U-21's At Rye House 17th May

[machinn 0]

Good meeting today. Joe was extremely unlucky as was Tai in his final race but the racing was good and there were numerous passes made. Bridger annoyed me after 'spitting the dummy out' but he is often prone to showing himself up. I did see Wim Kennis' van parked outside so surprised he was 'taken ill'. The young poles really impressed me especially Artur, he looks a good prospect. Generally a good meeting, shame about the delays as it took us an extra hour to get home but they couldn't be helped

[BossMan 8]

First and foremost, a big get well soon to Joe Haines.

 

Really enjoyed this meeting apart from some 8yo kid that kept asking me questions, I‘ll always help newcomers to speedway but please not during the racing.

 

Well done to all that qualified but I do have one question, why were the track staff putting extra shale down on Rob’s gate before the race off with Darcy?

 

[ash 22]

Well done to all that qualified but I do have one question, why were the track staff putting extra shale down on Rob’s gate before the race off with Darcy?

With the run-offs we were asked to change the gates to 3 and then 2 (instead of 4 equal gates) by putting shale onto the white lines to save confusion and not putting them into the ruts /grooves.

Although I can see how this may have looked like that but there is also the fact there wasnt much shale.

I'm not entirely sure the start marshall even knew which gate Rob was off anyway

Edited May 17, 2009 by ash

[mickthemuppet 976]

Congrats o Robert Mear on winning the meeting but very unlucky on Tai who looked the winner before his puncture. Wel done Kozza Smith on you comback trail . Lewis Bridger grow up because Kozza and Tai beat you in one race. Nothing dirty just good hard racing. Does it make any difference if you win the meeting or just qualify?

[BossMan 8]

With the run-offs we were asked to change the gates to 3 and then 2 (instead of 4 equal gates) by putting shale onto the white lines to save confusion and not putting them into the ruts /grooves.

Although I can see how this may have looked like that but there is also the fact there wasnt much shale.

I'm not entirely sure the start marshall even knew which gate Rob was off anyway

 

well answered - Thank you Ash

[KenB1 23]

As many have said, some superb racing, heat 8 will probably never be bettered, I have yet to check the tape to see exactly how many passes there was.

The crash with Joe was evil and I hope its not too long before we see him back on track, he's a lucky lad, his injuries could have been much worse.

With no less than 13 interviews and cameras in varied places around the arena, this is going to be a big edit.

Kozza was terrifc value for money as was Darcy.

Tai was his usual brilliant self and dispite being in obvious pain, was great and very unlucky not to win overall.

Lewis is just Lewis, and a winner, great to see him gain his place in the semi's after a difficult start.

The Mearcat was consistant and a good winner forthe home fans.

Special thanks to Bert Harkins who arranged with the officials for us to film from our usual spot.

All in all a great days speedway.

[Rico 210]

KenB1,

 

Can I ask what the various angles of your video suggests for the decision to exclude the Pole in heat 6 ? From where I was it looked like he got shunted entering the bend by Mear and I'm sure he wouldn't have intended to go through the fence at that speed. I'm guessing the ref reviewed something as the decision wasn't announced for a minute or so.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Rico

[Bryn 413]

A few thoughts from myself on two days of action at Rye and the first thing to do is to hope that the injuries sustained by Joe Haines turn out not to be too serious and whatever the scope of them, he's not kept out of action for too long - best wishes Joe. I'll come back to his crash in a while. Pity young Belgian Wim Dennis was forced to withdraw, "suffering from a virus" - his time will come in future no doubt.

 

The main thing is to immediately heartily congratulate Len Silver and the Rye House track crew on getting the track into the sort of shape it was after it being described to me as "an absolute ploughed field" upon their arrival at the stadium at some ungodly early hour this morning - only time I'VE seen 7am on a Sunday morning is when I've been feeling in my pockets for my front door key after a heavy night out! It was lashing down with rain (lashing down not drizzling!) as we emerged from the Dartford Tunnel in Essex and we all agreed it would probably be a wasted trip. Amazingly the rain stopped as we took the A10 exit from the motorway, the track was looking in pretty good shape when we got there although obviously not perfect, we were treated to some excellent racing at times.

 

Trust me the DVD will be worth getting just to watch an amazing heat 8 involving Tai Woffnden, Kozza Smith and Lewis Bridger time and time again (and before you ask Ken has NOT offered to buy me a pint to say that!) with every rider giving their all as they strived for points including the incredulous sight of Tai Woffinden completing the last lap and a half on a flat back tyre in the hope of gaining the point that would have put him in a run off for top spot!

 

Back to Joe Haines's crash, nasty as it was, it was just a case of him being in the wrong place at the wrong time unfortunately. The young 16 year old German, who most certainly is NOT 'a wobbler' as I've seen him described, was perhaps trying just that little too hard having made an excellent gate, pulled an almighty locker on the apex of the 3rd / 4th bend, did a 360 and Joe, who was commited to the outside line was collected by Kai Huckenbeck's bike - if he'd have been trying to cut back inside he wouldn't have been involved. Very bad luck indeed.

 

The criticism of Kozza Smith is TOTALLY unfair (especially from people NOT at the meeting) - his fall in heat 15 came about as a result of him giving his all trying to pass Artur Mroczka for second place and the two points that went with it. Bearing in mind his win in heat 18, and with the benefit of hindsight (wouldn't it be wonderful if we had it eh?), third place in that heat 15 WOULD have been enough to see him qualify! In the run off, he made a bad gate and simply had to go for it!

