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On 30/03/2018 at 9:03 AM, startline sid said:

All I can say is well done BMR - so many problems now for speedway - any club that owns its own stadium has to now find ways of keeping a steady income no stadium  can survive only being used 16 times in a year.  The tv money is now virtually non-existent so what do stadium owners do? I was watching practice at the track last Sunday and yes I did find it a bit odd watching but I moved to somewhere where I could see properly and after a few minutes I did not really notice the new track as I could see a full lap perfectly well.  The mx track hopefully will bring in extra income and keep speedway going because I can assure everyone that speedway still runs at a loss despite the larger crowd.  In a way the mx track has already served its purpose as a new sponsor has come along because of it.  I still think we have a very  good team (perhaps other riders could have been used and everyone always knows best about who should be riding for us) - I know many avenues were explored to put a team together (it is so easy to say we should have ???? in the team etc BUT QUITE RIGHTLY many of the reasons why certain riders are not here are not made public but it does not mean that they were not considered ).

I for one will be there supporting our 7 riders as long as speedway exists at Rye - I also guess the  track inspection by the BSPA was passed on Thursday as I am sure the website was updated after it. So BRING IT ON lets hope for a good successful and very safe season for all the riders of all the clubs.

Out of interest Sid, where did you move from and to to see properly?

Edited by JmeRay

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Now I have the answer to the the question "Why a KTM Dealereship" , because not only can we sell you an off road bike but provide somewhere you can ride it as well. Truly inspired thinking especially as the weather would need to be really dire to cause cancellation of a meeting and I would imagine Stadium Moto X is likely to stimulate more spectator interest than Speedway.

Back in the mid to late 60s we used to go to Rye House and watch Go Kart Racing which used to finish before the Speedway started at 4pm on Sundays so got to watch both 2 and 4 wheel sport in one day and I would imagine that the management are not blind to the potential crossover today either.

Regarding the Speedway, if I find my viewing experience is not to my liking I will go to Peterborough instead, despite the distance as having visited a few times as an away supporter of Rye House I found I preferred it as a venue.

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 You can't please everybody and everyone has there own views on mx track but im looking forward to maybe attending a mx event on a sat night

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Off topic a bit but I've just come across some racing on you tube where old cars are pulling old caravans around a track where the object of the race seemed to be to smash anything that gets in the way to bits. Strange thing was the stadium seemed to be packed

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11 hours ago, JmeRay said:

Out of interest Sid, where did you move from and to to see properly?

Various  places  - top of both bends ok also in the pits stand (old temp one) the replacement stand  including refs box was not completely built but there will be good viewing from there.  As I said after watching for a while I just got used to the viewing - we had similar viewing probs when air fences were first introduced but accept them as the norm now.

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Although a work in progress my understanding is start line seating as was going onto first and second bends replaced by new seating in its place on home straight .

Edited by Goldhawk
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7 hours ago, startline sid said:

Various  places  - top of both bends ok also in the pits stand (old temp one) the replacement stand  including refs box was not completely built but there will be good viewing from there.  As I said after watching for a while I just got used to the viewing - we had similar viewing probs when air fences were first introduced but accept them as the norm now.

 

7 hours ago, startline sid said:

Various  places  - top of both bends ok also in the pits stand (old temp one) the replacement stand  including refs box was not completely built but there will be good viewing from there.  As I said after watching for a while I just got used to the viewing - we had similar viewing probs when air fences were first introduced but accept them as the norm now.

Thanks Sid

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16 hours ago, barraider said:

 You can't please everybody and everyone has there own views on mx track but im looking forward to maybe attending a mx event on a sat night

Will Definitely give the MX a go, the last time I went to a live event it was called Scrambling, rediscovered live Grass Track last year after a 50 year gap and will be going again this year. Biggest problem I have in following all the disciplines of Motorsport that I enjoy apart from cost is my ability to drive/ride long distances, spectate at an event and drive/ride home again afterwards, on the same day.

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On 31/03/2018 at 11:25 PM, bruno said:

Off topic a bit but I've just come across some racing on you tube where old cars are pulling old caravans around a track where the object of the race seemed to be to smash anything that gets in the way to bits. Strange thing was the stadium seemed to be packed

I used to commentate on Banger Caravan racing back in the 1980s. It was a bit of fun, designed as an 'extra' to regular banger racing. There were various forms. One saw two teams , one car from each towing a caravan with about three cars defending the caravan and another three attacking the other. There was another where the aim was to drive a car up into the opponent's caravan at high speed, park in it for a few laps then reverse back out of it. 

I got into TV commentary to cover speedway but it was soon decided that we needed another sport and since we knew our way round many of the same stadia I found myself covering stock car racing, which to be honest I'd had little interest in before 1984. We mainly covered the serious BriSCA series with rather expensive if brutal cars, but often also covered the less formal, cheaper and fun formulae. 

It was frustrating to constantly visit speedway tracks to cover stox to find the crowds much higher than for our sport. Places like Coventry, Belle Vue, Long Eaton and Sheffield were close to capacity whenever we visited while former speedway tracks like Brafield, now called Northampton would also have very healthy gates.

Perhaps the general public relate more to cars than bikes, or perhaps people were entertained, saw action they liked and wanted more? I certainly remember how well organised most meetings were and how few delays there were, despite the carnage after races. They just got on with matters.

