Fortythirtyeight 841 Posted October 6, 2022 9 minutes ago, Daniel Smith said: Absolutely, Belle Vue is the place to be, unfortunately, every other club is 2nd rate. With Poland & GP's every modern rider's dream Belle Vue offers the best training opportunity. No British rider with any ambition should be looking at trick tracks & those that are FTG's. So Barry Briggs, umpteen times a champion, was wrong when asked why he signed for Wimbledon saying he needed to learn to ride the tracks he found difficult ? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Daniel Smith 5,665 Posted October 6, 2022 46 minutes ago, Fortythirtyeight said: So Barry Briggs, umpteen times a champion, was wrong when asked why he signed for Wimbledon saying he needed to learn to ride the tracks he found difficult ? Different times, British Speedway was the pinnacle of the sport. 1 off finals etc. Tight difficult tracks today get you nowhere if you want to reach the top. Zmarzlik, now 3x world champ is an absolute speed merchant, no trick track learning to be where he is. Any thought process pre 2000s is irrelevant 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikebv 10,285 Posted October 6, 2022 1 hour ago, Fortythirtyeight said: So Barry Briggs, umpteen times a champion, was wrong when asked why he signed for Wimbledon saying he needed to learn to ride the tracks he found difficult ? In the 1950's. On deeper tracks with hugely different machinery characteristics... When all the top riders in the world rode over here so you could benchmark yourself against them.. You could argue up to the early 00's it was worth prioritising over here given the worlds best still were in attendance in decent numbers.. Chalk and Cheese from today though.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
scoobydoo 2,254 Posted October 6, 2022 Half the fun of travelling to away meetings was to see and experience a bigger /smaller track than the local track you attended every week 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikebv 10,285 Posted October 6, 2022 5 minutes ago, scoobydoo said: Half the fun of travelling to away meetings was to see and experience a bigger /smaller track than the local track you attended every week You can still do that at Wolverhampton... Although "fun" isnt necessarily a word I would use.. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lefty 1,268 Posted October 6, 2022 11 minutes ago, mikebv said: You can still do that at Wolverhampton... Although "fun" isnt necessarily a word I would use.. Why.... Does it remind you of Kirky Lane?? 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikebv 10,285 Posted October 6, 2022 16 minutes ago, Lefty said: Why.... Does it remind you of Kirky Lane?? To be fair in the early to mid 90's both tracks served up some cracking racing.. With Aces v Wolves matches often amongst the highlights of the season at both tracks.. Then the bikes developed but the tracks didnt... 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SPEEDY69 1,260 Posted October 6, 2022 2 hours ago, mikebv said: To be fair in the early to mid 90's both tracks served up some cracking racing.. With Aces v Wolves matches often amongst the highlights of the season at both tracks.. Then the bikes developed but the tracks didnt... Think you left out 'unecessarily' out of "Then the bikes..... developed". The bikes are ruining the sport, as the cars have for F1. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikebv 10,285 Posted October 6, 2022 (edited) 10 minutes ago, SPEEDY69 said: Think you left out 'unecessarily' out of "Then the bikes..... developed". The bikes are ruining the sport, as the cars have for F1. To be fair, the racing at places like the NSS, Peterboro', and at World Class level, is as least as good, and probably better, than what I used to watch in the 70's 80's and 90's.. Zmarzlik, Bewley, Laguta, Woffinden, Lambert, Janowski, Sayfutdinov, Lindgren, Doyle, Madsen, et al, all serve up some spectacular stuff which is more than on par with what I used to watch even in the halcyon days of the sport... The current machinery works fine if the track design matches in... Edited October 6, 2022 by mikebv 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chunky 6,094 Posted October 6, 2022 2 minutes ago, mikebv said: To be fair, the racing at places like the NSS, Peterboro', and at World Class level, is as least as good, and probably better, than what I used to watch in the 70's 80's and 90's.. Agree 100%! When I watch vids on YouTube, it's amazing just how poor the racing was generally. As I've said before, I miss dirt on tracks, black leathers, monkey masks, gleaming chrome machinery etc (which all helped make it the spectacle it was), but the actual quality of racing today is often far superior. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikebv 10,285 Posted October 6, 2022 5 minutes ago, chunky said: Agree 100%! When I watch vids on YouTube, it's amazing just how poor the racing was generally. As I've said before, I miss dirt on tracks, black leathers, monkey masks, gleaming chrome machinery etc (which all helped make it the spectacle it was), but the actual quality of racing today is often far superior. As we always say... The rose tinted specs were coloured in by the atmosphere of being in big partisan crowds, which meant the racing often became "great" when you won.. The reality was something very different on many occasions.. A shame those who run the sport havent got the capability required to deliver big partisan crowds today.... As the racing deserves more watching... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kelvinht 351 Posted October 7, 2022 Agree, much better experience with the bigger crowds, always much better in the school hols as more kids and families in, rather than just us old f*rts. Beggars believe that we only had a couple(?) of matches in 6 week summer hols and now messing around trying to fit in League cup final and another league match 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Flappy 1,605 Posted October 7, 2022 Would Huckenbeck be an option? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
therefused 819 Posted October 7, 2022 1 hour ago, Flappy said: Would Huckenbeck be an option? What average would he come in on? Would take him on a 5ish average. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bald Bloke 3,287 Posted October 7, 2022 6 minutes ago, therefused said: What average would he come in on? Would take him on a 5ish average. He finished 2017 on 5.53. Bargain if he retained that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
