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Stoke Potter

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Posts posted by Stoke Potter

  1. Posted · Edited by Stoke Potter

    It's about looking at the bigger picture, and what's good for the sport.  What showcases the sport in it's best light.

    Which track is better, Plymouth or Belle Vue?  Just track not stadium.  All those who disagree with what I put above, answer the question, which is better?

    If you want to save the sport in this country then it needs more tracks like Belle Vue and less that are like Plymouth and countless others I could mention.

    If Arena Essex (and any club for that matter) come back then they need a copy of Belle Vue, start with the basics, track in a field. 

    Get the track right and build from that.  Don't shoe-horn tracks into places where they don't really fit.

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  2. Posted

    5 minutes ago, Ringitsneck said:

    As it’s likely to be a short , sort of Mickey Mouse season then their gamble on going big might not cost them much especially if they draw a large crowd for the first few home matches. They’ve certainly created some news in dire times for the sport.

    Some sense in that, if it's going to work in any season a shorter one will be best.

  3. Posted · Edited by Stoke Potter
    poor grammar!

    11 minutes ago, lewy said:

    What's the track like at Stoke :t:

    You're playing one-upmanship over the demise of a long standing Speedway track..?  Obviously a true fan of the sport.

    The answer to the question is when it was around it was better than the Plymouth "training" track, even in the more recent times.

    And if your memory goes back long enough it was regarded as one of the best in the country.  Yes really!

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  4. Posted

    Can't help but think it'll all end in tears unless there is someone with extremely deep pockets behind it.
    Plymouth making the same mistake as countless speedway promoters before them and throwing money at riders.

    They should be investing in their most important asset, their track, and start putting a proper sized track in instead of the small training track they've got now.

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  9. Posted · Edited by Stoke Potter

    9 minutes ago, Fromafar said:

    Berwick is not narrow ,don’t know what you are watching.It’s fast and the racing line is quite far out.They widen the straits by a metre and opened up the entrance to the bends before the start of this season.

    From google maps, measuring the width of the home straight gets you something less than 9m as an example the equivalent measurement for Belle Vue is something over 13m.

    Now I will acknowledge that the Berwick measurement will be out of date due to the recent work and the figures will not be totally precise, but I got the impression from the view of the start that the straight was narrow and the above backs up that feeling.  I supposed it depends on each persons definition of narrow.

    Regardless the promotion should be applauded for attempting to make track improvements, most tracks in this country need it.

  10. Posted

    The lack of graphics, etc. on camera isn't a massive issue to me as that's probably quite time consuming to sort out in advance. 
    The poor camera work and Direction are the bigger issues to me. 
    If they want to know how to do it just watch the Polish matches from last season (not seen this season) with some of the best direction/camera work I've seen at Speedway.

    Even the Direction on the GP's isn't always that great with too many fancy pictures from the top of the flag pole cameras, etc.

    Somebody asked what the changes were to the Berwick track, I don't think it got answered??  I couldn't make a judgement on the bends but the home straight at least still seemed too narrow for proper racing.

  11. Posted

    If anyone is still in any doubt as to why nobody watches Speedway in this country anymore then they only need to experience the events of last night!

    Late starting, flood light failure, link for stream being switched, stream freezing multiple times, none-existent racing, poor camera work, have I missed anything..?

    I managed to stick it to Heat 9, actually saw a genuine racing pass in heat 8, astounding!

    At least we didn't have the ubiquitous starting tape failure, perhaps that happened once I gave up on it.  Perhaps the racing was amazing after Heat 8...

    Pay what you think it's worth?  I wonder how much Berwick will pay me for managing to put up with 8 heats of it!  :D:D

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  15. Posted

    13 minutes ago, arthur cross said:

    The greyhounds were still running, albeit behind closed doors purely for the online gambling market, while Boris Johnson was announcing the UK lockdown on the evening of Monday 23rd March - indeed, Nottingham & Yarmouth were allowed to complete the last few races of their respective schedules that night rather than calling a halt as he spoke so they were both still racing around half-an-hour into the lockdown.

    Whenever there is any easing of the lockdown, the dogs will be among the earliest sports to resume - their medical cover (the vet) isn't a drain on scarce medical resources for humans (unlike any human-tackling, motor or equestrian sports) which is why they could continue all the way until the lockdown started - meanwhile, their long-standing network of picture-feeds and media-rights that brings in online gambling revenue means they can fund a hefty chunk of their usual action without a single spectator being needed via the turnstiles.

    There might not be as much greyhound racing post-coronavirus as there was before it - however, there'll be plenty of it for a good few weeks (probably months) before any spectator-reliant sports like speedway or non-league football welcome their vital funding back onto the terraces.

    By the way, once they can resume, each of Monmore and Perry Barr will earn more in greyhound media-rights for closed-door meetings in a fortnight than they earn in speedway stadium rent in a year - don't forget as well, the dogs (bar very occasional wintry weather) run all 12 months of the year, not just a much more weather-dependent schedule from March until October.

    You're welcome to your view that the greyhounds must have a darker future than speedway - you're also welcome to wallow in such ignorance. 

