martinmauger

I did say 'most' and not all riders enjoy Arlington either, but variety : spice of life and all that. If time & money were no object I'd love to visit every track in the UK, and in the world if my lottery numbers come up (fat chance), been to probably 70% or current circuits. Ticking off tracks is always interesting as with almost everything they are different to how they appear on TV. And obviously if Belle Vue did sign Woffinden it would be very interesting. To say the least.....

This ^^. It's why the Aces usually struggle to win trophies, most riders thought / think "oh boy we're at Belle Vue next week, brilliant", especially in the Hyde Rd days & now at the NSS....

I'd already seen Pt1 of the Chris Morton episode and viewed Part 2 last nite. 2 quick points Morton & Gordon did AMAZINGLY well to deliver the fantastic NNS, it must be gutting beyond belief how certain things panned out, blooming well done Mort & Gordon you should feel so proud . Also, I'm not in the last bit surprised it took 10 years (or whatever Chris said) to finalize the project. Nutshell: (without compromising myself) obtaining finance and securing a suitable site is almost the easy part of building a new speedway, even just 'a track in a field' facility, and there is nothing at all wrong with that, let alone a full-on stadium. Smaller nutshell: it would be (much) easier to take up the hurdles in the Olympics or a hoop-jumping event . Still, the NSS is here, still flipping brilliant and one day I promised to take my lazy carcass along to enjoy the experience myself. One day....

I agree with most of the above 2 posts. F1 used to have many or characters like Nigal Mansell love or hate him he was box office, similar with the late Ayrton Senna, like with the late Ivan Mauger people used to watch to see if he was beaten, and, like Ivan, he rarely was. Similar with Michael Scumacher. Now, in F1 there is Daniel Riccardo and that's about it, character-wise. I don't watch Moto-GP but am aware of Valentino Rossi and like the late Barry Sheene & his no.7, (heck we have lost so many motorsport greats) you see many bikes , cars, t-shirts etc carrying Rossi's no.46. We can discus all day the effect of TV on speedway, I won't ( can't be bothered TBH) but I'll give few interesting examples. More people used to be at least aware of speedway due to ITV's World OF Sport, folk would watch all day anyway and at 3.10pm speedway was be shown so they would see it. 1976 World Final, people said "wow wasn't that Peter Collins brilliant he just kept passing everybody". Yes. Yes, he was and he certainly did. 1977 WF, a wee youngter had the house to myself for once (yay!) and almost all of the heats were shown one Saturday on World Of Sport AND on BBC's Grandstand (I know !). Non fans told me how they saw "Ivan Mauger win in the pouring rain". 1978 WF, folk said "what a shame your Hull rider Ivan fell in his first race". 1979 WF, don't beleive it was shown on UK TV. 1980 WF, folk commented on Micheal Lee's win, an Englishman winning and another (Jessup) 2nd for change. 1981 Qualyfier at White City, Penhall v Carter pt1, "Penhall knocked him off !". 1981 WF, Wembley folk told me how exciting the meeting was & "that American guy won, he had some good races (well one) with Ole Olsen". Incedntally, thsi meeting was shown on ITV, literally a few hours after the actual meeting ended, whilst many fans were still travelling home, few had video recorders in those days I didn't get to see it on TV for months when a test match England v USAs at Poole was rained off. 1982 Qualyfier at White CIty, Penhall ran a last, with unfortunate wheelies thrown in, to help other Americans qualify for Los Angeles: "what were those Yanks playing at, fans threw bottles & cans at them onto the track ?!". 1982 WF, arguments on Penhall v Carter pt2 incedent, "he knocked him off again didn't he, but he won again". Hate saying it but Carter fell on his own, sad but true, but people still argue over it (and isn't it fun to do so?). Notice a pattern, by the way ? 1983 WF Norden Germany, few groups of heats, but not the entire meeting were shown, but spread throughout the day on BBC Grandstand, folk said to me "who is that guy who won, he just wiped the floor with everyone didn't he, but I've never heard of him ?". 'The Gundersen / Nielsen years' followed of course, great riders sure but not the characters, Mauger, Penhall, Carter, etc, were. In other words (finally): many of the characters / personalities have gone from the sport and you need to make the effort searching for speedway on TV channels to view it. So less viewing of the ridera & of the sport lead to less fans. Not a comprehensive analysis by any means but a few reasons....

