Vince

The problem with splitting the current Conference league is that many riders just won't be able to get enough meetings to improve. In an ideal world these youngsters need to be racing at least once a week or they just don't progress, although the training schools allow them to ride and are great in the off-season racing is the quickest way for them to get better. I think you will find that is as much a reason for riders to go to certain teams as the money, if the team is riding league and trophy the riders get more meetings under their belt. It is the same with having second half meetings, who is going to travel from say Newport to Armadale for 2 or at best 3 rides? It could take the whole meeting to find a gear that worked. At least in the Conference (with the sensible teams) he will usually get 4 rides. If you split the stand alone clubs from the others by running trophy for one and league for the other all you will do is reduce the number of riders needed and make it more difficult for the inexperienced riders to get into a team and more appealing for the teams to use Premier standard riders. If you want to make the racing closer a half hour practice before the meeting for the away team would help as the inexperienced riders would have the opportunity to learn the tracks well enough and get their bikes set up to allow them to be competetive when the meeting started. It's OK for riders who have plenty of experience to turn up even to a new track and race but it is very difficult for the youngsters, I think Speedway is the only motor sport where practice isn't compulsory. One thing I don't think many realise is just how many young riders there are looking for team places, obviously some aren't up to the job yet but there are also many who are decent riders but have signed for strong teams and not been used. These riders will be lost to the sport if they don't get to ride as nobody is going to invest the time and money needed for this sport if they can't get to ride. An amateur league would be a non-starter. Unlike Grass Track or Motocross which are run in a local farmers field for Speedway you need an expensive, purpose built track. A mx or Grass Track can also attract 100 - 200 riders to help cover costs, they then have to run the meeting over a whole day, most Speedway tracks would be unable to do that. Then if riders are competing in leagues there are very high mileages that need them (and their parents/ mechanics) to take time off work. You could only run as an amateur league if you ran individual meetings and then riders would tend to compete on their most local tracks and never get the experience needed to make the step up.

Well I think we're too old to adopt anyway Steve! Bloody hell you've gone and ruined it now - I thought I'd seen a way out of another 5 years of teenager related stress. Do you know if Reading is open tomorrow?

I can get the adoption papers over to you by Monday Shazzy and Sam can be all yours

put a 'trying to contact Wizzer' post up and he will probably see it pretty soon.

Unless you are in a desperate hurry it might pay you to wait until the end of the season when all the riders will be selling gear. You can get much of the stuff second hand, a pair of kevlars will be somewhere around £200, boots and shoe £70 - £100. You will probably have to buy the rest new. Armour is £70 upwards, gloves £25, goggles £25 plus knee pads etc. You must get a new helmet at anything from £120 to £300. Sam's first bike was a laydown 897 that cost £700 and was plenty good enough to start on. You would expect to pay from that to £1400 - £1800 for a bike that will be good enough to get you into the Conference league. A good place to start might be Wizzer on here, he generally has stuff to sell at sensible money. Also don't forget you need transport and if you really give it a go the mileage you travel will be one of your major expenses.

Reg, who used to own Matchams wanted to put in a speedway practice track about 3 or 4 years ago but they slapped an SSI on the piece of land he wanted to use. They are currently trying to put a noise restriction on the motocross track - even though it has been there for about 50 years.

1. I think the Andy Smith thing was a one off and is unlikely to be repeated. It was pretty ridiculous though. 2. As far as I know there is no Australian equivelant and it is very difficult for them to get enough meetings to progress. Again it's not the ideal but if a lad of that age is willing to leave home and travel half way round the world to try and make the grade in his chosen sport it would be harsh to deny him the chance. 3. Mildenhall might be the strongest team in the league but they would have no chance against any Premier team away from home without strengthening their team. Until the rules change to restrict the team strengths the stand alone teams will continue to employ the best riders they can to ensure they get decent crowds. A point limit may well benefit them as well by reducing their costs. 4. Wouldn't that be like Safeways and Tesco's paying into a fund in order to get Sainsbury's out of trouble? The League isn't perfect and there are changes I would like to see (as in my earlier post) but it is still a decent product overall considering the wide range of riders and teams it has to accomodate. The problem with getting a major manufacturer involved is that none of them make a suitable engine or even anything that could be easily converted. They all run flywheels that are very light compared to speedway bikes and there isnt room in the cases to make them heavy enough as far as I know. If it could be done it would be great as a modern 4 stroke motocross bike can run all season with no more than a change of oil, they do produce about 30% less power which wouldn't be a bad thing but the lack of flywheel weight would make them pretty unrideable.