 

Just my views - ooh one last thing (And this is NO reflection whatsoever I must stress on today's doctor who obviously was top class especially when seeing to Joe and all the other fallers) but WHY do the FIM insist on a doctor being present at these meetings rather than a fully qualified paramedic? Said doctor COULD be a Gynaecologist for example couldn't he / she?

Edited May 17, 2009 by Bryn

[colincooke 0]

!st of all, hope all is well with Joe & the hand doesn't keep him on the sidelines too long.

 

Really glad to see this meeting considering all the rubbish weather we came through travelling down.

 

Tai, tbh honest was unlucky not to win this , but as the lad said himself"that's speedway".

Well done to "The Mearkat" & Darcy, this kid reallly is something else.

Hope all the other Brits can perform as well on foreign soil & give us some finalists.

 

Finally very happy to see our Ricky make the cut, an improved showing on last year at Rye so no complaints, nice one lad.

 

 

 

[Rico 210]

The criticism of Kozza Smith is TOTALLY unfair (especially from people NOT at the meeting)

No sign of criticism of Smith on here - I'm guessing you mean elsewhere.

 

As for the track, I joked with Bagpuss that surely Rye is the only track in the world that with rain in the air (it was spitting at the time) they still went out and watered it to keep the dust down.

 

Was shocked to see how dry the track was when I arrived - had seen a lot of rain on my journey over today. Well done on getting the meeting on with the track in a decent state after practice the day before.

 

I'm still wondering how Woffinden came from 3rd to 1st in heat 8 - it was amazing stuff.

 

Rico

[Bryn 413]

No sign of criticism of Smith on here - I'm guessing you mean elsewhere.

 

Sure do Rico - see the other thread appertaining to today's meeting headed "Joe Haines" under the Premier League section. Thankfully that particular thread appears to have got back to wishing young Joe well and let's hope for some encouraging news to be forthcoming in that direction in due course.

Edited May 17, 2009 by Bryn

[TMGracing 4]

Officially he was "ill", but I was told he was struggling badly with the track in practice and probably didn't fancy it ..... He couldn't have been any worse than Tim Gomez was today surely?

Don't you think the riders know themselves what a tough day they had riding.They don't need idiots like you slagging them off. Why don't you get your a** on a bike and lets see how you do. Just to be out there is a accomplishment.

[Blazeaway 1,501]

I thought it was a pretty decent meeting personally, the delays were annoying but avoidable if Len had shelled out for two ambulances.

 

The Smith Bridger incident happened right in front of me and Smith clearly turned left on Lewis on the straight, still justice was done his run off. Mear looked a tad fortunate in heat 6 but I didn't have the best view of that one. It says a lot for Ryes fence that the Pole was able to walk away from what looked a nasty crash. There are a few tracks where he wouldn't have.

 

How Wells qualified I'm not sure, he didn't seem to do much all day but ended up going through so fair play. Gomez was woeful and if he is representative of American talent coming through they are in wors e trouble than I thought. Sad for a once proud speedway nation.

 

The German looked great for 3 quarters of a lap until coming unstuck and Joe was very unfortunate to plough into him, not quite enough time to get the bike down. Far from being a wobbler he looked smooth in his remaining rides just needed a bit more speed, he was probably shaken up from his crash.

 

Well done to Robert Mear although he wouldn't have won it on any other track.

 

All in all an enjoyable day, and the fish and chips were the best they have been for some time!

[arnieg 3,651]

How Wells qualified I'm not sure, he didn't seem to do much all day but ended up going through so fair play. Gomez was woeful and if he is representative of American talent coming through they are in wors e trouble than I thought. Sad for a once proud speedway nation.

 

Wells qualified because he can ride a speedway bike (note he scored in all his races) and given that he is only 17 (Robert Mear 20, Kozza Smith 21) he did well.

 

As for Gomez at least he is prepared to travel 8,000 miles to represent his country and race against new opponents on new tracks in order to improve. How many British riders have competed in the European Under-19 championship in past years?

[em1500uk 190]

First off, well done to the Rye track staff for getting that meeting on yesterday. Just as we got on to the M11, it started absolutely chucking it down At that point we started wondering if the meeting was actually going to go ahead and thought about going back home, but thank god we didn't!

 

The racing, considering the heavy downpour they had that morning, was pretty good. Most unfortunate for Hainesy to end up getting injured Hope he makes a speedy recovery. That delayed the meeting somewhat between heats 3 and 4, but that couldn't be helped. Was impressed with the Poles, Pawel and Artur, in particular. Our lads Darcy and Kozza both performed well. Must say I thought Kozza rode well, considering the fact he's been out injured for the last 6-8 weeks or so. Alright, he fell in his 4th qualifying heat and then in the run off, but that was because he was giving it his all as he normally does. The incident after heat 8 when Bridger threw a paddy I thought was totally unecessary. Couldn't really see where Kozza had done anything wrong TBH. He was in front and held his position well (until Tai came out of nowhere!), so I think it was basically a hard but fair ride.

 

One last thing, I thought it was very sporting of Darcy to shake Rob Mear's hand before the run off for 1st place. Not something you see very often... Anyway, it was a good meeting and was well worth the risk of travelling down for Well done to Rob, Darcy and Tai on finishing 1st, 2nd and 3rd!

Edited May 18, 2009 by em1500uk