neil_L

A work m8 of mine went along last night, his first ever speedway meeting. He took his step lad. His verdict ... he loved it! So much so he was looking at upcoming meetings. I attended the bees select last year and also enjoyed it. My unexpert opinion is that the track would benefit from more banking to create more lines.

My first meeting since cov closed and my first visit to leicester. Really enjoyed it. My first post on this forum in a few years. Well done to everyone on putting on this meeting, we will visit leicester for sure next year. Despite the negative comments over the years I thought the track is not far off being a very good race circuit, nice and wide perhaps just requiring some more dirt out wide. My old work colleague who lives in Leicester attended this meeting, his first ever and says he'll be back, he added he never knew about the track. Best wishes to cov and Leicester speedways.

Well, I don't get to see or read that much on speedway these days, however, KT was truely fantastic during his spell with the bees. I read the interview last night after returning from Bees victory over Eastbourne and became so engroced I got a bollocking off the wife for ignoring her! Whatever the personalities or politics, the "friendly" rivalry at Coventry between KT and TK was "the reason" Coventry were so successful. Oxford and Cradley also had powerful top pairings and I still believe to this day that a powerful top 2 forms the basis for good solid team.Other thing to note was that not long before the CO died(if I recall correctly), I remember reading a rare interview with the CO, probably in the local Coventry Telegraph, in which he names 6 or so all time coventry greats,and the CO paid tribute to KT saying he was brilliant in his time with Coventry, which he was. Most interesting to read that KT went to CO and said get a replacement for TK after he was hurt but was ignored. KT clearely could see what was about to unfold. Sad really. I was really sad to read KT's wife was verbally abused by some morons, whom there'll always be an element of. I'm sure the vast majority of Coventry fans would love to see KT and his lovely family come visit coventry and talk of the good times we saw him at his finest. In fact it would be great to see a reunion of that great team of the '87 and '88 seasons, we can hope! I wouldn't say KT was the most spectacular or the best at team riding, but as he says, he was one of the very best out of the starts and very fast, he came a wisker away from getting right the very top, and when you look at quantity and quality of riders from the mid to late 80's, he should feel hugely proud of himself. Lastly, I hope one day in the future we see something along the line of an intertesting book by KT.

I stood outside gate 6 and 7 pre-meeting, great atmosphere, sad that time and time again we watched drunk polish fans chucking bottles and cans off into the river yet there was a big bin right next to us, in fact the center of Cardiff around the stadium looked like a dump post meeting, I actually felt embarrassed, I think the speedway GP organizers need to communicate to polish speedway fans that this behavior is unacceptable. Great meeting on track though.

Great night for CH. First GP I've watched in 18 months, very exciting with some very high quality entertainment. We are lucky at Coventry to have such a gifted racer in our team. CH serves up breathtaking passes on a weekly basis. Never doubted his tallents. I think the 2 main factors in CH's fantastic showing is that he hasn't been phased by the GP, indeed the guy is oozing confidence when talking to the cameras las night. The 2nd reason he is going to do very well in the gps is that he has an excellent pit crew and in Brian Andersen a very experienced man on board. I'll have to try and get to see more GPs this year.

Can't see 250cc engines as the way to go. You could probably get a 250 to rev like a flymo but the power will be peaky and probably dangerous. There would be big costs to already cash strapped families. If we seriously wanted to collectivity help reduce costs whilst maintaining safety then I'd say look at having a standard lower compression ratio on all junior 500 machines. The cost of lowering the compression ratio should be minimal . The engines will run with less power and thus lower the stress / wear. Engines would last much longer and less likely to drop pistons and snap rods. It would also be interesting to run experiments with Pump grade petrol. Ok, the compression would need knocking right down and smaller jets in the carbs. But this again would have the desired effect of reducing power with minimal costs. There's also the saving in fuel costs. And crude refined petrol doesn't corrode like methanol. why go to the trouble of re-equipping all juniors with totally different engines when just some simple retune mods could be the way to go.

Just read this copy last night. All I can say is that my house insurance policy should be void when I read this mag because it's so interesting that if the house caught fire and the smoke alarms went off it I wouldn't stop reading to put the flames out. WRT evitts interview. I remember the Tatum knocking off Evitts British final '88. It started the "booing" of Tatum for yrs to come. Don't think it was dirty riding if I remember correctly. I'm sure there was 3 riders abreast heading down the back straight and something was to give. Hard riding in a British final that was in those days a great day in the speedway yr. To sit in a sell out Brandon crowd as a 14yr old at the british final is something very special in my speedway memories.

