Speedway Season

[iainb 5,017]

On 3/15/2024 at 5:27 PM, Chris116 said:

So we had two planned meetings on Thursday. One went ahead on a damp track and the other was called off. Some supporters have said that the meeting that went ahead should have been called off and at the same time others have criticised the promotion who called their meeting off for not trying to run.

Seems to me that whatever the two promotions had done they would be told they had done the wrong thing! I constantly read that promoters don't have a clue but when there are only two possible actions in a situation both courses of action are criticised.

Maybe this shows just how difficult it is to run a speedway track and maybe we should accept that while we all think we understand how things should be run, we are not the ones who can lose a fortune running the sport.

You are right, clubs are always going to get criticised, it goes with the territory and you can argue the toss until the cows come home on the merits of whether meetings should have gone ahead or not. I think we a can all agree that meetings have run in the past where they certainly wouldn't do today, whether that be to do with the bikes, tracks, financial risk, whatever the reason. The thing is it is now 2024 and as far as I can tell absolutely nothing has been done to try and remedy the situation at all. The only "improvement" has been the proliferation of weather "forecasts" (and you can really take your pick there as to which service you use and whether you think that is accurate or not) which can often just add confusion to a situation and the dalliance  with track covers occasionally at some tracks.

Comparing the Oxford and Leicester matches, the circumstances were very similar, they're only 80 miles apart have had pretty much the same weather recently and were both going to cop some rain on their opening night. The track was in perfect condition at Leicester the night before, yet Leicester elect to cancel and Oxford don't. Both had the press at their stadiums the day before saying there's going to be Speedway tomorrow night, Speedway is back! You only have to look at Oxford's TwitterX feed to see the size of the crowd they pulled in.

Edited March 17 by iainb

[Gambo 1,341]

1 hour ago, iainb said:

You are right, clubs are always going to get criticised, it goes with the territory and you can argue the toss until the cows come home on the merits of whether meetings should have gone ahead or not. I think we a can all agree that meetings have run in the past where they certainly wouldn't do today, whether that be to do with the bikes, tracks, financial risk, whatever the reason. The thing is it is now 2024 and as far as I can tell absolutely nothing has been done to try and remedy the situation at all. The only "improvement" has been the proliferation of weather "forecasts" (and you can really take your pick there as to which service you use and whether you think that is accurate or not) which can often just add confusion to a situation and the dalliance  with track covers occasionally at some tracks.

Comparing the Oxford and Leicester matches, the circumstances were very similar, they're only 80 miles apart have had pretty much the same weather recently and were both going to cop some rain on their opening night. The track was in perfect condition at Leicester the night before, yet Leicester elect to cancel and Oxford don't. Both had the press at their stadiums the day before saying there's going to be Speedway tomorrow night, Speedway is back! You only have to look at Oxford's TwitterX feed to see the size of the crowd they pulled in.

At the Leicester P&P the riders were advised not to ride the inside line on the bends, and they all heeded that advice. You don't get that option when there are 4 riders on the track.

[iainb 5,017]

27 minutes ago, Gambo said:

At the Leicester P&P the riders were advised not to ride the inside line on the bends, and they all heeded that advice. You don't get that option when there are 4 riders on the track.

Yes, it was noticeable that the riders weren't using the inside of the track on turns 1 and 2 for the start of the session but by the end they were

[marko 956]

I am sure when I was younger if a promoter wanted to call a meeting off, they had to get a local ref to come along and confirm the track was unridable at that point, not what it might be like in 2 hours time, 10 hours times or 1 days time.

However, the riders are by no means the innocent party in all of this, they have conditioned promoters to call meetings off earlier than they would have previously because they (the promoter) knows if the track isn’t perfect, the riders will simply refuse to race and force a cancellation that way.

And the riders have that attitude because the bikes now can only be ridden at full throttle and there is no leeway.

Recently in the star they had a piece on the silencers affecting the bikes, we had it with the solid block tyres, we have recently had it with the Anlas tyres being rubbish, why is the sport constantly going backwards in terms of the bikes? They are making the sport more expensive, less safe and less of a spectacle. 
I can’t think of one single benefit the modern speedway bikes have brought to the sport.

[chunky 6,092]

2 hours ago, marko said:

why is the sport constantly going backwards in terms of the bikes? They are making the sport more expensive, less safe and less of a spectacle. 

And they dictate the condition (and depth) of the track surface...

[Fromafar 10,363]

On 3/17/2024 at 12:15 PM, marko said:

I am sure when I was younger if a promoter wanted to call a meeting off, they had to get a local ref to come along and confirm the track was unridable at that point, not what it might be like in 2 hours time, 10 hours times or 1 days time.

However, the riders are by no means the innocent party in all of this, they have conditioned promoters to call meetings off earlier than they would have previously because they (the promoter) knows if the track isn’t perfect, the riders will simply refuse to race and force a cancellation that way.

And the riders have that attitude because the bikes now can only be ridden at full throttle and there is no leeway.

Recently in the star they had a piece on the silencers affecting the bikes, we had it with the solid block tyres, we have recently had it with the Anlas tyres being rubbish, why is the sport constantly going backwards in terms of the bikes? They are making the sport more expensive, less safe and less of a spectacle. 
I can’t think of one single benefit the modern speedway bikes have brought to the sport.

Good Post,sums it up perfectly.

[GiveusaB 1,145]

On 3/17/2024 at 12:15 PM, marko said:

I am sure when I was younger if a promoter wanted to call a meeting off, they had to get a local ref to come along and confirm the track was unridable at that point, not what it might be like in 2 hours time, 10 hours times or 1 days time.

However, the riders are by no means the innocent party in all of this, they have conditioned promoters to call meetings off earlier than they would have previously because they (the promoter) knows if the track isn’t perfect, the riders will simply refuse to race and force a cancellation that way.

And the riders have that attitude because the bikes now can only be ridden at full throttle and there is no leeway.

Recently in the star they had a piece on the silencers affecting the bikes, we had it with the solid block tyres, we have recently had it with the Anlas tyres being rubbish, why is the sport constantly going backwards in terms of the bikes? They are making the sport more expensive, less safe and less of a spectacle. 
I can’t think of one single benefit the modern speedway bikes have brought to the sport.

SPOT ON!

Even the smell has gone!