Vince

We've run a flattrack meeting there the past two years with a British Championship round plus a Transatlantic Challenge with a star American topping the bill, Colin Edwards last year and Kevin Schwantz the previous one. Perhaps they are running some Speedway races alongside, always seemed crazy to me that they don't have the sport on show.

Not convinced grass track is doing well in comparison to the 70s any more than speedway is. A few well attended meetings but equally meetings are being cancelled for lack of entries. I suspect you'd have to ride in every centre to get anywhere near the number of meetings you could get in the 70s

I have never in the nearly 50 years I've been going to Speedway, talked about Speedway to people who weren't really aware of it or taken newcomers along had any of them ask that. The only time I've ever had any discussions about attendances is with people who are already involved as spectators or in other capacities.

I'd agree with that, although it is possible that some of the higher ups in some companies who have been convinced to sponsor a rider or team don't actually realise how low the crowds are. I still completely fail to see how publishing attendance figures can benefit the sport. We all know that they aren't good so how will making everybody aware of that improve things? The only reason I can see is so that a few people can make some pretty uneducated guesses as to the net income of a track. I say uneducated because most of the guesses you read on here miss out some very vital and expensive costs. The truth is we have no need to know, if the sport was in a boom where we could use high spectator attendance to pull in sponsorship then it would be different but this is just curiosity.

In truth apart from keeping a few current fans sweet what would publishing attendances achieve? I find it very difficult to see what could actually be gained. I suspect the biggest effect wold be to make those already putting sponsorship money into the sport wonder why.

Out of the lads my boy started with at 14 it is very noticeable (with one exception) that those who did best were those who were dedicated and worked at it were the ones who succeeded and got into the higher leagues rather than the most talented. The exception is an immense talent with plenty of money behind him who has done pretty well but by the time he gets to my age will realise how much further he could have got with a better work ethic.

I can see where you're coming from but personally I like the idea that success at Speedway comes from dedication and that is visible when it comes to fitness. It's always taken dedication but the fans can't see hours spent in the workshop or travelling but they can see if you can't be bothered to keep fit and if you don't you are giving something away to those who do.

I'm sure myself and Sam would fit it in if we could and suspect you could make a full line in the right areas

They give you a tablet, I was there bloody ages waiting for my Ipad but it never arrived.

We would have to run day licences too as we are affiliated to the MCF, or get club membership and ACU licences for those who intended doing more meetings I guess.

I would like to do a couple but in all honesty it probably wouldn't be a regular thing and we wouldn't be competitive against MX tyres and brakes in a MX class on the grass. Best thing might be to contact Anthony Brown on the DTRA website here and get him to ask for some feedback from the members. I feel sure that a meeting in the midlands with a flat track only class would attract a few.

I think Speedway should be asking Monster Joe the best way to publicise the sport, no matter what your opinion of him he's done a great job of getting youngsters drinking crap!!

Perhaps MCC are in dispute with the contractor that may require legal action to resolve and that is why they want to keep things in house at the moment. In fairness if the statement at the time had said "for some reason as the temperature dropped turn 3 reacted differently to the rest of the track for some unknown reason" the promotion would have been ridiculed and accused of making excuses.

A lap so 2 to 4 seconds a race!!

Go to a NL meeting expecting two teams of wobblers and you'll be delighted. What you'll see is some very decent Speedway riders lapping between 1/2 and 1 second slower than the stars!. They make more mistakes for sure but because of that I often find there is more passing. Watching the GP stars is terrific as they rarely go wrong but NL is just as good in a different way.

Not really, more like modern oils work over a larger temperature range, provide better lubrication and don't gel like 'R' if left, especially when the engines rev so much higher than they used to.

I'd disagree in that we live more than an hours drive from our nearest track and I know several people locally who only watch Speedway on TV. I'd completely disagree about it being boring, of course sometimes it is but especially with the GP's you get some fantastic racing on the TV and the sport is made for it with it's short races. For me the only harm the TV does is when you see how empty the stadiums are it reflects badly, I think the BSPA should look at £1 entry for Sky matches. I know this has been proven not to increase crowds afterwards but for me it would be sensible use of the TV as an advertising medium and full crowds on TV would help the sponsorship chase.

Any idea why the rev limiter has taken so long? Surely that was the logical first step all along, they started testing a long time ago and it seemed like the riders who tried it liked it then the idea seemed to disappear. I've always liked the idea as I think it's simple, relatively cheap and easy to police. Very little lost by anybody if the idea didn't work but it seems to have been bypassed for a far more expensive and complicated alternative.

I think Greg Hancock is a very decent bloke. In 2003 my lad had been on a Speedway bike twice and I had got him a ride after the meeting at Oxford. Just before he went out Greg Hancock came over and explained he had a carb he wanted to test and ASKED a 14 year old kid if he would mind if he went out the same time as him. Then said to Sam, just you go where you want and I'll either slow down or go around you. Since that time I have seen second half races and meetings cancelled because a rider wants to test something more than once and I'm sure that if Greg had asked they would have stopped Sam riding so he could test but he was a real gent about the whole thing and even came over and chatted about his riding with the lad. As an aside Sam wasn't into Speedway as a spectator and came in saying "that blokes quick isn't he" as he had no idea who he was

16 nights x 12000 = 192000 for the year which wouldn't be close to Speedways annual crowds. The point that you can't compare something that runs weekly throughout the country with something that happens once or twice a year locally is very important in my opinion. I can go and watch a good standard of darts (probably equal to PL Speedway) in my local for free and most certainly won't get trampled in the rush to find a viewing point.

Sounds logical but as always there are issues once you claim to represent what the majority want: I've no real argument with most of what you say but just pointing out the difficulties of assuming you know what the majority want let alone finding ways of achieving it. I would say that the majority of people I know would like to do away with the play off system but any sane promoter would immediately point to the fact that it produces the biggest crowds of the season as proof of it's popularity. It's difficult to argue with their point even if you are sure it's not what the majority want in your own mind.

It's impossible to get a consensus of fans opinions on here with about 30 people on a thread let alone find something that all fans want.

Sort of I guess but Speedway changed pretty quickly into something nearer what we see today. What I do think is interesting is that I thought the first time I saw the F2 Speedway bikes that they were ridden very much like an old JAP or 2V Jawa which is the Speedway that many seem to feel was better than today (me not included). Yet some of the same people have seen and denounced F2 which just goes to show you can't please hardly any of the people at the same time!!

I think about 2005 Pete Boast started running meetings in the UK.

93 is Tom Woolley I believe, 71 is Glyn Pocklington, 20 is Darren Trapmore, 18 not certain but I think Mark Richardson, 1 is Aidan Collins. Old photo taken before I started in 2012 not sure of the track.