British Speedway to be reborn?

[FAST GATER 847]

11 minutes ago, HGould said:

may be you should go and read last weeks Speedway Star.

Nicholls / Harris and King review various Tracks, looks like they are going to do an A - Z.

All Class riders and all saying the same thing broadly.

There is a place for all types of track, the ones where you stick you backside on the back guard and throttle full on (often boring and processional in my opinion as there is only 1 line) and the ones that are far more technical and require throttle control and rider to turn the bike (can be equally boring as the riders who have the ability to do that are often head and shoulders above the rest and a dying breed)

Converse thinking is you can and do have great racing at big fast and technical tracks. I've seen great racing at most tracks and equally boring racing at those tracks, 

Generalisation is easy.

If every track was built like NSS which I think is a good track but over-rated wouldn't racing be boring in general as the vast difference in types and skills required would be nullified.

The greats could ride anything, from Crayford to Crewe, they never moaned and complained. Look at the 10 point average riders in those days, cream rose to the top, look now, there aren't any basically, as all much of a muchness.

We have a generation of riders (those that came after Nicholls / Harris and King who can ride anything) who only know one way to ride, very few have actually learned proper throttle control and the engines are revved to destruction.

De-tune, limit revs, bring onus back on to throttle control not throttle bashing and the sport would improve overnight.

I did Trials and Road Racing,  I learned how to ride fast and how to ride the bike properly. I didn't have the natural ability to excel at either but I'll tell you this, anyone can ride a bike flat out, takes a rider to learn throttle control!

Spot on excellent post we need riders to show more skill not speed .

[steve roberts 9,242]

1 minute ago, Grachan said:

Perfect.

They have an electronic one at Swindon. For a while it showed the match score, then it changed and they stopped showing the match score and went for riders in the heats instead. My guess is programme sales dropped.

Then they stopped using it completely.

I may be wrong and my memory playing tricks but I think that Oxford tried to give results on the totaliser (Grade Listed apparently) but didn't last very long...and I certainly didn't bother referring to it if it did.

[Grachan 7,314]

Just now, steve roberts said:

I may be wrong and my memory playing tricks but I think that Oxford tried to give results on the totaliser (Grade Listed apparently) but didn't last very long...and I certainly didn't bother referring to it if it did.

How did you know the score?

[Garry1603 353]

I think a scoreboard is a nice idea, but there are many other things that clubs need to spend their money on first.

[Stoke Potter 242]

3 minutes ago, FAST GATER said:

Spot on excellent post we need riders to show more skill not speed .

Unfortunately, it is people like you two that will see the sport dead.  You're both completely missing the point.

The NSS is not the best purely because it's bigger, it is about the combination of all the relevant dimensions that produce the best, most entertaining, Speedway spectacle.

I don't subscribe to the "throttle control" argument but even if I did it is irrelevant in terms of producing the most entertaining Speedway.

i could go on but it is pointless because you're not seeing the wood for the trees and persist in harking back to previous eras with rose tinted glasses.

[Grachan 7,314]

4 minutes ago, Garry1603 said:

I think a scoreboard is a nice idea, but there are many other things that clubs need to spend their money on first.

I think it needs to present itself as much as a team sport as it can. To many people it just looks like random people riding round a track.

[BWitcher 12,453]

2 minutes ago, Stoke Potter said:

Unfortunately, it is people like you two that will see the sport dead.  You're both completely missing the point.

The NSS is not the best purely because it's bigger, it is about the combination of all the relevant dimensions that produce the best, most entertaining, Speedway spectacle.

I don't subscribe to the "throttle control" argument but even if I did it is irrelevant in terms of producing the most entertaining Speedway.

i could go on but it is pointless because you're not seeing the wood for the trees and persist in harking back to previous eras with rose tinted glasses.

I must have missed the NSS packing out the crowds every week.

I'm not arguing against the racing there.. but the argument that great racing means great crowds is factually incorrect.

[Stoke Potter 242]

I agree that tracks aren't the magic key to fix everything but sorting them is one of the biggest single things you can do to save the sport and improve the entertainment.

If the NSS had been built 20 years ago I'd wager they would have retained more fans to the present day.

And if every track was like the NSS then the image of no racing/passing would not hold water.

[steve roberts 9,242]

54 minutes ago, Grachan said:

How did you know the score?

It was displayed with the usual PA announcement (I remember Coventry did the same) given out my Dave Hammond who was the best in the business in my view!

[Garry1603 353]

55 minutes ago, Grachan said:

I think it needs to present itself as much as a team sport as it can. To many people it just looks like random people riding round a track.

I agree wholeheartedly with that, for me team speedway is the best format of the sport. Having riders who stay with teams for 2/3 seasons would certainly help the fans identify with a team better (especially if the rider is relatively local)  and whatever can be done to foster friendly rivalry with local teams benefits everyone.

As an aside, I wonder if F1 fans generally follow a team or a driver? For example, do people change their 'team' allegiance if a driver moved to a rival?

 

[Crabba59 156]

57 minutes ago, Stoke Potter said:

I agree that tracks aren't the magic key to fix everything but sorting them is one of the biggest single things you can do to save the sport and improve the entertainment.

If the NSS had been built 20 years ago I'd wager they would have retained more fans to the present day.

And if every track was like the NSS then the image of no racing/passing would not hold water.

We all know the NNS is the best in the country but even there you don't see passing in every race. If you think back to the world cup a few years ago the race off on the Friday was boring racing with very little passing,  but you are right about shape and width.  

[barrybishop 896]

22 hours ago, jchapman said:

I never knew about this, what engines were these and how much do they cost?

This was the NICE 2v 500cc Challenge. 13 2v Jawa engines, untuned, standard, and sealed fitted in to the riders own rolling chassis. The riders drew a ballot for engines, had oil supplied, tyres supplied and fuel... so everyone was on an even keel for racing. Then it was down to setup and rider skill. The result was close racing, unexpected heat winners, elbows, breathtaking passes and an all round great night of entertainment.

 

[Theboss 727]

13 hours ago, RobMcCaffery said:

It works in Sweden but that is a different society and economy to ours. 

I think the Isle of Wight meeting mentioned by someone earlie=er is this one:

 

These bikes look good enough to me, they are smooth due to not being too highly tuned. If they are reliable and reduce the amount of crashes because they are not picking up mid corner then they could fit the bill.

Could stick to riders bringing their own bikes and engines or each club could provide the engines on the night which are drawn by ballot, riders only need to bring their frames and each club provides a practice session prior to the start of the meeting. For practice sessions riders would have their own stock engines.

Any ideas how much these engines are?

[Stoke Potter 242]

4 minutes ago, barrybishop said:

This was the NICE 2v 500cc Challenge. 13 2v Jawa engines, untuned, standard, and sealed fitted in to the riders own rolling chassis. The riders drew a ballot for engines, had oil supplied, tyres supplied and fuel... so everyone was on an even keel for racing. Then it was down to setup and rider skill. The result was close racing, unexpected heat winners, elbows, breathtaking passes and an all round great night of entertainment.

 

Incidentally Barry Bishop appears to have the space to modify his track to be like the NSS but would he do it..?

[barrybishop 896]

31 minutes ago, Stoke Potter said:

Incidentally Barry Bishop appears to have the space to modify his track to be like the NSS but would he do it..?

The resizing of our track is not really possible due to the many other users of the stadium.