Jumping in late (been a l-o-n-g week): I was at my mate's house (a HUGE F1 fan ) the other weekend and he was tearing his hair out over of the final F1GP controversy, I just laughed telling him this kind of thing has occured in speedway many times. Thing is F1 is pretty the pinacle of worldwide motorsport, pretty much ace-ing everything else, a TV executive once said 3 biggest sporting events on TV are: the Olympics, Football World Cup & F1. In F1 one or two teams dominate for a season or so, others catch up then another team usually dominates, rinse & repeat, has always been the way. One good idea is for standardised cars and drivers draw lots, or whatever, each race but standardised cars was tried a few years ago with A1GP, it didn't catch on. Other formulae, like F3, F2, Formula 3000, Formula Atlantic, Formula Ford, Indy Cars / Champ Cars, etc the actual cars don't look that different to F1 & the racing is arguably better - but they aren't F1. That said I just cannot abide BSB or MotoGP, a few laps and I switch channels - and I'm into bikes in general, but a lot folk I know are massively into road racing - and probably the team brand names: Ducati Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Yamaha, etc even more adn tell you who used what brand of tyres, etc. When I mention the riders queue up behind each other for lap after lap all on the same line awaiting a mistake or fall, they look at me like I have 2 heads. Obv road bike racing, like F1, is about the ideal racing line and 'chasing the dirt' doesn't happen, but I don't think a lot of modern race cicuits help the racing, many seem to be endless left, right, left, right and difficult for riders to get into a racing rythm. That said I love the Isle Of Man TT Races. That and speedway. Great riders of the past; Barry Briggs, the late Ivan Mauger, Peter Collins, Mike Lee, Bruce Penhall, the late Kenny Carter, etc were somewhat household names, at least some extent when the sport was regularly on ITV's World Of Sport, but these days sadly few non-fans have heard of Artem Laguta, let alone Tai Woffinden. Before this becomes a novel: even worse these days, many non-fans haven't heard of speedway.....

Locally there are often spates of pernsioners' bungelows' electricity being disconncted from the mains as lowlifes were stealing some of the actual mains cable form outside the building via the access panel. A policeman told me that just 2ft or so of this cable would realise £5 or so from a no 'questions asked scrap dealer'. Increased number of elcertic charge points will mean Christmas all year round for such folk, a point never mentioned when promoting EVs. Heard on local news a dozen or so bungalows were 'hit' again last night, electric cables were literally were ripped out so folk with no electricity likely until tomorrow morning, police attended but the lowlifes were naturally long gone, likely next-to-nothing would happen to them even if caught. So yeah it does happen but hopfully Northside will be ok from now, digits crossed....

Used to be a woman who complained about Hull in the Boulevard days, she lived about a mile away from the stadium & reckoned she got hit by stones when hanging out her washing. This also somehow happened when the Vikings were in fact riding away, perhaps they were at Birmingham ....

Good news indeed and a great early Christmas present for Brummies fans. Two threads open so.....................

Good news indeed and a great early Christmas present for Brummies fans. Two threads open so.....................

Do it RS, treat yourself, you won't regret it ! I have ridden with Wayne Carter, on Scunny's mini track and on a 500 on the main circuit (gulp !) and found him friendly, helpful, very knowledgable as you would expect and has a good sense of humour without being at all condescending or insulting, which helps if (when) progress doesn't go as planned or the ground keeps coming up to meet you (!). He has plenty of time for everyone and equally importantly he asks what riders are hoping to achieve; from just having fun, riding round the track without the ground hitting you (!), getting a full slide on (yay!) to taking on the likes of Laguta, Tai, Smazlik, etc. He then helps each rider make steady & safe progress at their own pace. Speaking as I find, I can highly reccomend a day 'skidding with Wayne' and promised to myself one day hope to do so again. One day....

I recall that meeting, not surprisingly, and was getting a lift there but then my folks wouldn't allow me to go. Missed meet woes apart, there was an article in the then very popular Motor Cycle Mechanics magazine, short interviews with Ivan, Don Godden, etc. I managed to lose the copy given to me by an older cousin; "you like speedway don't you, I think this is similar". Said piece was in addition to the annual bike mag tradition of 'let's look at speedway, it's different to what we normally discuss, it will shut up our resident speedway enthusiast and fill space while awaiting new bikes for testing'....

Meanwhile back in Hull; White City is under a block of flats, Hedon is just a field but in NIMBY land and earmarked for yet another energy park (there is already one such site in Hull), the Boulevard, actual stadium is now under an academy, Craven Park was squared off at turns 3 & 4 & the KCOM Stadium (Hull City footie & Hull FC rugby) has always been square, bit like a mini Cardiff. The only nearby stadium facility physically capable of staging speedway (yet has no chance) is the under-used (or so I'm told) Costello Athletics Stadium, so similar to IOW, but in addiction to being in NIMBY land housing is really close anyway. So no joy in Hull as yet, though as I mentioned previously there is plenty of brown and green field land.....

