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mickthemuppet

Wembley World Finals-Len Silver

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Out of interest, how did Wembley maintain their track when they were in league Speedway? Was it taken up each week between meetings? I remember going to watch Coventry there and the track bends were so flat that the only overtaking that could be achieved was by getting underneath an opponent, no chance of an outside pass. That was also an issue on several world finals as the lack of banking was a real problem and not conducive to racing, whereas the 1981 final track clearly had an outside line available.

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1 hour ago, coventry1963 said:

Out of interest, how did Wembley maintain their track when they were in league Speedway? Was it taken up each week between meetings? I remember going to watch Coventry there and the track bends were so flat that the only overtaking that could be achieved was by getting underneath an opponent, no chance of an outside pass. That was also an issue on several world finals as the lack of banking was a real problem and not conducive to racing, whereas the 1981 final track clearly had an outside line available.

It's hard to believe but there was a time when football was the poor relation at Wembley so there were only a handful of internationals and the FA Cup final staged there so after May the speedway could be left in situ - although the Lions had to race away in 1948 to accommodate the Olympics. During the 1966 football World Cup one game was played at White City because Wembley's owners weren't prepared to cancel the lucrative Saturday night greyhound meeting for a mere World Cup qualifier - how times have changed!

 

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I remember being at a Wembley v belle vue match held at Newport in 1970? Presumably because empire stadium unavailable 

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On ‎8‎.‎1‎.‎2018 at 10:36 AM, Richard Weston said:

Up to a point, Lord Copper*.

However, speedway could learn a few tricks from F1 at Silverstone. Tickets are eye-wateringly expensive, car park £50+ but still 120,000 go.

 

Is that 120k spread over the weekend, or are there 120k people when the green lights go out on sunday afternoon?

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120K + is just the Sunday. 

Can add tens of thousands to that for all 3 days.

BTW, races start when the red lights go out.

Edit:

Just seen the attendance at Silverstone over the 3 days in July 2017 was 344,500.

 

Edited by Richard Weston

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On ‎08‎/‎01‎/‎2018 at 8:32 PM, longlivefrankie said:

I remember being at a Wembley v belle vue match held at Newport in 1970? Presumably because empire stadium unavailable 

That was the 1971 season when the Lions raced at Newport for a meeting because their season didn't start at home until June (if I remember right) and there was a problem slotting them in the fixtures . I always thought it was a strange choice of track to race the fixture on, thought they would have gone for one on the London tracks at the time so more home fans would have gone.    ........ Also A young brilliant swede by the name of Tommy Jansson rode for Wembley and scored 1point 

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On 06/01/2018 at 6:19 PM, Sidney the robin said:

 

Did you go Iris 1972/75/78/ 81 ????

I did sid, I wanted to go with my dad in 69, but he said I was too young. The world finals needed to be shared around the world, to develop the sport globally.

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It seems to me to be the height of arrogance to say that the WORLD championship should be held at Wembley every year. It would be bad enough if Great Britain was the leading speedway nation as it was back in the 50s, but with the rise of Sweden, Denmark and Poland, why should GB have any rights to stage the World Final at all let alone every year?

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On 08/01/2018 at 7:18 PM, coventry1963 said:

Out of interest, how did Wembley maintain their track when they were in league Speedway? Was it taken up each week between meetings? I remember going to watch Coventry there and the track bends were so flat that the only overtaking that could be achieved was by getting underneath an opponent, no chance of an outside pass. That was also an issue on several world finals as the lack of banking was a real problem and not conducive to racing, whereas the 1981 final track clearly had an outside line available.

In the early 1970's there were very few football matches played at Wembley after the FA Cup Final. The charity shield was not a regular Wembley event when the lions rode there. The league matches in the 70's were not the best racing wise, but the sense of occasion seemed to compensate for that.

 

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The Grand Prix series is best for the sport. The World Champion should be the rider who is consistently the best across the season, there shouldn't be a fluke champion who has a good night.

The sport in this country needs a huge shot in the arm if we are ever to see a GP meeting held at Wembley again as there simply isn't the interest at the moment to make it a viable prospect (without going into the logistics, benefits of Cardiff due to it having a roof etc). Downward slopes can be stopped if caught early, something that happened in 1981 isn't the catalyst for the place British Speedway is in now however.

 

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On 1/8/2018 at 8:19 PM, George Dodds said:

During the 1966 football World Cup one game was played at White City because Wembley's owners weren't prepared to cancel the lucrative Saturday night greyhound meeting for a mere World Cup qualifier - how times have changed!

 

The 1966 World Cup match held at White City was actually on a Friday (15th July) because Friday was a regular Greyhound evening at Wembley. The next evening (Saturday 16th July) England played at Wembley.

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