Scunthorpe Speedway's 74th Amateur Meeting - New Improved Format - Sat 17th November

[Scunny Stag 72]

Scunthorpe Speedway's 74th amateur meeting will take place on Saturday 17th November (11am first race).

 

Due to the success of our meetings and the large numbers we have been getting recently and the prospect of more junior riders we are going to effectively have two meetings. The first with the Open, Support and Youth 500 classes will start at 11am (signing on from 9.30am to 10.30am). Then hopefully no later, and ideally earlier than 2.30pm we will run a second meeting for the Youth 80, 125 and 250 classes plus the Novice Class. The split is a trial and is based on the type of track each class prefers.

 

 

There are classes for all standards from raw novice to Premier League reserve whilst there are four youth classes.

 

Whilst I expect the split meetings to be popular with the riders (, more riders can be accommodated, less time between rides and better track preparation) we desperately need people's help to pull this off. Quite simply we can't expect our limited number of volunteers to stand out on the centre green for six hours. We need people (riders, mechanics, friends and family members) to help out run the half of the meeting they aren't involved in. Quite simply we need flag marshalls who can wave a flag if the red light comes on and perhaps help at the starting tapes/pit gate. Hopefully each half meeting will only last two or three hours but there is no way we can attempt to pull this off without additional help.

 

Riders can book a place or ask further questions by e-mailing me (richard@scunthorpespeedway.com), contacting me on Facebook (facebook.com/rh1967), or texting/calling 07832-402167. If you call and I am unavailable (e.g. work) please leave a message and I will get back to you at the earliest opportunity.

 

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For anyone who isn't aware our meetings provide at least five programmed rides and everyone gets to ride in a final.

 

There are trophies for the top three in each class and naturally we have a paramedic, first aiders and ambulance in attendance. Hot drinks will be available and we have RM Race Spares (07403-334582) in attendance.

 

Riders do not need new silencers or mudguards and can ride on day licenses (with no additional charge).

 

Positions in all classes will be decided in the finals with every rider qualifying for one. THE WINNER OF EACH FINAL ADVANCES TO THE NEXT. (e.g. Winner of the 'E' Final advances to the 'D' Final etc. etc.).

 

The Open Class usually sees National League standard riders taking part along with those close to break into that league whilst the Novice Class includes riders from complete beginners to those who can usually get a full slide on. The Support Class is now seen as an intermediate class where riders can challenge themselves against better riders without making the full step up to the Open Class.

 

Summer Championship points are scored in the following manner: 16 points for 1st, 15 for 2nd etc down to 1 point for 16th (although that would be increased for all rounds if we had more than 16 riders for a class on one day). At the moment we are expecting five of the summer dates to be for the Summer Championship and riders will be able to drop one round for the championship so if all five rounds run then top four will count. If only four rounds run then it will be top three etc. etc. However, only riders who compete in the maximum number of rounds (four out of five or three out of four etc. will be eligible for championship trophies)

 

Helmet colours are required but can be borrowed (please give advance notice if possible) whilst dirt deflectors are compulsory on all speedway bikes except in the Novice and Youth 125s classes. If anyone has any questions then please just let me know.

 

Our popular Winter Series (which had all six meetings run on their original dates last winter) will run on the following dates:

 

2012

Saturday 17th November

Saturday 8th December

 

2013

Saturday 5th January

Saturday 26th January

Saturday 16th February

Saturday 16th March

[Mr. Clemens 646]

Hello Richard,

 

I will use this vehicle to offer you my congratulations on winning the league title. I have not said anything about it before, as usually when I do it tends to put 'the mocker's on things, so I thought I would wait for a positive result before mentioning the play offs. Sounds as if it was a good meeting and both teams rode well. So congratulations to both teams for making it the event it should be.

 

Now having said that, I want to get down to the really important issues involved with Scunthorpe speedway at the Eddie Wright Theatre of Dreams. Ever since this new thread appeared on the BSF I have been contemplating that phrase 'New Improved Format'. I have contemplated it from a number of points of view and finally come to the obvious and only conclusion to what it actually means. What the 'New Improved Format' actually means is this :-

Next time I come to the Eddie Wright Theatre of Dreams - the cafe will be open and I will be able to get myself a bleeding sausage sandwich and a cup of coffee!!!!!!

 

Once again Congratulations Richard and all those involved at Scunthorpe Speedway. King Kenny will be proud.

I still have the 'Order of Service' (program - if that's the right word). I was going to file it away with all the speedway memoribilia I have. I keep it in a drawer where all my current paperwork is. When I am leafing through it looking for something, there is his face looking at me. I say hello to him as I have done just now. I also said 'what do you think of that then mate'? His look said "Now for the Elite League Title, when we do it we will have the 'Full House'"

 

All being well, I will see you week on Saturday - take care!!!!

[Scunny Stag 72]

60 riders (24 of them in the youth classes) and up to 99 races in six hours. Fingers crossed the new improved format works Mr C

[Mr. Clemens 646]

Scunthorpe Speedway's 74th Saturday 17th November

 

The meeting that never was – or who’s been digging holes in my track??

 

The word was that it was on - but it wasn’t - but never mind eh!!!!

 

It’s always an adventure going to the Eddie Wright Theatre of Dreams. Twice, on the way down I almost found myself involved in 2 crashes on the motorway. First was when a transit van type almost chopped the front end off my car, on the M18, as they decided they didn’t want to be in the lane that led off down to the A1 turning. They wanted to be in the same lane I was, so they cut across the front of me, instead of pulling round behind me and overtaking.

