Leicester V Eastbourne 14 July

[Skodaman 192]

Watched the match recently after being away. And read through the comments made on here.

One or two posts have mentioned track prep.

OK, track shape is the main underyling factor, but that's also a fixed factor while the current promoter is in control and I think the overwhelming view has been well and truly made.

I've got a theory about this match!

1. Sky were cacking their pants because they knew, in "normal" circumstances, the entertainment was going to be poor. Knew they had to cover Leicester at some point, but how were they going to handle it?

2. Choose a date where the meeting is "buried" among others. In this case, just after Somerset pairs and British GP, even a Swedish match the next day.

3. Ensure the track is prepared in a way that increases the chances of incidents, to compensate for the low entertainment likely otherwise.

 

My immediate thought, before the match started, was that more material seemed to have been put down than is usual at Leicester, especially from mid-track outwards. This was kind of confirmed by the comments of young Mr Louis, before the start.

 

I can recall past comments on this forum from Glyn Taylor on the subject of how much depth the BP track can safely have (taking into account the dimensions/speeds), and from those posts it's clear there's a fine line between good (safe) and not good (not so safe). I think he's said that beyond a certain depth of material, riders struggle to turn their machines - and i suppose that extends to more chance of two-wheeling, pulling lockers, hitting the deck.

 

I'm not completely sure about this, but when matches are televised by Sky, I think that track prep is, to some extent, taken away from the home club? If anybody has more definite info, please comment!

This match certainly had quite a lot of incidents caused by riders getting into trouble, and it was due to the surface.

When Iversen set his track records a few weeks ago, he was riding on a billiards table, compared to the track for this match.

 

After Michelsen's accident, I noticed the tractor was out, this time pulling the row of tyres - which i think is normally used to pack the material down. After this, i did think the track was easier to rider, and riders had more confidence to go a bit wider and enter the bends with more speed.

Could it be that Michelsen's accident was the "final straw" for the riders, who acted to get the material packed down and therefore make the track safe to ride.

 

In my view, the track in heats 1-10 was possibly unsafe/dangerous. Is an increased possibility of serious injury something that Sky (and speedway promoters, BSPA, and their customers) are prepared to accept, in order to satisfy commercial needs? On the evidence of this match, and the notorious Belle Vue v Poole match in 2013, it looks that way to me.

 

Or am i talking a load of cr#p??

I think that a lot of what you say is basically correct. I have posted my comments on this thread. Glyn was using the blade and Tyres from heat four but Sky would not let him do the outside of the track becoause they wanted to crack on with the meeting. After the Ht 10 incident he had time to do the whole width of the track and, as you say, the track wsas better.