Vince

Go to a training day when there are sometimes riders not using deflectors and you might be shocked at the difference.

Is that the club or one person enforcing his own opinion on everybody else or bullying as it could be called?

Being what feels like 100 years old some days I can remember standing on bends pre dirt deflector days and have to say I believe there is a noticeable difference in the amount of shale thrown over the fence. That's not to say that I think dirt deflectors and their spare parts should cost anything like they do.

It's not a collection I would contribute to but those who have done so haven't been forced to, have known and understood exactly what the money is being collected for and how it is to be used. So what's it got to do with anybody who didn't contribute? What right has anybody to know what the Polish have or haven't contributed? I think we all get that you don't agree with it but there must be something that actually affects you that you could obsess about.

Second round of the National Dirt Track Championships takes place at Coventry Speedway on Sunday May 18th. There will be somewhere around 50 races. Riders range from the best in Britain (and Europe) through to complete novices and kids. Bikes rangebetween official teams from Kawasaki, Honda and Suzuki through a new vintage class and the thundrbike class where many bikes are converted from road going machines. Up to 12 riders on track at one time ensures there will be some very good racing during the day. Spectators get in FREE, racing starts at noon and the café and bar will be open. If you aren't too embarrassed to be associated with him after seeing him ride say hi to No95!

The BSPA, whether you like them or not, are just about the only people willing to put money into running the sport. Just how do you go about getting rid of them and keeping the sport? I can see the logic of having a neutral person to oversee the rules but the owners are never going to hand over all control of their businesses and who can blame them.

How many more fans will they lose if they leave postponements to the last minute in the hope the forecast is wrong and then get rained off? That just costs the club and it's fans a lot of money, far better to err on the cautious side generally I think because then fans know there is a good chance the meeting will run and be more willing to take the chance. As you say it's a professional sport and as such wouldn't want to be seen to leave all it's decisions to the last second on a wing and a prayer. The professional way is to look at all the information available and if possible save fans a great deal of time and money on a wasted trip. Fans might gradually find an alternative when faced with a rain off, they most certainly will find a better way to spend their money if they turn up several times and don't see any racing.

It's running a meeting that's going to cost a fortune because no spectators will turn up. Years ago with much bigger crowds and less alternative entertainment I think people would turn up in sufficient numbers to make it not quite so financially crippling. Those that do turn will complain about the lack of racing because the visibility for riders under light is terrible. I would imagine that given the cost of travelling these days the majority appreciate early call off's.

The way I see it is that there are not a lot of problems with Speedway as a sport that extra income wouldn't resolve. Seems obvious but getting there is a different matter and tinkering with the rules or even doing away with the tactical rides and so on isn't going to bring a single newcomer through the gate. Having all the Worlds top riders may bring back a few people who have left the sport but yet again isn't going to bring newcomers flooding in, certainly not enough to cover the cost. Where Speedway seems to be very poor is in generating income either through sponsorship or getting people through the gate. To do better at either is going to take a massive change in the way the sport is promoted as far as I can see. The rose tinted glass brigade are going to love this bit! In the old days when crowds were huge the sport was promoted as mad, bad and dangerous. In my opinion that is the direction promotion needs to go now, there is massive interest both from youngsters and associated sponsors in extreme sport and Speedway has more right to that tag than most. The risk to riders health is already a big part of the sport it just needs the man on the street to be told how dangerous it is and I think interest will soon follow. Tell people just how many injuries their local team have suffered in their careers, emphasise the fact that guests are unpopular but unavoidable because of the large amount of serious injuries. make a fuss when a rider is back on the bike in half the time most office workers would need to return to work from the same injury. Stop fining riders for having a spat, it's a hard sport and tempers will flare now and again, those spats are one of the things that stay in mind long after a mediocre meeting is over. Next time those riders are at your local track people will turn up to see if the feud continues (make sure it does!). Most of all you need to get the message across to people who are unaware of the sport and then keep them entertained while they are at a meeting. Presentation needs to be lively and as exciting as possible, a bit of fisticuffs during a poor meeting wouldn't hurt anybody. Generally presentation needs bringing up to date in a loud and brash way that will undoubtedly upset some of the old timers. Once you have the income you can move onto changing the sport by bringing the top riders back. Until then the cloth has to be cut to fit what you have. The current system with draft riders was roundly criticised when it was introduced but with a few meetings under the belt seems like it has been a good change and provided better racing throughout the meeting in many cases. It would help a lot if newcomers weren't advised how bad the rules are or how good it used to be, they don't really care and negativity will go a long way to making sure they never do. Overall my opinion is that the sport is probably going as well as could be expected at the moment. Promoters are generally fans rather than businessmen (for good or bad it means they aren't bleeding the sport dry for their own gain) and want the sport to survive. However if it is ever going to improve rather than degenerate there needs to be some real changes in the way it is promoted to the outside world and then presented at meetings.