    You're missing the point.  In these politically correct times Greyhound Racing is, rightly or wrongly, seen as barbaric and out of place in the 21st century.  Wallow in your own ignorance.

  16. Posted

    To those claiming it will be fixed by bringing the best riders back, I recall an article in the Speedway Star a few season's back discussing which riders draw the crowds.  It was stated that even Tai Woffinden (who may have even been World Champ at the time) would do little to increase numbers and the only rider who made any difference was Nicki Pedersen.

    In terms of rider quality, I feel these is a cut-off point, you don't need the absolute best in the world but they do have to be quite a high standard to entertain the crowd.  NL/Div3 racing does very little for me for example.

    And to those dissing the idea of the tracks being the problem and stating they are like that by necessity, yes that's exactly the problem, tracks shoe-horned into dog stadia are, for the most part, fundamentally flawed!  The tracks are compromised.  Solve that problem. 
    Greyhound racing must be one of the few sports with a darker future than Speedway, relying on them for facilities is another, not so minor, flaw in the plan...

  17. Posted

    1 hour ago, Crabba59 said:

    How do you fix tracks? In which way? 

    The majority of British tracks are either too narrow, too short, have sub optimal bend radius, lack appropriate banking, or suffer from consistently poor surface preparation.

    Or a combination of some or all of those things. 

    Essentially most of them need to bigger and wider.

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  18. Posted

    I have just watched the IoW meeting mentioned earlier.  The analysis is as follows:

    15 Heats

    7 passes in total

    9 heats had 0 passes

    Riders still spread out by the length of the straight.

    Conclusion:  Changing engines will make zero difference to the racing spectacle.

    That conclusion is purely based on this 1 meeting so obviously isn't fair and reasonable, also the riders weren't particularly evenly matched.  The racing could possibly have been better with a more even line-up.  

    I have been to IoW 4 or 5 times in the past and that was fairly typical of the racing served up there.

    This is not meant as a criticism of the efforts of the IoW promotion.

    I, and (surely) every other speedway fan in the world, want this:  

    And nobody try and tell me there's no throttle control or track craft on display here.  It's no coincidence it's at Belle Vue!

  19. Posted

    I don't dismiss at all that something needs to be done with the engines and I'm sure people who have been involved in the past such as yourself could (and should) advise in that regard.  From what I gather, one of the features of the modern engines is that they are difficult to optimally setup with little margin of error.  What could be done with the current engines to improve that?

    I don't really see how the UK could go it alone with a particular engine type/config, to me it would marginalise the sport further, i.e. it would be different from European, Australian, etc. Speedway.

    British Speedway could fix it's tracks and that would actually bring it more in line with Poland for example.  I don't see how changing the rules on new tracks has any negative effect on anyone currently in the sport, why wouldn't it be done?

    To completely "fix" the sport you have to:

    Sort the tracks,

    Sort the engines,

    Have totally evenly matched teams,

    Have a proper/better incentive/payment scheme for the riders,

    and bring back weekend racing.

    None of that is easy and fixing the tracks is actually one of the easier things on the list...

  21. Posted

    4 minutes ago, barrybishop said:

    This was the NICE 2v 500cc Challenge. 13 2v Jawa engines, untuned, standard, and sealed fitted in to the riders own rolling chassis. The riders drew a ballot for engines, had oil supplied, tyres supplied and fuel... so everyone was on an even keel for racing. Then it was down to setup and rider skill. The result was close racing, unexpected heat winners, elbows, breathtaking passes and an all round great night of entertainment.

     

    Incidentally Barry Bishop appears to have the space to modify his track to be like the NSS but would he do it..?

  22. Posted

    I agree that tracks aren't the magic key to fix everything but sorting them is one of the biggest single things you can do to save the sport and improve the entertainment.

    If the NSS had been built 20 years ago I'd wager they would have retained more fans to the present day.

    And if every track was like the NSS then the image of no racing/passing would not hold water.

  23. Posted

    3 minutes ago, FAST GATER said:

    Spot on excellent post we need riders to show more skill not speed .

    Unfortunately, it is people like you two that will see the sport dead.  You're both completely missing the point.

    The NSS is not the best purely because it's bigger, it is about the combination of all the relevant dimensions that produce the best, most entertaining, Speedway spectacle.

    I don't subscribe to the "throttle control" argument but even if I did it is irrelevant in terms of producing the most entertaining Speedway.

    i could go on but it is pointless because you're not seeing the wood for the trees and persist in harking back to previous eras with rose tinted glasses.

  24. Posted

    9 hours ago, Crabba59 said:

    There are some good tracks in the championship ie scunthorpe redcar, Glasgow to name 3

    And they are still inferior to the NSS so therefore could be better.

    To survive in the 21st century you have to get away from the perception (and actually the reality) that there is very little racing/passing at most tracks and first out of the start wins.

    For any newly built tracks the rules should be changed so the minimum size is 300m and also changes to minimum widths on straights and bends to that of something approach NSS dimensions, I can't give a dimension for that as I don't know the relevant widths.

    For existing tracks, efforts should be made to increase dimensions, bend radii, etc. where possible.  There are currently too many fundamentally flawed tracks.

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