Pride Of The Midlands 21 July

[wandersome 281]

I went to the Flat track meeting which I enjoyed except for the obligatory track grade after each two races. During one of these breaks I did a rough count. There were only a few people in the stands and the other parts of the stadium seemed very sparsely populated but I counted between 220 and 250 people. Someone said, I think, there was only about 500 for the Somerset match and the stadium was quite well populated with the stands almost full. Numbers can be deceiving in this or any other stadium.

 

Incidently, There was more passing in the Flat track meeting than we have seen in the speedway all season.

 

I counted 290 adults as i walked all the way around from bend 2 to bend 1 and then had a skim over both stands and there were less than 100 in each. I guess the problem with these individulas are they are high risk to pay out large amounts of money to entice 'crowd pullers' if they then don't deliver in pulling the crowds. I'm also guessing the saving grace of this meeting was that Roland Benko and Jonas Raun weren't going to break the bank even with the appalling crowd. It's a catch 22.

 

I have to say though, the meeting wasn't exactly being sold to us as a spectacle either. I didn't even realise that we didn't have a team meeting 'til i checked the fixure list a couple of weeks ago to see if it we were running saturday or sunday. It had the look and feel of a cheap filler more than any battle for individual glory.

 

It will be interesting to see how many people turn up for the freestyle thing. I am seeing quite a bit of flyposting for the event at traffic lights etc. and i went into my local chippie the other day and there was a bunch of flyers left on the counter, which shows a bit of application to the cause in my eyes. Interesting that they appear to be selling speedway as 'drift' racing rather than speedway on these flyers and flyposters. Or have i misinterpreted that. They do seem to be making the requisite effort though so i hope they make a success of the day.

 

Mick.

Edited July 23, 2013 by volty

[FTM 146]

Volty Interesting to see your comment on the flyers advertising Drift Racing because I am sure this term relates to two cars racing side by side around a track normally on a figure of eight set up racing against the clock dont think it would involve Speedway bikes but I stand to be corrected I hope .

As I am not a Leicester supporter is there any reason why Charles Wright couldn,t figure in Lions team as the guy is on fire at the moment and I know the N/L is not up to the P/L standard but I feel he could score probably 33% of what he is now which in the last 4 weeks or so includes 3 X 21 pt maximums plus a couple of other high double figure scores so an estimated score of 90 pts (or more to tired to check actual total) divide that by 3 = 30 pts over the 5 meetings gives a healthy 6 pts per meeting pretty useful from a reserve slot.Or is he not flavour of the month.

 

cheers Mick C

Edited July 23, 2013 by FTM

[Skodaman 192]

I counted 290 adults as i walked all the way around from bend 2 to bend 1 and then had a skim over both stands and there were less than 100 in each. I guess the problem with these individulas are they are high risk to pay out large amounts of money to entice 'crowd pullers' if they then don't deliver in pulling the crowds. I'm also guessing the saving grace of this meeting was that Roland Benko and Jonas Raun weren't going to break the bank even with the appalling crowd. It's a catch 22.

 

Mick.

 

I was not in the country for this one and therefore I cannot comment on the crowd. The meeting, I believe, was listed in the fixtures several weeks ago.

[BTFC LION 163]

That would be the PLRC then.

Tell you what, I will not put forward any ideas, you seem to have all the know how, you suggest something that might generate more interest???

A different idea might be to represent the name of the meeting. Pride of the Midlands, For example only midland clubs riders? EL. PL. I await to be shot down in flames again!!

 

I counted 290 adults as i walked all the way around from bend 2 to bend 1 and then had a skim over both stands and there were less than 100 in each. I guess the problem with these individulas are they are high risk to pay out large amounts of money to entice 'crowd pullers' if they then don't deliver in pulling the crowds. I'm also guessing the saving grace of this meeting was that Roland Benko and Jonas Raun weren't going to break the bank even with the appalling crowd. It's a catch 22.

 

I have to say though, the meeting wasn't exactly being sold to us as a spectacle either. I didn't even realise that we didn't have a team meeting 'til i checked the fixure list a couple of weeks ago to see if it we were running saturday or sunday. It had the look and feel of a cheap filler more than any battle for individual glory.

 

It will be interesting to see how many people turn up for the freestyle thing. I am seeing quite a bit of flyposting for the event at traffic lights etc. and i went into my local chippie the other day and there was a bunch of flyers left on the counter, which shows a bit of application to the cause in my eyes. Interesting that they appear to be selling speedway as 'drift' racing rather than speedway on these flyers and flyposters. Or have i misinterpreted that. They do seem to be making the requisite effort though so i hope they make a success of the day.

 

Mick.

 

The 600 people was just a head count coming through the gate, no separation of season ticket holders, or none paying kids, etc. purely a head count.

[Gemini 4,894]

Unfortunately individual meetings don't have the same appeal as they used to and most fans are only interested in league racing (in my opinion). Years ago the thought of seeing riders like Ove Fundin, Barry Briggs, Ivan Mauger, Hans Nielsen, Ole Olsen, Peter Collins, Kelly Moran, Bruce Penhall etc. etc. would get crowds flocking to watch (especially if a rider happened to miss their one and only visit to the track for a league match) but these days it's just not interesting enough. Personally I've never really bothered about individual meetings as I much prefer league racing and even my husband who goes to every Leicester match didn't go to the Pride of the Midlands.

[Skodaman 192]

Surely this meeting would have been better attended if they had run it on one of the 2 weekends we had no speedway( last week in june & 1st week in july) & moved the flat track meeting to last weekend when the holiday season had begun as i don't think there was much interest in that anyway.I wonder if the promotion will consider the future of indiviual meetings like this,there is always lots of withdrawals & last week must have been a nightmare for them as riders kept pulling out.

 

The flat track meeting was an FIM meeting and therefore could not be moved!!

[stevethelion 192]

The flat track meeting was an FIM meeting and therefore could not be moved!!

There was still a free weekend the following week with no meeting on the 7th july, so with better planning maybe the pride of the midlands could have been run then before the main holiday season started & would hopefully have drawn a bigger crowd.

[Lord Skid 426]

Super facilities, great Stadium, good organisation and track preparation probably the best in the UK, only negative is the shape of the track, it's terrible, alter it and all will be well, leave it as it is and the place is doomed, as you can't race on it.

[TMW 533]

Volty Interesting to see your comment on the flyers advertising Drift Racing because I am sure this term relates to two cars racing side by side around a track normally on a figure of eight set up racing against the clock dont think it would involve Speedway bikes but I stand to be corrected I hope .

As I am not a Leicester supporter is there any reason why Charles Wright couldn,t figure in Lions team as the guy is on fire at the moment and I know the N/L is not up to the P/L standard but I feel he could score probably 33% of what he is now which in the last 4 weeks or so includes 3 X 21 pt maximums plus a couple of other high double figure scores so an estimated score of 90 pts (or more to tired to check actual total) divide that by 3 = 30 pts over the 5 meetings gives a healthy 6 pts per meeting pretty useful from a reserve slot.Or is he not flavour of the month.

 

cheers Mick C

 

With all the teams scratching around for reserves I would say if Wright isn't in a PL team it's because he doesn't want to be at the moment.