Najjer

There used to be banking around the 1st and 2nd bends which was always reasonably well filled. However when the air fence came back the viewing was blocked slightly and this area was cleared to create a decent parking area for the OTA clubhouse for when it is used for private functions - which no doubt provides much needed funds to help top up and fund the speedway.

We hit 70 one year against one of Lawrence's Mildenhall teams! From memory we had 6 paid maximums that night! Edit - http://speedwayupdates.proboards.com/thread/4028/somerset-mildenhall-19-08-30pm They were the days!!

Somerset could hit 60 tonight. Ellis apart, that's a pretty woeful Birmingham side.

Before thinking about away meetings, winning home matches is an absolute must for every speedway team in this country. 99% of fans don’t travel away to support their team so watching them win at home is all that matters to most. Winning away is an added bonus. For years teams have signed riders who are great at their home track but rubbish at most other tracks for that same reason. Josh Auty is one example of that nowadays. I can think of Simon Walker and Stephan Katt for Somerset in years gone by. Absolute world beaters at the OTA and knew every inch of the track but pretty useless away from home. Didn’t stop them becoming fan favourites though, purely because of their home exploits.

Great gesture. Did he comment on what good condition the motorway was in?

I'm sure some tracks have restrictions on not only when they must finish, but when they can start too. Somerset always had a policy in the past of no bikes running before 7pm and then no bikes running after 10pm.

That's an interesting and valid point - It's a bizarre one in that Todd Kurtz had his best meeting of the season by a long distance on a track that was 'terrible' according to the Somerset team manager and promotor. It's a sad sign of the times when you only have to look at IDH's picture of the Oak Tree Arena last week to see it resembling the M5 by half way through the meeting to see who is dictating track prep there and calling the shots. No wonder he doesn't fancy it with some dirt down on the track. I said at the time and I stand by it, signing Schlein was a mistake and the most untypical Somerset signing you will ever see.

Typical Schlein. Embarrassment.

I've had the pleasure of watching both James and Charles plenty of times at Somerset. On their day, both of them could be absolutely brilliant. We signed James mid way through a season after he was released by Workington (I think) and he was fantastic. He scored double figures most weeks at home and was a real racer. This is when the OTA was a superb track and James would often fly round the boards passing people for fun. He started the next season for us in the same year we had Vissing and Jesper Monberg come in. He became so frustrating though - He would go out and beat the opposition no.1 and then crawl round at the back in his next race in heat 14 behind some hopeless reserve. As said above, he could be so good and yet so frustrating/bad all within a few minutes of eachother. Charles Wright was superb from the moment we signed him. He'd been scoring hatfuls for Buxton and then to some peoples annoyance signed him to replace Stefan Nielsen. Wrighty nearly won us the league that year and became the best rider to ever watch in my opnion at the OTA after that. Somerset is a worse place without him.

Thanks for that - Literally staggering really. No wonder they get such big crowds.

Yeah absolutely - From the matches I've watched I certainly haven't seen many 70 year old with speedway badges on his hat waving his programme board around. Much more of a football type atmosphere which only adds to the spectacle.

I was expecting alot more - remarkable when you compare that to what British speedway charges and offers up in comparison.

Great crowds. What is the admission price for Polish Speedway roughly in English money?

Glasgow by 20 or more.

Any potential promise disappeared when Berge left before even riding a single meeting. Schlein will always be the same no matter what division he’s in, where he always throws in duff meetings every now and then.