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4thbender

Tractor Guys

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Sheffield seems to have had more than its fair share of track maintenance problems this season, but can any team claim to have a more annoying tractor guy than Sheffield? I've just been to watch the Championship Riders Final (or whatever they call it now) and clearly the tractor guy has formed the opinion that we all paid our money at the turnstile in order to watch him do his stuff. The regulation grading after every four heats seems to have been cut down to every two, and the process has become a work of art in itself. He does four laps in an anti-clockwise direction followed by four clockwise and then a little encore with the water bowser.

He even managed to hold up the start of heat 14 by abandoning his great big grading-scraping-thingy in the middle of the back straight, which had to be dragged away by four burly track staff. Had the referee not spotted it and halted proceedings it would have been like one of those stop-sticks the police use to deflate the tyres of toe-rag car thieves!  

Without a doubt the tractor guy added an hour to my grand-daughter's bedtime (she wasn't pleased either because the event finished so late that Norwood Chippy was closed and she had to forego her chip supper). 

Of the 3 hour duration of the event, 23 minutes was actual racing and 2 hours 37 minutes was tractor demonstrations. We are not amused.

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Bring back Graham Trollope

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I think track curation is a dying art. These old guys are retiring or popping their clogs, like a lot of fans.

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It's another nail in the speedway coffin .Its the same every week and just winds people up.Apparently yesterday's hold ups where down to mr Cook who allegedly went round the other riders trying to get the meeting stopped because of track conditions.The same mr Cook who had a bad day with his machinery and hardly ever breaks down in other meetings.Very odd.I feel sorry for all the Glasgow fans who turned up to support him and paid to watch him.

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I liked the tractor guy at Scunthorpe on Friday evening... we didn't see him until after heat 10... and then never saw him again. There were zero track rakers and the track was fine all night

Edited by iainb
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If a track has dirt on it then the tractors are needed to keep it race-able with todays modern bikes. The slicker the track to start with then the less work needed. At Redcar we use 2 tractors along with a water bowser and because this work gets done every approx 4 heats the track at the end is still in great condition.

If you think Speedway is bad have you ever been to Ice Speedway ? After every 4 heats its about a 20 minute delay for grading and smoothing of the surface. Normally in about -10 degrees.

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6 hours ago, Charlieboy said:

Apparently yesterday's hold ups where down to mr Cook who allegedly went round the other riders trying to get the meeting stopped because of track conditions.

Not surprised at that piece of news.

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7 hours ago, Charlieboy said:

It's another nail in the speedway coffin .Its the same every week and just winds people up.Apparently yesterday's hold ups where down to mr Cook who allegedly went round the other riders trying to get the meeting stopped because of track conditions.The same mr Cook who had a bad day with his machinery and hardly ever breaks down in other meetings.Very odd.I feel sorry for all the Glasgow fans who turned up to support him and paid to watch him.

... and yet back in the "golden" days the tractors came out at the end of every race and did a couple of laps. Meetings dragged on for two hours - only 13 heats in those days too - but everything was sunshine and lollipops. Admittedly at most tracks the music being played today is the same as we listened to as the tractors tootled round in the 1970s 

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22 minutes ago, George Dodds said:

... and yet back in the "golden" days the tractors came out at the end of every race and did a couple of laps. Meetings dragged on for two hours - only 13 heats in those days too - but everything was sunshine and lollipops. Admittedly at most tracks the music being played today is the same as we listened to as the tractors tootled round in the 1970s 

Times have changed though... we live in an instant society these days, multiple forms of entertainment at your fingertips, food and shopping delivered to your door. I don't know where you were getting your 2 hours for 13 races from, at Coventry I seem to remember being away regularly at 8:45 - 9:00 with a 7:30 start

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8 minutes ago, iainb said:

Times have changed though... we live in an instant society these days, multiple forms of entertainment at your fingertips, food and shopping delivered to your door. I don't know where you were getting your 2 hours for 13 races from, at Coventry I seem to remember being away regularly at 8:45 - 9:00 with a 7:30 start

Sheffield - started 7.30pm and usually bombing across the platforms to get the last train back to Donny at 10.18 :)

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1 hour ago, George Dodds said:

Sheffield - started 7.30pm and usually bombing across the platforms to get the last train back to Donny at 10.18 :)

But that's because the boozers were shutting at 10pm!!

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3 hours ago, George Dodds said:

... and yet back in the "golden" days the tractors came out at the end of every race and did a couple of laps. Meetings dragged on for two hours - only 13 heats in those days too - but everything was sunshine and lollipops. Admittedly at most tracks the music being played today is the same as we listened to as the tractors tootled round in the 1970s 

The entertainment on the track was worth the wait in these “golden” days.That is the difference.IMO.

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1 hour ago, Fromafar said:

The entertainment on the track was worth the wait in these “golden” days.That is the difference.IMO.

Many tracks no longer fit with modern engines. Look at what is served up at some tracks that were superb even less than 10 years ago. Whilst its not the only reason for the lack of entertainment, team owners need to adapt their product (track shape/width etc) to suit the modern era. Very few have or will bother to do so.

Entertainment IMO is about passing not necessarily speed and the ridiculous gulf between abilities at the top and bottom of the riders averages wont achieve that. Nor will poorly prepared tracks.

If last night the riders were on £250 for the meeting that is likely to be around a quarter of what most of the top enders will take home. I'm not surprised they don't take it seriously or put themselves out. There is no prestige in these events and wont be again unless the competitors are adequately rewarded for taking part. Speedway doesn't even give out medals to the league winners far less reward the riders and their teams for being better than the rest over a season. The whole ethos up is fundamentally flawed but we already know that. Unfortunately we also accept its not going to change.

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Ez was the archetypal track curator at Somerset. He genuinely cared about the masterpiece he had prepared every Friday night. You’d see him stood away from everyone during the meeting, gazing from his elevated position in the pits, alone with his thoughts, always looking like the whole world was on his shoulders. 

Inevitably, his track produced brilliant racing, but also inevitably, he’d have several disagreements with riders during the meeting. Normally home riders. 

Never one to communicate particularly well with those riders, Ez, would seek the quiet of his little place away from everyone until the meeting had finished. He’d then be in his element, returning to the track with his tractor, carrying out numerous circuits of the track, always looking over his shoulder, always looking concerned, long after the supporters had headed to the bar, and riders to the motorway and their next meeting. 

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