but you are miles away with your comment ref: shutting the place down He isn,t responsible for the decisions regarding Speedway track prep .I am not going to say anymore on the Subject as it could cause problems for me helping out next season if needed ..Sorry Gem xx

My statement refers to the fact that Max Clegg and Tom Perry were in the Elite League with Leics and although James Serjeant rides in the E/L for the Bees it is no secret that he has never ridden well at Beaumont Park and Dan Greenwood as you say rode in the Trophy which as everyone knows is 2 divisions below the E/L .which is why I think the Storm didn,t get a level playing field for their leg .But we shall never know

Sorry Iv,e not answered you Gemini I have been pretty busy doing my proper job driving trucks for Disney . The Trackman is listed in the Programme and I think that Colin has some input into the prep but he wasn,t responsible for the N/L Fours as he was away on personal buisiness all weekend .As you can see from the time on this post I have only just got in my house been out working since 3 pm Tuesday .I offered to help out only on race nights and on the Sunday for the 4 team .The Track was put in during the week but I don,t know who did it and I only discovered the 3 rd bend problem when I was sweeping the water off parts of both bends Sunday about 12.30 I put some fresh shale on both bends to blind in the inside part of both bends where they were wet .but after grading in and out the soft patch became apparent outside of the new stuff I had already put on .After talking with the Ref and Chris Louis it was decided to try and grade in reverse to lift off as much soft stuff as possible then run the wheel and grader around to try and improve the situation.We then added the cement dust and I am pretty sure that surface did start to dry off .On the day overall I don,t think that there were many falls or problems on bend 3 the riders were having trouble with bend 2 but there were no apparent problems with this corner so you will have to ask the riders why .As regards the Friday night moving of the Play Off 2nd leg Final I totally agree we have done a change over from Speedway to Stox on first week of the month for years and I was very sorry for Storm Fans who missed out on seeing the 2nd leg on their home track and defitnately didn,t agree it going to Leicester as Cradley were basically given it on a plate with Clegg and Perry being home lions riders .Was this another Fordgate scandal ??. Think I will go get some sleep now as I,m back to work this afternoon at 4 pm also after my last statement I will go and look for my Tin Hat Byeeee.

you thank me for my honesty then say it doesn,t wash with you and probably in your opinion with everyone else .Just what doesn,t wash with you can you explain what you would like to see written in my post .I agree with you and other fans the track wasn,t good and we worked hard at it to get it raceable to the Referees agreed standard .Never mind perhaps I would be better off ignoring posts instead of trying to explain what a lot of people don,t see in preparing tracks.

Carefull Rob with statements like that people will think you know what you are talking about Ps thanks for the comment ref.. me and Cov Track much appreciated on a bad Sunday..

I wasn,t using a three week old meeting as an excuse I had already posted about the meeting on the 19th oct which had 22 races of various stox, bangers, modifieds,and the old style stox from the 50,s which is a new thing this year but I am not or have never said the track has been any where near where it should be this year for Speedway .The main damage was done at the start of the season with the man appointed as Curator but he was in over his head as he had never experienced English conditions .A lot of damage was done as a result and with speedway stox twice a month and Greyhounds running again you don,t get as much time as you would like for prep .I have read most posts to do with the Cov track since I have worked there as Raker, Pits Pusher, Tractor Driver, assistant to Colin Meredith , Curator Myself x Twice ( 5years then additional 2 years ) and helping on Race days when I,m not Trucking which I do now .You seem to think that my posts are protecting Bees Track Staff from any criticism but I am just giving an inside view on most problems that an awful lot of Trackmen are confronted with .I quite agree Sunday,s problem on 3 rd bend caught us out at a late stage as the track had been put in since Friday but as soon as Referee asked for it to be rectified we did do so with the help of Adam Roynon and his cement and Len Silver thanks to them for their help.There were a number of falls but not many on the 3rd bend but more on bend 2 why I don,t know .I appreciate yourself and other posters are the paying customers and ask questions which they would like answered .I have always been honest in my reply,s which I think most Bees fans have appreciated . Cheers F.T.M.

i Have followed up your comment on Scunny Stock Cars by going on their site but what you don,t realise they are basically street cars with a few reinforced poles inside for driver protection and they are running on road tyres .Go to Coventry site and look at the big formula 1 cars on there and you will see a much heavier and stronger race car capable of tearing the circuit to c**p when you have 6 races per meeting and also bangers and mini stox etc etc as support events usually up to 30 + cars a race over 16 to 25 laps it is a nightmare for any trackman .But having said that they bring in much bigger crowds than Speedway so Promoters are not going to kill the Golden Goose

first race 15 35 last race 18 00 in my book that makes 2hrs 25 mins where do you get 4 hrs from i know the sceduled start was 14.30 but we all know that came and went so actual running time was, considering the falls and time taken for grading and break after hts and before finals. pretty good which was handled very well by the referee IMO but each to his own .Good luck to both teams for 2nd leg of final hopefully Storm will win

Sorry to Correct you but I am not the current Track Curator I have,nt been since 2009 I just drive a vehicle on race night /day to help out if needed I Do not continually trot out excuses ,as you put it ,just putting people in the picture of why things are as they are in some cases also I believe my skills do stand up up to the test over the last 14 yrs as 6 yrs of curating at Cardiff until Ole brought in his own crew and also an Elite League title at Peterborough in 2006 plus 2 and a half yrs at Oxford till they closed down and then brought back to Coventry in 2009 for 2 seasons speaks for itself but everyone has a right to his/her opinion .

As you didn,t go how can you and all the other armchair fans pass any comment on what the track was like and what actually caused the delay to the start .Its very easy to have a go at track staff from the safety of your own front room sat behind your keyboard .Mick Horton is not responsible for track prep but hey don,t let that stop anyone putting the knife in .There was one soft spot on the entrance to the third bend which after the track walk by the Referee and also Chris Louis (don,t know why he was accompanying her ) she asked for remedial work to be carried out .The meeting was put back 1 hour to do said work and after Coventry,s Captain James Serjeant did 6 laps testing the track the meeting was started on the 15..30 start time .There were a few falls but not because of the track but as someone else has already said just keen young men overriding and making mistakes .Cradley were deserved winners as they seemed to want it more once the last 8 hts came around in the second half of the meeting .Just a footnote to the track problem we had a stock car meeting last Saturday which consisted of 22 races of stox and Bangers and other forms of short track race cars I counted at least 12 cars throughout the meeting that lost wheels and still carried on racing causing damage to the track they are supposed to be black flagged but its not their track so why worry .Come the start of the week lot of damage and inclement weather doesn.t help .Who,d be a trackman

The 8 day rule only applies to guest riders riding for another club Kennett and King guested for Poole last night so cannot guest again until after 8 days for the same team 'the rule doesn,t come into consideration for Bomber and Garrity as they are riding for their own team .