Is It Worth The Bother?

[alan_boon 1]

While EL, and even PL sides, field all-foreign teams, we need a CL/NL to give Brits a racing start.

[25yearfan 476]

The creation of the 3rd Division in 1994 and its continued existance ever since has been one of the best things to happen to British speedway ever and really the sport could of done with it being formed in the late 70's/early 80's!

 

The reasons it has been so beneficial to British speedway are -

 

Many British riders have had their first rides in League speedway in the 3rd Division.

 

It has produced more riders than the old junior Leagues that existed before 1994.

 

Theirs a number of riders who are not good enough for top 2 League speedway but can still produce good entertainment and want to ride. These riders have been able to ride League speedway through the 3rd Division.

 

Old speedway centres that struggled to afford top 2 League speedway like Mildenhall, Rye House, Stoke, Wimbledon, Scunthorpe, Plymouth, Berwick, Arena Essex, Weymouth, St Austell and possibly others I can't think of now were given a route back into speedway through the cheaper 3rd Division. Its likely that most of these tracks would of never reopened without the 3rd Division.

 

As well as old centres, new teams and others that have never staged League speedway like Buxton, Carmarthen, Somerset, Linlithgow, Sittingbourne, IOW, have all started in the 3rd Division.

 

Look at the current PL (+ the EL with Lakeside, formerly Arena Essex who rode in the 1996 3rd Division after leaving the top flight the previos year) and the line ups for the League in previous years and you'll see that many tracks and teams that either started in the 3rd Division or reopened in it. So therefore the continued strength of the PL owes a lot to the 3rd Division!

 

Being local to Mildenhall I know thats its probable the track would of never seen speedway again after shutting midway through the 1992 Division 2 season. Indeed the club made the misjudgement of moving back into the 2nd Division in 2006 and struggled at that level for 3 seasons before having to move down after a disasterous 2008 campaign.

 

Long live the 3rd Division and anyone that think its not worthwhile should look closely at the facts!

Edited February 13, 2011 by 25yearfan

[Bryn 413]

 

In my opinion there are literlly thousands of kids riding MX simply because it is easy to get into locally and it is easy to find practice tracks where you can get hours on a bike every week.

If Speedway tracks were to work together with Grasstrack clubs or even buy some posts and rope and run a couple of practice days a month it would be more attractive to youngsters. If you then offered the top four in each class a ride before or after Speedway meetings they would be involved with Speedway straight away.

It is always going to be difficult getting people away from MX because of the time they get on the bike in comparison. Without drving for more than an hour I could spend longer riding a MX bike this weekend than a young Speedway rider will all year.

That is the real reason riders from other countries are ahead of ours at similar ages imo. Time on the bike - it's more important than what bike they ride or how many races they take part in. Promoters then compare an 18 year old Dane or Aussie with the same age British lad when, in the main, the British lad needs to be 8 or 10 years older to have comparable experience.

A young CL standard rider practicing whenever he can over the winter and doing 25 meetings will be lucky to get 3 to 4 hours on track time a year. I saw Kristian Lund quoted on here the other day about development of riders. He once told me that he could practice all day, any day for about £8. He was helping train the Mavericks and pointed out that he would ride more some weeks at home than they would all year. If we can't make Speedway tracks available then fields have to be the next best option.

 

Sound words indeed Vince and down this way (Kent) alas, it appears that junior grasstrack is far less prevalent than years gone by when there were two excellent junior grasstrack clubs in operation.

Although I haven't had contact with either of them for some while I feel certain that both Phil and Neil will read and digest any logical and helpful suggestions anybody might make in addition, no doubt, to trying to bring any plans / ideas they may have had themselves to fruition if at all possible.

[Parsloes 1928 nearly 495]

I think it depends on its purpose as a league which I think is ambiguous so that it can't be measured.

I think they should be reviewing & analysing the system as it stands.

People point to those riders & the young ones are no better than average at the highest level.

Tai was good b4 he came over.

Team GB at the SWC are a joke. Ok on home soil & that's about it.

Harris has don't great & can be really proud of his achievements but hes never gna have a shot at the world title. I think he improved & got to the top level because of his own hard work & not because the 3rd tier developed him into a world class rider.

If we measure it on that basis I don't think it has done anything over the last 10 years.

If we look at the riders who have progressed out of the NL I think it has done something. Especially last year.

But I think they need to either set targets or start reviewing the nl system and what it does.

 

Hmm, I think I'm right in saying that Tai had not raced competitively at 500cc before jetting into Scunthorpe (there's not an expression much used!) - so I think that our third division here can indeed claim a huge role in his development..

And, er, no-one would claim that Bomber was made into "a world class rider" by the CL but it was his - and all of his Team GB's contemporaries' - route into the sport: which is surely what we're talking about in terms of what we require from this tier of British Speedway..

[HenryW 1,178]

Hmm, I think I'm right in saying that Tai had not raced competitively at 500cc before jetting into Scunthorpe (there's not an expression much used!) - so I think that our third division here can indeed claim a huge role in his development..

You might be right, but I am not entirely convinced that we can claim THAT big a role in his development.

 

As Mr Bagpuss rightly said earlier in this thread, it's about what is done before these guys hit the age of 15. If Tai jetted into Scunthorpe and sat on a 500cc bike without what he had been doing before then, he wouldn't have been anything like as good as he was, and more importantly if he had jetted in when he was 10 he would probably be racing BSB or MotoX now...