Oh no it wasn't

Apart from the double points tactical (or world cup joker) what are all these rules that turn Speedway into WWE style entertainment? WWE I don't know a lot about but isn't it generally accepted that fights are staged rather than contested? Is that what you are saying about Speedway? No doubt at all in my mind that it's sport in every sense of the word, at it's best it's a sport that provides fantastic entertainment. Comparisons to darts and snooker are crazy, they have absolutely nothing in common with Speedway. I would very much like to see riders associated with single teams over long periods of time. However until you have a lot more British riders in the system that's not going to happen and riding for multiple teams is a necessary evil. I keep repeating it but given the rose tinted glasses are out again, I have been going to Speedway for about 45 years and in all that time I have never seen such highly skilled riders and close, hard racing as I do these days. Sure there were some great races and great riders in the 'old days' but I just think there are more of them now The only two things I can think of that were better in the old days are the atmosphere because of much bigger crowds and no bloody silly double points rule.

Had to laugh at Split Waterman complaining about the bad impression of Speedway riders the film gives!!!

In the good old days it was the team captains responsibility to ensure that every one of his riders took advantage of the 3' depth of dirt to make at least 5 passes in every race. Any less and the captain had to make 7 passes in order to make the meeting more entertaining for the 50,000 crowd at a southern league meeting.

You just ruined 100 pages of conspiracy theory by bringing up facts, should be ashamed of yourself

Think the biggest issue is riders doing so many meetings now that getting a set of kevlars clean and dry via the washing machine is more practical than leathers which are a pain to maintain. The protection thing isn't so cut and dried as with kevlars riders wear a very good undersuit with built in armour where under leathers it used to be a minimal back protector. Seems to me there is an increased risk of abrasion injuries but they are probably at least as well protected for everything else. Having said that I wear leathers because I 'feel' better protected but that is a personal preference and I never ride several times a week. My opinion is that the riders are in the best position to decide on what protective clothing they wear and should be allowed to make that decision. The silencers was always going to happen and doubtless will happen again before too long.

Garrity is just coming back from a really serious injury and will be lacking in bike time and confidence as well as probably hurting a fair bit. Not looking interested to fans isn't necessarily the same as not being interested. Surely a rider the Rye fans were raving about a few months ago deserves to be allowed a bit more time to get back into things?

I have seen Robert Lambert practice quite a lot and he is definitely a talented lad. Quite possibly he was fast enough to ride against adults at 13 or maybe even 12 so just where do you draw the line? As soon as there is any flexibility there will be parents arguing their kid is a special case. Just suppose Robert had only ridden Speedway and never been in competitive races then I bring my lad along who at 14 has only just started Speedway and isn't as quick as Robert but has 7 years of racing Motocross against 39 other riders at a time. I argue that my lad is safer because he is used to being in a race situation although he's not actually as good on a bike, difficult to argue against and with pushy parents where there's a queue they will be looking to jump it. I still fail to see that one year later on a 500cc is very detrimental to a career, if you need racing there is an U15's Championship, win it easily get some experience and when you are just 16 you can be up against some of the Worlds best every week.