"Then again, some of the already congested areas where houses are sprouting like daffodills, have to be seen to be believed areas of "nice enough houses but I really wouldn't want to live there", turning many roads into car parks." I believe both the above to be arguments held by local Brandon, Coventry residents who are in favour of keeping the stadium. Makes you think....

In other words; sufficient stadia for another league. Mind, there is sufficient, empty land surrounding Hull for a further league, but that which doesn't fall into 'NIMBY' areas or concerns over wildlife, it all belongs to someone, who naturally plays the long game awaiting top-dollar, via housng development. Then again, some of the already congested areas where houses are sprouting like daffodills, have to be seen to be believed areas of "nice enough houses but I really wouldn't want to live there", turning many roads into car parks....

+ Hull White City Stadium + Hull Hedon Stadium (pronounced Heddon)....

That's the chappie, felt sorry for him because he was wandering around the pits with a smile on his face chatting happily with folk, yet don't think he got a ride....

NickiP often looks to me as if he's fighting the bike around the track "you WILL go sideways around here ! " and pulls on the bars a bit like steering a horse, where one puts slight pressure on the reins to have said nag (hopefully) turn. Weird equestrian analogies aside, NickiP is an all-action rider who I'd name in my team all day long. Doyle looks a bit tidier on the bike but hey, he makes it work....

There was one coloured rider, Cecil something orignated from Wimbledon I believe, & came up to Hull Craven Park for a 2nd half spin in around 2004 / 2005. He was suited & booted in leathers so ready for a skid but I don't think he actually made it on track due to bike issues....

No more modern era, mid-2000's, I'll say no more ....

I enjoyed the occasions when Floppy Norris, and also Steve Jonno Johnson, were in the comms box. Back on topic; I spoke to one promoter [names witheld to protect the innocent, the guilty and self from a poss lawsuit !] about his rider, now retired, who would often dive into to corners, badly impede his team-mate and turn a 'cert 5-1' into a 4-2 or a 3-3, usually followed by 'tween team mate exchange of views & arm-waving. Unsaid promoter told me the equally unsaid rider in question had tunnel vision and literally never saw anyone or anything outside of his immediate field of view. It was also pointed out to me that whenout on his own, leading or at the back, the rider never caused any problems - as there was no-one else around him. Prob just as well he is retired....

Good news inded !...

At Hull, Craven Park, the planning permsssion to run speedway was basically: meetings to be staged March til end of October, engines allowed to run 7pm-10pm curfew, on Wednesday nights apart from sometimes an afternoon press day, the odd Bank Holiday or other 'off-night' due to rain offs, fxture congestion, etc. Air horns were banned from mid-1995 or so, though folk I knew living nearby (opp main entrance, 2 streets to the right) told me they couldn't hear the speedway half the time. So no practices or training sessions were permitted (though 'a little bird' told me they sometimes DID occur on Tuesday nights !). The late Big Alan Grahame I recall had special dispensation for the stadium being available all day from 12 noon for practice as the likes of Frank Auffret & the late Tony Childs hadn't been on a bike for quite a while. Think Frank borrowed a modern lay-down for the day and the meeting, while Tony used his own older 4-valve JAWA upright, complete with a 'banana seat' & wore his circa 1970's Savoy Tyres leathes. So, yeah difficult running speedway in many stadia with limited track time, especially at CP where 1995-2003 ish rugby pitch corners needed to be lifted and replaced and also dog track sheeted.....

I too have ridden with Wayne Carter, on Scunny's mini track and the main circuit (gulp !) and found him friendly, helpful, very knowledgable as you would expect and has a good sense of humour without being at all condescending or insulting, which helps if (when) progress doesn't go as planned or the ground keeps coming up to meet you (!). He has plenty of time for everyone and equally importantly he asks what riders are hoping to achieve; from just having fun, riding round the track without the ground hitting you (!), getting a full slide on (yay!) to taking on the likes of Laguta, Tai, Smazlik, etc. He then helps each rider make steady & safe progress at their own pace. Speaking as I find, I can highly reccomend a day 'skidding with Wayne' and promised to myself one day hope to do so again. One day....

Yeah forgot Ellis, GB future looks a tad better then ....

Tis true but it's what happens when posting early in the a.m. when supposed to be working ....