I would love to see an anterview with Tommy Knudsen as he was my favorite rider when I started following the sport in the late 80s. Best rider never to be world champion is my opionion. Suffered terrible spinal injuries and then made a comeback. Never quite got back to his old self. Inspirational skipper who despite being Danish was Coventry through and through. I remember his April Fools joke in '88 that hit the UK national papers when he said he was changing his nationality to British as he was fedup with being in the shadows of Nielsen and Gundersen.

sorry I should add that the night loram won the world crown was a truely magical moment for all British Speedway fans. Now here was a a true racer but it was so sad that the national press didn't give him the full deserved credit. we all love him though

we're back to same old ban the foreigner argument and all will be great in British speedway ... crap. Fact, losing teams in speedway attract only diehards like all us who read this forum. The result is that crowds drop, income drops and poor old promoter wants out. In an idle situation we would love to see far more home grown talent packing British teams thus saving travel and accommodation expense etc. It wont happen because a massive proportion of those attending speedway meetings want to see a winning team. Look at AE, quite a few established British riders. Poor run of results = very poor crowds = cash injection to keep afloat. Those who say ban foreigners perhaps pay double at the turnstiles. back to the question. I reckon Scottie can do it. I have no doubt he's a massive talent but seems to struggle with mechanical setup. Sad though that for the yrs I followed the sport since '87 everyone in the speedway press would say it would be a massive boost for British Speedway to have a World Champion. didn't make any difference to the sport at all when havelock and Loram were world champs.

love him or hate you to credit him. He's simply the best. I just can't recall a rider who can go 80-90 % through a meeting and like push a button when it's needed to 100% and take home th bacon. That last race first bend was truely awsome. Adams, Gollob, sullivan, Hancock ... to me they have perhaps had their best yrs and some of "racer" instincts have wained somehat into "grafter" status. Adams especially just seems to look so phased and he just can't raise his game to that required at this level. I only see one GP a yr on TV and last night was an excellent advert for the sport.

Sorry Hazzman, Leicester was before my time. Generally I thought the Ochilltrees did a good job some things I thought were not done so well. In particular they had an admissions policy of charging 15 yrs full adult price which was crazy. The meeting presentation was 50yrs out of date as well which was pretty embarrasing to younger fans. The new promotion have more exciting ideas and there appears to be more young people through the gates these days. Perhaps you can tell us what the Ochilltrees did to Leicester for us not so oldies.

Out of interest I was wondering what happened to the Ochilltrees since departing from Coventry 3 or 4 yrs ago. Wonder if they ever make an appearence at Coventry. Generally they did a very good job in keeping speedway and stocks at the Brandon stadium for so many yrs.

some of this discussion is relevant to the laydowns discussion. What no-one has paid attention to is that speedway riders come in different shapes and sizes. Standard low power engines will mean the lighter guy wins every time as they can pull a tall gear. The racing would be extreamly dull. I would argue the only way standard engines would work would be to go to bigger more torque engines. Thus riders of all shapes / styles can use the right amout of throttle to give them drive. Bigger cc engines would need less revs to pull and thus the engines should last longer and still give those riders with skill to ride the dirt plenty of drive. In conclusion though standardisation appears good it just wouldn't work. As I've said many many times I believe modern speedway is still exciting. Better track prep is a higher priority.

Since I started following the sport proper in '87 I've seen this discussion over and over many many times. back in the late 80s people blamed the decline of the sport of foreign riders, then it was lack ot TV, then it was lack of wemble and a British world champion. All these arguments have proved rubbish. Face facts the sport is as big as it's going to get. I love this sport and it's a big part of my life so I'm not being over negative, just realistic. But look on the positive side we still have the sport 20 yrs on from when people said it would be dead. In my opinion it is still a great night out and the entertainment value is still good. The sport does well considering. There are plenty of people who knock promoters but I'd say most do it as a hobby and we should be grateful. The costs involved in running a speedway team on crowds that can be as little as 500 must turn any promoter's underpants brown on a daily basis ! As to the future the sport needs to consolidate, keep costs down and keep the entertainment value high. The sport may never be "big" again but that's not to say a few extra people through the turnstiles doesn't go a miss.