chunky 6,118 Posted April 19 (edited) Moreso than most sports, speedway traditionally has a problem with "home Advantage", but how big an issue is it? Let's look at some home-track winners from the BL era (1965 to 1990), and there are two reasons for that. Firstly, many tracks got into the habit of running regular (and well-established) individual meetings, and secondly, there was a tendency to get as many top riders as they could. I've chosen what I consider to be the strongest established events at most BL tracks. Some of you may wonder why I chose the Internationale over The Laurels, but I always felt that The Laurels leant toward a "regional field", or riders that we enjoyed seeing. I know there were several meetings like that around the country. So, here goes... Belle Vue - BLRC: Ivan Mauger (1971), Peter Collins (1974, 1975), Chris Morton (1984), Shawn Moran (1989) Coventry - Brandonapolis: Nigel Boocock (1966, 1968, 1971), Mitch Shirra (1980), Tommy Knudsen (1982, 1984) Cradley - Golden Hammer: Bobby Schwartz (1979), Lance King (1983), Alan Grahame (1984), Erik Gundersen (1986, 1987), Jan O. Pedersen (1989), Simon Cross (1990) Exeter - Westernapolis: Ivan Mauger (1973, 1975), Zdenek Kudrna (1979) Hackney - Champions Chase: Bengt Jansson (1973), Barry Thomas (1979) Halifax - Dews Trophy: Eric Boocock (1970, 1973), Graham Plant (1976), Ian Cartwright (1979), Kenny Carter (1980, 1981) Ipswich - Golden Sovereign: John Louis (1975), Billy Sanders (1976, 1978, 1979) King's Lynn - Pride of the East: Terry Betts (1968), Howard Cole (1969), Dave Jessup (1979, 1980), Michael Lee (1981) Poole - Blue Riband: Malcolm Simmons (1975, 1976, 1977, 1978) Reading - Manpower Trophy: Anders Michanek (1973), Joh Davis (1978) Sheffield - Yorkshire Bank Trophy: Bob Valentine (1973), Doug Wyer (1979) Swindon - Silver Plume: Martin Ashby (1974) Wimbledon - Internationale: Trevor Hedge (1969), Edward Jancarz (1977) Wolverhampton - Champion of Champions: Ole Olsen (1970, 1972, 1974) Sad note is the fact that, out of all these tracks, only Belle Vue, Ipswich, King's Lynn, Poole, and Sheffield still exist... Edited April 19 by chunky 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chunky 6,118 Posted April 19 27 minutes ago, frigbo said: No Silver Plume? Oops! You know why I didn't include it? I didn't see that Martin Ashby won it in 1974! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BOBBATH 467 Posted April 19 Newport- Welsh championship Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chunky 6,118 Posted April 19 13 minutes ago, BOBBATH said: Newport- Welsh championship It doesn't fit in with the topic of this thread, Bob... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Split 179 Posted April 22 (edited) Maybe we should go back before1965 and discuss the home track advantage Wembley riders like Tommy Price and Freddie Williams had at the World final. Edited April 22 by Split Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chunky 6,118 Posted April 22 1 hour ago, Split said: Maybe we should go back before1965 and discuss the home track advantage Wembley riders like Tommy Price and Freddie Williams had at the World final. Oh, trust me, Freddie Williams really is the prime example! And people today complain about having multiple events in Poland... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
