The Future Of British Riders

[iris123 20,984]

in denmark local councils are probably not as difficult to work with as they are here ,tell them you want a football facility thats different though

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Maybe.All i am saying is have a chat with the guy and see if there is anything of interest in what he says

[speedibee 3,091]

Maybe.All i am saying is have a chat with the guy and see if there is anything of interest in what he says

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talk to the guy of course but what may be of help in denmark might not be so useful here . you must know how blinkered our councils are if it's not concerning football. good luck to the guy talk to absolutely any body if it will help to find another chris harris eh!!

[Vince 9,458]

I don't think it is quite as simple as some of you seem to believe. For sure Motocross tracks are run in a farmers field but they are temporary so don't need planning permission if the site is only used a few times a year. I don't know what the current rate is but about 5 years ago it was around £500 for the day. As soon as you bring shale in you will need to get planning permission - you can expect that to take over a year and cost a few quid as well. Then in order to comply with the insurance conditions you will need a safety fence that complies with the regulations - another fair chunk of cash. Don't forget you will then need first aid cover at every training day and there will be lots more conditions laid down by the insurers. Insurance can be a major issue with new ventures expected to lay out the full years premium in advance.

Motocross practice tracks find it worthwhile doing all this because a decent track will get 50 people on a bad day and maybe 300 on a good one. I know of a Speedway training day recently that had less than a half dozen riders and 50 would be a fantastic day.

I think the only practical way would be to try and get one track each in North, South, East and West if possible that has suitable planning permission in place and find a way to finance a practice track within each place that could be open two or three days a week.

Failing that another option might be to push Grasstrack as training for Speedway as you could then run the temporary tracks in farmers fields with a lot less outlay. You would still be looking at several thousands of pounds investment though.

[771neil 31]

Thanks for the replys they all have good points and if any people out there have and can pass on names numbers e mails of people who can help it would be a help. I don t want to go down the grass route and unfortunatly i don t have pots of cash sponsoring my lad takes up most of my money.But the idea of tracks around the country sounds good will start looking into that one.

[Sabres 0]

A long shot here. Some time ago I saw somewhere (it may have been here on the Forum) pictures of the derelict track at Berrington Lough (Berwick). Who owns that land, would it be possible to have a very basic facility there, as I recall, it appeared miles from anywhere. The base is obviously still there. A couple of working weekends may be able to give it some sort of usefulness in the training of youngsters.

Are there any derelict running tracks?

How about former airfields, is there a corner of the site which could be put to good use? If there was a half decent runway it could even be used to give basic training for conventional motorcycling prior to using the roads.

Any cash return on unused land may be looked on favourably by the landowner if a sensible proposition was prepared.

Perhaps speedway should put the case to the relevant authorities about giving a facility for younsters, to take them off the street. Being trained properly in any sporting discipline is far better than leaving them to their own devices, is there a council out there who would be prepared to listen to a well prepared and structured proposition? I am sure not all councils are totally anti motorcycling, especially if responsible training and education was involved.

 

Sabres

[binthere 1]

You should talk to Iris' Peter S. What is there to lose?

 

Ignore all the pessimism about local authorities in the U.K. being unapproachable in comparison to their counterparts in Denmark.

If you do not try then you will never know.

[mick cast 0]

Some tracks have no option for training, and quite often have only time to prepare a track just before a meeting . then shut down early, in case they lose there license.

There are training tracks out there, Iwade(sittingbourne) and Eastbourne have there small track, Lots of good riders have come from there, Ed Kennett and Louis Bridger being only the latest to emerge from there.

To me talent will come through, no matter how easy or how much money or resources is thrown at it.

Tennis gets millions from the Wimbledon championship profits, and the FA put millions into there academy, and the lottery gives loads of dosh to athletes.

I dont see any heroes or winners on a regular basis coming through

Yes you will get the occasional winner come out of the pack, Henman, Murray in tennis, but they would have come through anyway.

I dont think I know any Footballers who came through the Academy, Oh maybe Beckham?

Don't get me wrong I think speedway should help youngsters to get started in the sport,but I don't feel that you can buy talent, after all they can train monkeys to do tricks.

World beaters will emerge and succeed despite formal help, and maybe if given to much help they could be made worse.

[Trackman 3]

Any UK rider wanting to up their performance, has always spent winter in OZ.

Regards.

PS.

Edited July 8, 2007 by Trackman

[dingdong 0]

ive been trying to get help for someone to get into speedway as you may know but the only close tracxks are eastbourne and sittingbourne and there an hours journey in the car further more i dont currently drive so it would be hard to get there.

 

actually does anyone know any public transport from hertfordshire to sittingbourne or eastbourne.

 

thanks

[Lakeside Shrimper 0]

It should be noted aswell that if the speedway club in question owned their own facility, or the freeholder were keen on the idea, then creating a training track next to the existing facility could generate much needed supplementary income for said club.

[Brian Hamilton 1]

I really do think that we need a bit of 'protectionism' in our sport if we wish to start producing a future British World Champion. We can see it in every meeting these days in the UK, hiow many British riders are in a team? Hardly any.

 

I would like to see every team, whether Elite or Premier, having a minimum of 3 Brits, it is the only way to encourage and groom our own into future Champions!

 

It also will mean that there will be plenty of top riders to share around the Clubs.

 

Brian

[MARK246 243]

I would like to see every team, whether Elite or Premier, having a minimum of 3 Brits, it is the only way to encourage and groom our own into future Champions!

 

 

 

Brian

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

This problem was faced in the 70's, British speedway had a season without foreign riders. It didn't IMO, alter the quality of the racing, but there was a strong 2nd division with British and commonwealth riders who filled the gaps in teams.this is no longer the case as all teams are now dependant on foreign riders.(catch 22)

Because of ECU regulations it would be difficult to enforce a limit of riders as they will complain about restricted practises. The other problem will be promoters saying one thing doing another,they all want to win.It would need someone with real control to make it work (BSPA IMO not)

The best way is to encourage promoters to run junior teams,run in the interval, so the assets they gain remain with the promotion.If you don't produce your own you buy others.When there is a larger base of riders to select from then you can reduce the oversea's riders.

IMO there are not enough British riders to remove anyone from the league setup without effectingl the quality,but promoters must be encouraged to train prospects as none will do so on their own.

[scribbler 213]

A long shot here. 

Perhaps speedway should put the case to the relevant authorities about giving a facility for younsters, to take them off the street. Being trained properly in any sporting discipline is far better than leaving them to their own devices, is there a council out there who would be prepared to listen to a well prepared and structured proposition? I am sure not all councils are totally anti motorcycling, especially if responsible training and education was involved.

 

Sabres

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

This has happened in Scunthorpe

[Grachan 7,362]

This problem was faced in the 70's, British speedway had a season without foreign riders.

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Unless this happened before I started going, I can only assume that you mean 1974 here, in which case there wasn't a ban on foreign riders competing in Britain.

 

It was a ban on commuting Swedes - ie Swedish riders who were choosing to compete in Sweden as well at the cost of their British clubs. Even then there were still some Swedes, such as Soren Sjosten, who still rode in the British League.

 

There were still plenty of foreign riders in the British League that season (Dag Lovaas, Ole Olsen and Ed Stangeland come immediately to mind), but there was also a much higher standard of British rider around at the time and a lot more British riders in the sides.

[The Know 221]

The training on offer in this country is terrible. I recommend all non english riders be banned from the uk for two years and compulsery training days at all british tracks.