 

The current 3rd tier only has a "claim" on the development of a bunch of riders because they can race at age 15 at that level. Most of the guys mentioned could easily have stepped into the PL at 15, but they had to wait until they were 16 (why DO they have to wait until they are 16 to race PL, BTW?)

 

Having said that, I don't mean to denounce the value of the 3rd tier. Any chance for young riders to get track time is good, but I think it would be much better to focus on U15 development and work on providing training track time and competitive action for those that are currently too young to get any.

 

Just looking locally to me (Scotland) it's clear that despite the fact we haven't provided any riders at the top level in recent years, we had a lot more riders coming into the PL back in the days that we had good training facilities available to the kids up here (Linlithgow), but even that wasn't great. A competitive setup for kids, like so many of the other top speedway nations have, would surely provide much better riders. 15 is too late to catch the kids. You need to get them involved and give them opportunities to race competitively when they are still under 10.

[hooper 17]

just to add to this thread my son started grasstrack when he was 8yrs old he is 14 now and is looking to ride second halves and mascoting the belle vue aces again this year on a 500cc bike we started his grassrack career on a pw 80 then on to a mx65 machine then onto a 125 grasstrack bike then on to a 250cc 4 stroke grasstrack bike

then we went on to speedway we started him on a 160cc speedway bike up at scuthorpe on there mini track when he first started he could even turn the bike now after 3 yrs of my own money and commitment travellling up and down the roads of britain he will be hopefully competing in the under16 this year money permitting but i agree with some on here more needs to be done to help the british kids in this country not just with tracks but with the overall financing of this sport no ones gets any help at all with anything there attitude is if you wanna do it then go on were not bothered so come on people help the kids there your future..

[25yearfan 476]

Personally I believe it is equally or even more important that the NL produce riders of all standards for both the EL and PL. That imo is the way that the 3rd division can best benefit British Speedway.

Any GP riders should be viewed as a bonus, after all riders of that ability would probably make the grade anyway.

 

Very true Vince!

 

Theres many riders who drift out of the sport after growing frustrated with it who would of made good 1st or 2nd Division level League riders had the system been better and had more opportunities like riders do in Denmark, Sweden, Poland and Australia!

[CrystalCastles 292]

Hmm, I think I'm right in saying that Tai had not raced competitively at 500cc before jetting into Scunthorpe (there's not an expression much used!) - so I think that our third division here can indeed claim a huge role in his development..

And, er, no-one would claim that Bomber was made into "a world class rider" by the CL but it was his - and all of his Team GB's contemporaries' - route into the sport: which is surely what we're talking about in terms of what we require from this tier of British Speedway..

 

Fair points i do accept what you are saying about Tai, but as HenryW points out i dont think huge would be the right assessment of how big a role they played in his development. He had talent, natural ability, skills before he rode on a 500cc bike in competitive league speedway. In fact from what i remember of that he was miles better than anyone else.

 

No one claims that Bomber was made into a "world class rider",and yes it did give him his chance 100% agree.

 

People on various threads are passionate about the development of brits,pointing to the attitude that we are rubbish at the top level, theres not enough brits, we havent had a world champ since loram, brits should be guaranteed team places etc.

 

People want that too change which is great but the development of british talent should not just be about wether TEAM GB are succesful, & GB having a world champ.

 

I dont think the purpose of the NL is to develop the next world champ, or for Team GB to be succesful. The opening post on this thread asked the question whether its done anything good at the highest level i.e. GPS, world and wether its serving its purpose.

 

The purpose of the NL as you rightly say is about giving people an opportunity to race at a competitive level.

The opportunity for kids to start racing competitively and in a professional league.

 

I think any system does need to be reviewed and assessed, IMO. So that british speedway is progressive. I think british youngsters should have some input into a league that is about there development.

[CrystalCastles 292]

just to add to this thread my son started grasstrack when he was 8yrs old he is 14 now and is looking to ride second halves and mascoting the belle vue aces again this year on a 500cc bike we started his grassrack career on a pw 80 then on to a mx65 machine then onto a 125 grasstrack bike then on to a 250cc 4 stroke grasstrack bike

then we went on to speedway we started him on a 160cc speedway bike up at scuthorpe on there mini track when he first started he could even turn the bike now after 3 yrs of my own money and commitment travellling up and down the roads of britain he will be hopefully competing in the under16 this year money permitting but i agree with some on here more needs to be done to help the british kids in this country not just with tracks but with the overall financing of this sport no ones gets any help at all with anything there attitude is if you wanna do it then go on were not bothered so come on people help the kids there your future..

 

Good luck, i hope your son gets the chance to ride in the Under16s this year.

 

We as fans can see flaws in our system & more definitely needs to be done to help british kids, and there views need to be listened too.

[Parsloes 1928 nearly 495]

...If Tai jetted into Scunthorpe and sat on a 500cc bike without what he had been doing before then, he wouldn't have been anything like as good as he was, and more importantly if he had jetted in when he was 10 he would probably be racing BSB or MotoX now...

 

 

Not sure about that... There have been a number of high-profile youngsters in the past frew years giving up MotoX for Speedway; and one name I apologise for missing before when listing GB internationals who began in the CL, was a junior champion at Road Racing and at MotoX but gave both of those disciplines up for Speedway. Lewis Bridger of course.

[hooper 17]

Good luck, i hope your son gets the chance to ride in the Under16s this year.

 

We as fans can see flaws in our system & more definitely needs to be done to help british kids, and there views need to be listened too.

thank you lets hope someone is reading these threads and has the balls to do somthing constuctive for the kids of great britain