Whether you like or respect that sport or not perhaps instead of sneering at it all, like so many speedway fans seem to do, it might be an idea to learn from it? They give the public what it wants. We used to. What happened? 

I'd suggest we took our eye off the ball. We've been wasting years of time and effort fretting over team compositions, averages and starting regulations instead of just giving people the formula that works - good quality racing, meaningful teams that the public can identify with and a regular supply of entertaining meetings that make people find ways to watch, not, as seems to be the way now, to find reasons not to. 

Now, back to Rye House Rockets? ;)

 

 

 

 

Edited by RobMcCaffery
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6 minutes ago, RobMcCaffery said:

Perhaps the general public relate more to cars than bikes, or perhaps people were entertained, saw action they liked and wanted more?

Or perhaps it's just the fact that mostly these meetings are only once a month? :unsure:

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8 minutes ago, Gemini said:

Or perhaps it's just the fact that mostly these meetings are only once a month? :unsure:

That's the spirit.  Ignore the expert and assume that there is a trivial explanation as to why they draw better crowds than speedway.

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21 minutes ago, Gemini said:

Or perhaps it's just the fact that mostly these meetings are only once a month? :unsure:

Not really. Many tracks run at the lower levels weekly, and often twice-weekly during high summer. These tend to be the Spedeworth tracks in the south and other, lesser promoting groups. It's much less cohesive than speedway. 

The monthly meetings tend to be BriSCA events where there is a national travelling circus of drivers, backed up by local racers. Taking Coventry, a good 50% of drivers at Brandon on a Saturday would be seen at Northampton the next day and the fixtures were arranged so that there were few fixture clashes at F1 level, which Coventry mainly operated at. So to the fans the racing was 2-3 times a week, within a fairly tightly-spaced area with the northernmost track being in County Durham and the southernmost being Northampton. So, most supporters would have a wide choice of meetings and not just a monthly event at their local track. Fans would follow their heroes around the various tracks, just like we would follow our teams.

There is also a greater tradition of monthly racing at individual tracks, dating back over six decades. By contrast speedway's successful years were always based on regular weekly speedway. The professional promoters of the past knew this and made sure that the fixture gaps were kept well under control. Len Silver for example would even go so far at Hackney to arrange a top-class individual meeting, Superama, at Waterden Road when the Hawks were away to a Friday track like Wolverhampton, Newport or Glasgow. Continuity was the key. 'Make it a date, Friday at 8' was more than just a throwaway marketing line, nor was the Rayleigh equivalent of Saturday at 8. Sadly "Make it a date, Sunday at 4.30" wouldn't have quite sounded right at Rye House. 

For several peak months of the year we are now witnessing almost monthly speedway. It doesn't seem to be doing much to raise crowds does it? 

Returning to Rye House, it's been commented on how the track had good crowds early season last year but they tailed-off later. Perhaps this is because the early season saw regular Saturday night racing before the fragmented midweek schedule came along once the full SGP and Polish seasons became a more lucrative distraction for riders? I worry that a full season like that, of irregular Mondays and Wednesdays could be damaging for the track. We can only wait and see. I do hope it works but I can't help feeling that BMR's lack of understanding of speedway that has see the move to the top level could prove to be costly for a track with decades of weekend racing.

 

 

Edited by RobMcCaffery
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7 hours ago, RobMcCaffery said:

I used to commentate on Banger Caravan racing back in the 1980s. It was a bit of fun, designed as an 'extra' to regular banger racing. There were various forms. One saw two teams , one car from each towing a caravan with about three cars defending the caravan and another three attacking the other. There was another where the aim was to drive a car up into the opponent's caravan at high speed, park in it for a few laps then reverse back out of it. 

I got into TV commentary to cover speedway but it was soon decided that we needed another sport and since we knew our way round many of the same stadia I found myself covering stock car racing, which to be honest I'd had little interest in before 1984. We mainly covered the serious BriSCA series with rather expensive if brutal cars, but often also covered the less formal, cheaper and fun formulae. 

It was frustrating to constantly visit speedway tracks to cover stox to find the crowds much higher than for our sport. Places like Coventry, Belle Vue, Long Eaton and Sheffield were close to capacity whenever we visited while former speedway tracks like Brafield, now called Northampton would also have very healthy gates.

Perhaps the general public relate more to cars than bikes, or perhaps people were entertained, saw action they liked and wanted more? I certainly remember how well organised most meetings were and how few delays there were, despite the carnage after races. They just got on with matters.

Whether you like or respect that sport or not perhaps instead of sneering at it all, like so many speedway fans seem to do, it might be an idea to learn from it? They give the public what it wants. We used to. What happened? 

I'd suggest we took our eye off the ball. We've been wasting years of time and effort fretting over team compositions, averages and starting regulations instead of just giving people the formula that works - good quality racing, meaningful teams that the public can identify with and a regular supply of entertaining meetings that make people find ways to watch, not, as seems to be the way now, to find reasons not to. 

Now, back to Rye House Rockets? ;)

 

 

 

 

well said Rob I have no interest in stock cars etc but do admire the way their meetings are run (I have been a few times to take grandchildren) fully agree with you about the state of speedway - the fans have been saying the same thing for years but nobody listened but now I fear it is too late.  At Rye we do at least have a promotion who do listen and talk to the fans we just need a few more like them within the sport.

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