British Speedway As A Brand....

[E I Addio 15,843]

Yep, the good old days - when being a speedway fan was a pleasure

Organised by the men like Greene, Ochiltree, etc etc, overseen by a proper Control Board and the ACU

And when the new breed of entrepreneurs went "black" common sense prevailed and the two sides came together, to form the British League - and what a joy it was

Big decisions were made then - they need to be made now, or else it's over

If you could turn the clock back 30 or 40 years you would find plenty of older fans in the crowd moaning because in their opinion it was better 30 or 40 years before that.

[orion 7,612]

Some more bad news today ...Nestle have officially announced that it will be slicing the Toffee Deluxe - a family favourite in the famous chocolate tin for 80 years - and replacing it with the new Honeycomb Crunch.

[The White Knight 9,039]

Some more bad news today ...Nestle have officially announced that it will be slicing the Toffee Deluxe - a family favourite in the famous chocolate tin for 80 years - and replacing it with the new Honeycomb Crunch.

Dreadful News that. :rolleyes:

[Vince 9,454]

If you could turn the clock back 30 or 40 years you would find plenty of older fans in the crowd moaning because in their opinion it was better 30 or 40 years before that.

 

The first meeting I can remember going to was, I think, in 1967.

 

Taken by my Grandfather and father I spent a lot of time hearing how the riders, tracks and bikes used to be so much better than this modern stuff. Those horrible 2v Jawa things were way too easy to ride unlike the good old JAP and real men had ridden Douglas DT's. Ask any fast old timer how often they used to do their JAP motors and a modern one looks a model of reliability in comparison.

 

I was guilty of much the same when I took my own kids, thinking that slick tracks took the skill out of riding and telling them how much better it was in my day, whenever that was! Some years later a (very slow and very erratic) few rides on a modern bike made me realise that the grip level on a slick track isn't very different to my old 2V on a deeper surface.

 

Now I've the utmost respect for modern riders, they ride very very hard the majority of the time and have to react so quickly to what the bike is doing. You see mostly processional racing with a couple of good races thrown in and the occasional great race that makes all the rest worthwhile, just like it always was. It's not the sports fault that we only remember the great races but it is it's biggest problem.

 

In the early 80's I worked for Jim Squibb who had a very long and quite successful Speedway career, I think from just after the war to the mid 70's but that's without looking it up. We spent hours and hours just chatting about Speedway and he said that the skill level of the riders was continually rising and that Penhall was amazing on a bike and could do things that the past greats could only have dreamed of. Personally I think you could take a top rider from any era and he would adapt to any other but that was Jim's opinion and he was in a position to know.

[longlivefrankie 458]

Going back is not the answer, but personally I team speedway needs to be just that . Teams used to a 7 or 8 riders who represented your team for season if not often seasons. It seems to me they are almost select sides now.

[SCB 0]

If you could turn the clock back 30 or 40 years you would find plenty of older fans in the crowd moaning because in their opinion it was better 30 or 40 years before that.

There is a scrap book (well many in fact) in my parent attic of many articles from the 50s where riders are bemoaning the state of tracks and promoters are moaning crowds are dropping and they're losing money.

 

Fast forward to 2016 and it's exactly the same except the comments are in the speedway star rather than in National new papers!

[CookieIpswich 249]

6 rider teams can work if you have a Northern and Southern split with 12 teams in each league with any left over making up a single national league.

 

The positive of the split is that WHEN there is a need for a guests its stipulated that you can only obtain a guest from the opposite division and to avoid someone potentially doubling up to cover a long term injury you stipulate that any one rider can only guest on 2-3 occasions for one club.

 

12 team leagues gives 22 league meetings, a regional cup can give consisting of 4 groups of 3 one home/away with the team top going into the semis etc gives a max 6 meetings, then a national cup featuring a combined north/south gives around 8+ meetings

 

For a rider wanting to earn money thats a potential 36 meetings.

 

I'd 100% make the british championship a 3 round series which would attract a good sponsor and can give fans more opportunity to watch

 

I'd scrap any other individual meetings or 4 team or best pairs

 

Winner of north/south to meet for british league title at the end of the season

[secretagentmole 2]

 

But it isn't loud, dirty or smelly any more is it? That's part of the problem in my opinion!

If you can't smell the methanol in the exhaust, get the spatter of shale from the tyres, hear the roar of the engines as they wait for the tapes then get out of your car and take the ear defenders off!

At my first meeting I could smell the exhausts, I got spattered, I was by the side of the gate in the stands. It was fantastic!

 

Second meeting I was holding a red flag on corner 4! The bikes are not that much louder inside the track!

 

Speedway needs it's own channel on one of the platforms, have a proper show like match of the day with people who can discuss with sense the results and meetings (and also laugh at some of the stupid things like a guy winning a race upside down), it could cover each league and development leagues so people could be kept abreast of the upcoming stars of tomorrow.

