Great Central

It was my 4th visit this season yesterday and although I have no access to actual spectator numbers, the numbers sitting outside of the bar/lounge area do seem to be dwindling. No excuse last with two mid table teams battling for points and good weather. Some people are saying the racing was superb last night but I must have missed those races but since I always buy the superb DVD's of the meeting filmed by ReRun Productions I will make my mind up fully after seeing that. Doing the mechanics role, you do miss a lot of the racing but the races that I saw were essentially follow the leader and with the track being "threadbare" after about 8 heats it was always going to be the case. The adverse cambers do nothing to aid passing on what could be a great little track due to its size and shape. True the match result last night was in doubt until the last heat but does that make the racing exciting? I think not. The only plus point is that the meetings are usually held in quick time due to the curfew. The stadium is very good, facility and viewing wise, and would be the envy of a number of clubs but the track needs sorting. I won't comment on the meeting presentation since the pits are so far divorced from the stand that it would be unfair to make any judgement.

The Potters take on the Scunthorpe Stags tomorrow at Loomer Road starting at 7PM but will the weather be the winner again in this re-arranged fixture? I hope not. The Stags will have former Potters rider Alan Mogridge in their pits, supporting fast improving son Arron.

The track where this crash happened rash didn't have an air fence but having seen the photo I am not sure if an air fence would have helped. I don't know for certain but the crash appeared to occur after the start line and was mid track. I do agree that air fences should be mandatory where an adequate alternative isn't available but in my view(and my view alone), installing an air fence at Buxton and Rye House has not improved rider safety since their fences were perfectly adequate before.

Doesn't sound like dust will be a problem today!!

It also acts as a rain shelter and is the Kent Kings equivalent to an Executive Box since it is by invite only! The way it looks is that Mr Silver acts as the Technical Advisor over in the pits area making sure that the meeting runs ok from that perspective.

Mike, many thanks for the superb results postings for both both events. Although I wasn't able to make it down there due to other duties, it is really good to be able to see who is doing what in the amateur scene. I hear from Steve Cook that the track was good and there were no incidents so it sounds like a good meeting was run with a slightly different format to normal.

Teams aside, hot weather will always create problems with track preparation but this seemed bad from the word go. Gate and go being the norm which is a pity because on my previous two visits, improvements were visible. Bend 1 and 2 seem to be developing different racing lines but why oh why have adverse camber on bend 3 and 4 which prevents the use of over half the track. Last night the grip was out there but as Simon Lambert showed in one of his heats, go too far and you have lost it. It is such a shame to have such a bad feature built into what could be a great racing circuit. I forgot to add the over watering before heat 11 that was excessive in the extreme.

It wasn't dusty from heat 1 but it did get dusty early on. I think Dave Tattum and crew tried their best to keep it well watered. The shale on the outside was still moist but on the inside no sooner had it been watered than it dried out. It was hot and breezy which is every curators worst conditions. It wasn't pleasant for spectators and riders but I am not sure what the solution would be apart from not running in the afternoon in summertime.

Laurence many thanks for the report and the scores. It was a hot day for speedway and commiserations must go to Adam Sheppard who blew an engine in his 1st heat and took no further part in the meeting. He could well have balanced the scores up a little. Credit to all eh riders for getting stuck in on a tricky track.

They will need to since the Kent side is looking a bit of a force to reckon with.

Some big hitters in the Leicester line up with 3 EL Fast Track riders and 2 ex PL doubling up riders so it could be a tough one for the Potters this time.

Out of interest was the attendance improved? Even if it held its own against the football then it was a success.

Apparently not related to Bob.

It is nice to see some fair postings on here about the match last night. The Potters certainly struggled on what seems to be becoming a specialist track putting up some resistance but couldn't match the Cradley fire power. Ben Wilson had only ridden there once before, Rob Shuttleworth never, Adam Kirby has very little experience around there as has probably Lee Payne and any team will struggle against a team riding there week in week out. It does seem that wherever the visiting riders place their bikes on the track, the Cradley riders can find a way round them so fair play to them on their track craft. Clearly with all but one rider doubling up or trebling up, the additional experience is paying dividends and Cradley will take some stopping this year. I thought the crowd was significantly down on my last visit. Is that just the football influence or the 'ommering' influence?? Not sure. Don't know what you can do about the latter since the team was built within the points limit but the effect of all the additional riding is certainly paying dividends for them.