 

Second was up off the slip road leading onto the M180, as you go round the roundabout to the right. The piece where the road is in two lanes put siphons into one lane and you turn left onto the M180 proper. The car from the left coming down M18 from the north decided to come up their slip road – straight across the roundabout without stopping, almost running into the car in front of me and my car too. I believe even now they pulled out without stopping because they thought they’d got the right of road. But they didn’t. But not to worry Sunny Scunny was only a few more miles away, I knew I would survive to wave a red flag another day.

 

I drove down under the triumphal arches that adorn the Eddie Wright Theatre of Dreams and there were muck heaps everywhere. There was half-a-dozen muck heaps on the left that filled the car park with mountains of soil it was like an Everest of muck. There was muck on the track too, piles of slimy mud everywhere you looked. What a mucky old place it was the Eddie Wright Theatre of Dreams. But not to worry eh!!! The sun was out the sky was blue, wouldn’t be long before there would be racing too, and little old me, with his flag of red, watching people, going round the bend.

 

But it was soon evident that racing wasn’t going to take place. There was something seriously wrong with the track. The track staff was doing their best to see what they could do about the problem facing them. People were thinking that it must have been heavy rainfall causing the problem, turned out that wasn’t the case. As far as I am aware it was because there were ruts – holes in the track that weren’t apparent to those concerned till the meeting was almost ready to start. Rider safety always being paramount there was no choice but to call off the meeting. Everything was sinking in a sea of mud.

 

But was it a wasted journey, no it wasn’t. I met old friends there, we chatted about this and that. No one I could see around me was really complaining about the lack of a meeting. People seemed to realize that something had gone wrong. There are always positives in these things. It’s a lesson learned that is embedded in the mind, that leads to the phrase ‘it won’t happen again’. It was something that everyone could have done without. The truth is though it won’t happen again unless something catastrophic happens that no one can for tell. There is that extra blessing too, there was plenty of muck there to fill in the holes. As the say ‘every cloud has a mucky lining’!!!!!

 

If nothing else, being at the Eddie Wright Theatre of Dreams did give me the chance to congratulate Richard face to face regarding the Premier League Championship win. This is a job well done by a man managing a team to victory, an important step forward and up the ladder for Richard. Extra special because he has had to follow in the footsteps of Kenny Smith, who was a charismatic character, none of us who knew him will ever forget.

 

Richard has charisma, not the type that Kenny was known for. Richard’s charisma is of the more understated variety. He is a man with a dynamic personality whose sole desire is to drive things forward and to get things done. The meeting today was intended to be another example of driving things forward. Some might thing that it all came to a juddering halt, perhaps it did, but sometimes coming to a halt can prevent a disaster occurring. It’s a lesson learned and I am more than certain it won’t happen again, because Richard is all about professionalism.

 

Kenny Smith has secured his place in speedway history. Richard Hollingsworth will secure his place too. Not because he won a league championship and perhaps more to come in the future. What Richard is about is building something that will last, building something permanent that will benefit riders and supporters alike for years to come. Winning that league championship was a quantum leap for Richard. I had no doubt, while I was looking at that celebration picture, on the front of the Speedway Star, that Richard while basking in a certain ‘glory of the moment’, was thinking to himself if I can be part of this achievement, then all the other possible achievements, I have in mind, can become realities too. I don’t doubt that Richard will keep on striving to achieve all that is possible. Today was one of those days, the day itself will soon be forgotten, but the lesson learned Richard will never forget.

Edited November 17, 2012 by Mr. Clemens

[Scunny Stag 72]

Thank you for your very kind words Mr C. There has been some lovely words of support on a difficult weekend and it is all very humbling. I really do appreciate them all and if I could have foreseen the problems and prevented everyone from travelling I would have. Sorry to everyone and I will do my best to repay the support I have been shown and do my best to live up to those that have been written above.

[Mr. Clemens 646]

You are held in great esteem by a lot of people RIchard. All of those words spoken in support of you are the truth of the matter. You might never know what people really think of you and what you do, if not for situations like this. For example, I come to Scunthorpe to help out at the meetings when I can. I have said before that sometimes I have to motivate myself to actually get in the car and drive down there. One of the main reasons I do that is because I think to myself Richard needs a bit of help with what he's doing. He needs that piece of help so that what he is doing can take place, in the proper manner it should. I am sure there are others who go there to help, with the same type of thought in mind. Thus are all the pieces of the jigsaw fitted together to create the circumstances that riders can hit the track and do their thing.

 

Onwards and upwards - as Saint Paul said - (among others) - shake the dust off your feet and don't look back

[boston five 16]

any one got the open class line up for saturday

[Scunny Stag 72]

The lineup is on Facebook as get very little response from this site. The Open Class lineup so far is:

David Holt

Oliver Greenwood

Andrew Blackburn

Danny Phillips

Shaun Tedham

Charlie Saunders

Emerson Jones

Arron Mogridge

Josh Bates

Liam Carr

Paul Cooper

Shane Waldron

[Scunny Stag 72]

Gutted to find tonight that yesterday's lovely track had more frost in it than we thought. With it still coming out this afternoon it means we will struggle to get the track fit for racing by tomorrow morning. A more realistic target is for practice on Sunday so that is the plan.

 

So in short I'm afraid we have cancelled tomorrow's amateur meeting. Very sorry about that but better this than find out tomorrow morning that we can't race on what we have.

 

Hopefully we'll see a few of the entrants at practice on Sunday.