Perhaps have a few open mornings where people can come in, have the sport explained, meet riders and watch a display of riding, before say a half price ticket for an afternoon/evening race, so they can approach a meet with some knowledge not just watch 4 blokes apparently falling off motorbikes and only going left!

Edited September 24, 2016 by secretagentmole

[moxey63 1,785]

Speedway has always moaned about things. But remember, 40 years ago there were a lot more moaners as there were a lot more fans there to moan. Through the decades many have been lost through getting pee'd off. The 50s were supposedly bad, but now is far worst, and I am guessing British racing has never been as unpopular as it is now?

 

I always say, the sport gives you your best times in your first few years. Then the cracks begin...

6 rider teams can work if you have a Northern and Southern split with 12 teams in each league with any left over making up a single national league.

The positive of the split is that WHEN there is a need for a guests its stipulated that you can only obtain a guest from the opposite division and to avoid someone potentially doubling up to cover a long term injury you stipulate that any one rider can only guest on 2-3 occasions for one club.

12 team leagues gives 22 league meetings, a regional cup can give consisting of 4 groups of 3 one home/away with the team top going into the semis etc gives a max 6 meetings, then a national cup featuring a combined north/south gives around 8+ meetings

For a rider wanting to earn money thats a potential 36 meetings.

I'd 100% make the british championship a 3 round series which would attract a good sponsor and can give fans more opportunity to watch

I'd scrap any other individual meetings or 4 team or best pairs

Winner of north/south to meet for british league title at the end of the season

 

 

Hasn't all this been tried?

 

The problem with speedway, is that throughout its history it has messed about with things that didn't need touching. For starters, we have had six-rider teams and they lasted two years at most, 1997 and '98. There must have been a reason they didn't stick with them.

 

Regional competitions still exist, do they not. And we'll never sort out guest riders, who and who can't ride within a certain time frame.

 

The sport really needs to review everything over the next two/three years, not make a ground-breaking change in one winter and then need another one the next.

 

We on this forum have so many different ideas, but only the men with their money in will make the decisions that will take the sport forward. We, as fans, either stick with it or fade away. But speedway is in m ore of a state than the labour party right now.

 

Perhaps the best way, for the promoters, is to make the sport as simple as possible... not for the present fans, who know everything anyway, but for any newcomer that stumbles across a speedway track during a meeting, thinking it's some carboot sale. If they can stick 15 heats, make the meeting as simple so that a newcomer can grasp what's going on, because even long-standing supporters aren't really sure.

[CookieIpswich 249]

Whatever they do they need to stick to the same regs for a minimun 3 years

[New Science 1,059]

 

But it isn't loud, dirty or smelly any more is it? That's part of the problem in my opinion!

Spot on

[woofers 467]

"As A Brand....", the Poole v Wolverhampton semi shenanigans sum it up....

 

British Speedway needs independent administration. The promoters can't see the bigger picture and are only protecting their own, short term interests to the detriment of the sports future.

 

Perhaps the reason that the GP's are successful is that there is a hard set of rules and an independent set up?

[Davet 52]

If you can't smell the methanol in the exhaust, get the spatter of shale from the tyres, hear the roar of the engines as they wait for the tapes then get out of your car and take the ear defenders off!

At my first meeting I could smell the exhausts, I got spattered, I was by the side of the gate in the stands. It was fantastic!

 

Second meeting I was holding a red flag on corner 4! The bikes are not that much louder inside the track!

 

Speedway needs it's own channel on one of the platforms, have a proper show like match of the day with people who can discuss with sense the results and meetings (and also laugh at some of the stupid things like a guy winning a race upside down), it could cover each league and development leagues so people could be kept abreast of the upcoming stars of tomorrow.

Perhaps have a few open mornings where people can come in, have the sport explained, meet riders and watch a display of riding, before say a half price ticket for an afternoon/evening race, so they can approach a meet with some knowledge not just watch 4 blokes apparently falling off motorbikes and only going left!

If you think it's loud, dirty and smelly now, you clearly were not a fan in the '60s or '70s - that is before silencers were introduced and total loss oil systems meant each race was accompanied with the wonderful smell of burnt Castrol R. Yes, I know we can't go back to those times (before anybody tells me!) but I think you would be surprised as to how much the noise and the smell added to the experience at that time. Sanitisation of the sport has considerably reduced its appeal in my opinion.

[Rich 75]

If you think it's loud, dirty and smelly now, you clearly were not a fan in the '60s or '70s - that is before silencers were introduced and total loss oil systems meant each race was accompanied with the wonderful smell of burnt Castrol R.

The smell comes out of the exhaust, not from the total loss oil system. As most engines still use R based oil, although not necessarily Castrol, the smell is the same.

[Davet 52]

The smell comes out of the exhaust, not from the total loss oil system. As most engines still use R based oil, although not necessarily Castrol, the smell is the same.

Yes, of course it does. My apologies. However, the smell is nowhere near as prominent as it used to be. Perhaps it's down to closer engine tolerances or synthetic oils?