Lakeside v Redcar frid 20th April 8pm

[TonyE 822]

Not sure about 'all clear' but the stadium can be accessed from both ends! (It is just the bit of road joining those ends that remains closed).

[waco 1,026]

Thanks for all the invaluable information guys good to know its all clear now///

[waco 1,026]

A convincing win for the Hammers against a poor Redcar performance,, Score 56/34/... with the exception of Ben Barker who was the only one with any fight in him,,Our top five all rode to the highest level..There was still some good racing with our lads having to come from behind on occasions,,Nice gesture from our two maximum boys to let the two second strings Kyle Newman and Ben Morley who were both excellent take heat 15 ,,,decent crowd in,, and the track seemed to ride a bit better than last week....The only down point was poor Alfie Bowtell who failed to score ,,I am still not sure he is ready for this level ;time will tell,,.....Lets hope we can produce another fine performance at Ipswich tonight..... 

[marko 956]

Thoughts, crowd and atmosphere the best we have had so far this season, meeting started late again, two minute siren for heat one was at 20:07, not sure if Jon Cook was there tonight? Glenn from re-run done the rider introductions.

Racing was pretty decent to good on account of Redcar often making great starts and our riders having to come from the back, the outside line was certainly working better than it has been but something just isn’t quite right as even the likes of Nick are only just breaking the 60 second barrier and in previous seasons that would be considered slow, the track record is 56 point something.

The track became pretty worn as the meeting went on and after heat 12 some careless addition of water by the track man ruined it and the last couple of heats were raced on and ice rink with race time of 63/62 seconds, I think after heat 13 Nick and Richard probably had no intention of wanting to do heat 15.

Must also say despite the meeting flow kept well in check by the referee, far too much pandering at the end, by the time the riders came out for the winning lap of honour most had given up and left.

The show still needs to be slicker, the track not so much, I would give this a 7/10

[liam 376]

Think you summed it up pretty well Marko. Obviously the heat leaders were superb and Newman aswell but Morley has really impressed me so far he gets better all the time, he has always been superb on the white line but he made a great move in heat 8 I think flying round the outside on bends 3 and 4. The top five look superb with Zach aswell but Alfie is really struggling.

[Cliv Clav 60]

Good performance by the Hammers, with only Barker taking any points off our top 5!  An engine failure for Newman a fall for Zach whilst on a 5-1 stopped us hitting 60.  Alfie faced 2 international riders at reserve last night, as both Pijper and Busch have represented their respective countries, so wasn't really expected to beat anyone.  I expected more from Mikkel B Andersen as he has scored well at U21 level and the Danes usually go well at Arena.  Nice to see Ben and Newman get a heat 15 run-out.

I can understand the meeting starting a little late as some people were affected by the Police cordon on the A1306 following the murder along that road.

Edited April 21, 2018 by Cliv Clav

[TonyE 822]

Agree with previous comments:

 

- yes, there was an outside line and Nick Morris, in particular, seemed to love it.

- again, a late start but one of the junior races did do some serious, and time consuming, damage to the airfence

- our top five were very good

- the post Heat 12 grading/watering caused problems (bends 1 and 2), particularly in the next heat where riders seemed more concerned about getting round than racing plus, I believe, it was  the cause of Zach's mishap. 

- Redcar's 'strength in depth' team meant our reserves faced better calibre opposition

- Alfie, a 'low' after his heroics in the U21 but his time will come. With the team performing as it is, there will be little to no room for replacing him when the averages come out - so I say persevere and encourage.

[Bryce 349]

We seem to have a concesus of opinions from those who attended last night. This team is going to be very very hard to beat at the Arena, and will be a threat on the road too. The top six are as solid as any in the league. I hope that Alfie is given the time to find his feet as this could be a breakout season for him if he can make that step up from NL heat leader to CL reserve.

Presentation wise the meetings are running noticeably more quickly once they're going, but I agree that before and after the racing it's a bit haphazard still. The track has been pretty good for the main part, but was somewhat messed up by that last watering break last night.

All in all it's so much more encouraging a situation than we had 12 months ago.

[marko 956]

It was a struggle for Alfie but in the main he is on the pace, sometimes his downfall is that he gets carried away and tries harder than maybe his ability and leads to falls, What the boy really needs is a place in the NL, I find it so hard to believe no one wants to have him.

Nick, Richard, Adam and Kyle do look very sharp because the number of very competitive rides (often 5 or 6) they are getting with their other clubs.

[SFTGNigel 18]

I really missed the back straight enclosure on the stock car track as it’s the best place to watch the racing at Lakeside, though I’m told it was due to track access issues (from the police activity, one presumes) and will be back next meeting. 

Not much interesting racing for the neutral last night unfortunately. In the interviews between heats the Hammers management and riders made much of the difficulty predominately second tier riders are going to have with their trick track and it certainly seemed that way for Redcar with only Barker (who I wish had stayed at Rye House) making any inroads. 

Very good to see the meeting zip along so quickly (until the long gap prior to the final heat, at least) and a decemt crowd there. 

Edited April 21, 2018 by SFTGNigel

[waco 1,026]

Why is Lakeside constantly described as a trick track...It is a tight track you just need to be able to turn the bike hard and maintain drive this seems to be beyond some riders capability,,,That is not the fault of the track ,,all tracks are different and you have to be able to adapt .both riding wise and bike set up...

[foamfence 2,917]

2 minutes ago, waco said:

Why is Lakeside constantly described as a trick track...It is a tight track you just need to be able to turn the bike hard and maintain drive this seems to be beyond some riders capability,,,That is not the fault of the track ,,all tracks are different and you have to be able to adapt .both riding wise and bike set up...

There is also the question of set-up, that often contributes to the 'trick' description. It's also down to what you like, personally I like Belle Vue and not much else these days.

[waco 1,026]

And  Belle Vue requires a specially set up engine to be sucessfull  there ,,,But that is not a trick track either

[Gavan 5,050]

Nothing wrong with the Lakeside track, riders just need to learn to adapt better, not every track should be fast flat out racing.

Watching Mark Loram wind it on on the big Polish tracks and Peterborough and Exeter but then also proving to be a master of Eastbourne and Arena shows riders can adapt 

[foamfence 2,917]

19 minutes ago, waco said:

And  Belle Vue requires a specially set up engine to be sucessfull  there ,,,But that is not a trick track either

You see riders safely three and four abreast entering the bends at Belle Vue, you'll never see that at Arena.