These two would be worth a try, no point in trying the total MX one as they will cover mx bikes on a Speedway track but specifically exclude Speedway bikes, shame as it's the best cover I've found. Also be worth trying CICA (Combined Insurance Company of America) as I do know somebody who got cover since the rumour that they wouldn't do so any more started. http://www.income-assured.co.uk/income-protection-sports.htm http://www.moris.co.uk/

There will be quite a few kids who can do NL times on their own but lack the physical strength to cope when things go wrong in a group of riders. You have to think of the risk to the people they are competing against as well as their own well being. Go to an amateur meeting and you will sometimes see riders who are fairly quick but just can't cope with a crowded track. Speedway isn't a career that is all over in 5 years so I can see no reason to risk having 14 year old riders competing against adults. At the moment there is one rider unhappy with the situation but who has the opportunity to progress in exactly the same way but 12 months later. There would be (has been at times with 15 year old riders in the NL) plenty of complaints about older riders if they put a 14 year old through the fence and hurt him by hard riding.

No he hasn't SCB has it wrong, the minimum age for a moped is 16. However I think that the SCB have it right with their refusal to make exceptions on age limits for riders to compete against adults. 15 is plenty young enough and as soon as you make an exception, say for Robert then the queue will form for others to be excepted. Robert might cope but how can you decide who can? Is the cut off a half second a lap slower than Robert or 1 second? Whatever it was somebody would be upset at being refused. He's a young kid who let his mouth run away with him a bit, not the end of the world and no doubt as he matures he will learn just like most of us did.

Great start to the GP season, will never understand why anybody would rather have a one off meeting to decide the Champion when the potential is there to have this several times a season. Don't have any idea what's wrong with Chris Harris but would love to see him pick his game up and prove people wrong. Smolinski was brilliant, took a well deserved win and justified his place to anybody who doubted him. Nicki Pedersen looks like there is another World Championship in him and appeared the most relaxed I've ever seen him at a GP. Thought Crump was brilliant, will welcome Nigel Pearson back rather than yesterdays commentator. One thing I did like was that when Nicki swore they didn't have a heart attack and apologise but laughed it off. If you really don't want swearing on the TV then don't have cameras in a Speedway pits, especially when riders are angry.

That is so true, Jack Burnicle was a commentator I couldn't stand even when he did MX of which he has a vast knowledge. Once teamed with Jamie Whitham on the Road Racing they became a brilliant commentary team.

Dirt Track Riders Association is looking for some help in two areas Commentator - Have you ever fancied yourself as Murray Walker or maybe you are already better than Murray was. Either way we are after your help at our rounds this year. Alex Ragby our usual commentator is busy at many of our rounds, we would like to develop our own presentation with someone who is enthusiastic about our sport. Press Officer - we would like more people to hear about what happens at our events. Do yo have some spare time to help promote the news from our club. Contact: info@dirttrackriders.co.uk Details of what the DTRA is all about can be found here, could be a great opportunity for somebody with enthusiasm to create something they believe in.

Try the classifieds here and also there are some Grasstrack pages on facebook, one run by Ben Ilsley that I know of.

That's still a lot less than the weekly attendance for Speedway! Whilst I agree that the core product has to be right the success of darts is surely as much down to changing the way it is promoted and making it a good night out as it is to the increased standard of competitors. It's not really all that long ago that the likes of Lowe and Bristow were more famous than any current dart player and darts was on terrestrial TV. Of course if the racing is great the other stuff doesn't matter. However the racing can't always be great and on those nights you need people to feel that they have still had a good time and that's when the presentation, music etc could improve the atmosphere enough to still make it a worthwhile night out. One thing that could be done that I believe would improve attendances almost instantly would be to install modern, immaculately clean toilet facilities. Might not seem a big deal but I think that a lot more men would be accompanied by wives or girlfriends and therefore kids if that were to happen. Then again if you like a lads night out at the Speedway that could be the worst idea ever