Well done to Ben and Jon on a great win. Sounds like it was a good meeting depending on who you listen to.

Stoke had stock cars last Saturday but you make a good point about the lack of fixtures.

It really is such a shame that all of this "track shape" debate detracts from the excellent work that Glyn and Kevin are doing on the racing surface. Saturday night was a peach of a track, even after all the rain that had fallen in the week and on the day. The track is smooth and just keeps generating dirt and they then make the effort to grade it well for the MDL meetings which is much appreciated by the lads racing after the main meeting. The surface has come a long way since the early days but I think Saturday proves that you can't beat Mother Nature's track watering skills!!.

I am about 10 miles away and it has stopped raining. Sky is brightening and the roads are drying out nicely. I think that it is similar picture at Leicester.

Mike, According to the BBC Weather forecast the rain should clear about 1400 to 1500. I am about 10 miles north of the stadium and it is raining steadily and quite heavy but not torrential. If it stops when predicted the track should be ok however there is a "heavy" shower of rain predicted just north of Leicester at about 2000. It should miss Leicester hopefully. Martin

That is nice to read. The nasty crash in heat 2 delayed the match quite a bit and lasted longer than a normal match would do but in the nice sunny weather it didn't matter too much. A fairly decent crowd as well which is always good to see. Max Clegg is certainly upping his NL game due to his EL experience and getting down into the 62 second mark shows the improvement that he has made. Well done also to Cubs TM Dave Howard for managing to field a team after so many withdrawals due to various issues.

Halifaxtiger, a nice balanced post. The track wasn't as good as the first match but I think that was down to the enormous amount of rain that had fallen on it in the week, plus the hot drying conditions yesterday. It is stock cars this Saturday so hopefully they can get it quickly back to a track on which good racing is possible. It is definitely much flatter reflecting the amount of work done on it before the season. Apparently James had a CT scan last night and there is nothing seriously wrong however I think his shoulder took a hammering again. Wasn't sure if Jack Kingston suffered any injuries in the same crash. Early days and a lot can happen to upset things, but the team is shaping up nicely to be a good team.

Seemed to be a big crowd yesterday on what was a lousy afternoon. If it wasn't a big crowd, they certainly made a lot of noise when the Kent boys got victories!!

I have the heat details. Rob Watts was scheduled to ride but ruled himself out this morning with a rib injury. Rye House did try to get a replacement but with no luck. Heat 1 Geary, Harris, Garrad, Hewitt 3-3 Time 62.0 Heat 2 Rerun Ayres, Harris, Hoskins, Kirby eccl after a fall. 5-1 Agg 8-4 Time 63.0 Heat 3 Harris, Geary, Hoskins, Garrad excl 3-3 Agg 11-7 Awarded after one and a half laps. Garrads bike shed lots of chain bits along the start straight at the end of lap 1 Heat 4 Ayres, Kirby, Hewitt 3 riders only 3-3 Agg 14-10 Time 62.7 Heat 5 Ayres, Hoskins, Hewitt 3 riders only 3-3 Agg 17-13 Time 62.5 Heat 6 Kirby, Harris, Geary, Ayres 2-4 Agg 19-17 Time 62.4

News is pretty quiet on here about tomorrow clash at the Norfolk Arena between the King's Lynn Young Stars and the Stoke Potters so I thought somebody ought to kick off the topic. The weather looks good for tomorrow and there may have to be a sun break!! No official team news yet but I have heard that Max Clegg could be deputising for the missing Lewis Rose and it could be R/R for Lee Payne. Malcolm Vasey is no stranger to the NA so he will be keen to see the Potters do well although the Young Stars do look to have a strong team this year.

A very balanced post to hopefully end a series of posts that has detracted from the Potters superb win at King's Lynn. Clearly there is bad blood around Stoke Speedway, and in reality they are not alone in that respect and it is just a pity that both sides of the dispute cannot reconcile their differences for the good of speedway in Stoke and speedway in general. Putting aside the Stoke issues, I personally struggle to understand why some spectators would rather not watch speedway at all than watch National League racing, a situation which certainly aided the demise of the Isle of Wight. Yes sometimes the racing is strung out, but look at the GP's and EL matches and they suffer the same problem. Lap times may be slightly down on EL times but you can't fault the effort of the lads and one of the attractions surely is looking for the next star in the making. Didn't we all used to do that when watching the old 2nd half events in days gone by?