I think the idea of changing the title of the 'old hand' would be good. I also think it would be an idea to introduce a point limit for teams based on a rolling average. It would help the real newcomers if the 2 reserves had to be under a certain limit - say 4 points then at least they could have a couple of rides against riders of a similar standard. I also think that no team should be allowed to use rider replacement except in a genuine emergency, too many clubs are travelling with 6 riders and leaving squad members sat idle. Or perhaps the home team could always have a reserve on hand to be used if a rider fails to make a meeting and whichever team uses him has to pay him. I think that if things continue as they are the stand alone clubs will ultimately be the losers as there are not enough of them to build a full league that will support them if the second teams break away into a proper development league.

Best I've seen: 1. Ivan Mauger 2. Bruce Penhall 3. Barry Briggs 4. Tony Rickardsson 5.Leigh Adams 6. Kenny Carter 7. Jason Crump

I think I remember Jim Squibb saying he was 54 when he retired from speedway, he then drove rallycross into his mid sixties.

In those days Barry was one of the best Rallycross drivers in Europe, I think he is still running a hotel in Torquay. I did hear that Jim had died a little while ago but don't know if that is true. It would be good if anybody knows for sure, he was a stroppy old bugger but I liked him and we got on pretty well most of the time.

I worked for Jimmy Squibb over 20 years ago. He was in his mid sixties then and still as hard as nails. He was about 5'4" and yet drivers half his age and twice his size were terrified of him. I think he rode Speedway until he was in his fifties and when I knew him he was still driving Rallycross. He judged Split Waterman to be the toughest feller he knew ( as in hard - not a dirty rider) and although he generally had little time for modern riders he did rate Bruce Penhall as the most talented he had ever seen and Ivan Mauger the best all round rider.

My point is that it should be relatively easy to attract motorcyclists. If the sport can't do that what are it's chances of attracting new spectators from the general public who have absolutely no link with the sport? Making the rules more easily understood may not be the answer but it has to be worth a try along with better promotion and finding a way to reduce the riders costs.

When I was a kid the second half was an individual event entered by all the team riders from both teams. Best of both worlds?

I found an article about Speedway on the BMF web site. I think that for a motorcycle site to include the following comments (although it is pretty upbeat about the sport in the main) is a good indication of where the sport is shooting itself in the foot. Motorcycling generally is enjoying a massive upsurge in popularity with Road Racing and Motocross especially recording records in spectator and rider attendances. Speedway should be able to benefit from this relatively cheaply and easily but like you say the sport has to be easy to understand the first time you go. "Although speedway is a bikesport, many bikers find it difficult to relate to. Unlike road racing or motocross, neither the bikes nor the skills required to ride them bear any resemblance to those used on the road. Most regular spectators have little interest in bikes, just the sport, and the lack of motorcycles parked outside any speedway stadium is testimony to this. Speedway should be a simple enough sport, with four guys racing each other over four laps, but it has some strange rules. It is hard enough for newcomers to understand why an individual sport is played as a team game. Rules that allow teams to borrow riders from other teams are commonplace and cause the sport’s credibility to continue to be questioned. Can you imagine Manchester United borrowing one of Liverpool’s star players for a match because one of their own is injured? It happens in almost every British league speedway meeting. When you add in tactical substitutions, reserve replacement, rider replacement, golden doubles and green sheet averages you can see why a love of statistics is almost as important as a love of speedway."

I understand what Jeff is saying but don't think that you can group football, snooker, darts etc with Speedway. The participants in any of those sports usually compete in local leagues and any of them probably only spend a couple of hundred pounds to follow their sport for a year. Presumably the majority of Conference riders intend to go on to higher things within the sport and therefore would need top quality equipment to be competetive and attract attention. My beer mat maths suggest that for a rider to be competitive at Conference level would take between £10,000 and £15,000 per year. That is to have 2 bikes, a reliable van, riding gear and spares and also allows a few quid for engine rebuilds and crash damage. This is based on only 20 meetings per year so could easily be higher. Over the same amount of meetings a 7 point rider rider can earn £700 points money and roughly £120 expenses. That still represents a massive commitment by the rider. I would suggest that the promoters can't be making much, if any money on Conference matches so to keep riders in the sport the costs need to be reduced. So what about: 1. Only one bike/ Engine per rider to be registered at the start of the season. This would have 2 benefits in that it would reduce the initial outlay and maintenance costs and would also force riders to learn how to get the best out of an engine for the track and conditions rather than just use the other bike. I would suggest that at this level they only be allowed to use standard bikes but it would be impossible to police. 2. All bikes and/or engines to be at least one year old, again to reduce costs. 3. North and South leagues to reduce travel costs and time off school or work. 4. All riders get their first years racing licence free. It doesn't save a fortune but it would show some interest in new blood by the ACU/ BSPA. From a personal point of view having a son who is considering going from Motocross to Speedway it is a far more expensive sport in which to be competitive, with bikes needing to be modified to be really competitive and a great deal of travelling. Most forms of motorsport have one make, minimal cost race series to bring new talent along and I can't see why Speedway couldn't evolve something similar. For sure the sport must be losing a lot of talent to other, cheaper sports.