Vince

I think the Isle of Wight is a unique case when it comes to crowd figures relying on holidaymakers for much of their crowd rather than 'home fans'. You really couldn't use their crowd numbers in comparison to others to judge popularity. However they are very clearly doing something right as far as the paying public on here are concerned and at the end of the day that is more than the vast majority of promoters seem to be doing. The 'old guard' need something to jolt them out of their 'stick with what hasn't sent us bankrupt' mindset, understandably in many ways but Barry and Martin have created a feel good factor on the Island without reinventing the wheel.

I would get Barry Bishop and Martin Widman in on the ground floor planning of any rethink of Speedway as the only promoters I have ever known get universal praise from the fans. The BSPA should be talking to them about how to deal with and attract new fans. In fact they should be listening and stop talking Tell people how dangerous the sport is, unlike most 'extreme' sports you don't even need to exaggerate. Take the opportunity to let young British MX and Trials riders of which there are thousands know that there could be a place for them in Speedway in the future. No asset system to work against them would be good. For a start I'd give any under 18 holding a motorcycle competition licence free admission and also give them pit tours, maybe have a different half a dozen of the over 16 each week working alongside the regular mechanics. You might pick up some apprentice rider/ mechanics that way. It seems inevitable that the standard of rider will be a bit lower so have a few laps practice before a meeting so they start the races with a good setup. Also put on some junior riders before the meeting as well. This should get rid of those first few heats when the track is difficult to race hard on. Bring in vulture races for the reserve home berth as well. Introduce rev limiters with a relatively low ceiling that would make expensive tuning an unnecessary waste of money, service intervals would be longer and parts life longer. I would like to see a minimum stroke introduced alongside that which would make engines more manageable for less skilled riders in difficult conditions. It should also make setting the bike up a little easier. It is really easy to police as well. A standard carb and clutch would also be easy to police and could save a good chunk of money. While control engines might be a good idea in theory I doubt that promotions would be keen on the initial outlay and undoubtedly some would skimp on the upkeep as well. Facilities don't need to be fancy but the food areas, bar and toilets need to be immaculately clean and kept that way, the new fans the sport needs won't put up with what the old timers do. If the facilities allow it have a noisy area for the younger adults where they can have loud music and a bit of a party.

Nicely put, logical argument. Couldn't even be bothered to follow the comments past the first few pages. It's a forum where people give their opinions, you don't have to agree, if you had half a brain you could make a sensible argument. However you find it easier to just rock up, read a few pages and abuse people. Only embarrassing thing about this is being called names by a complete w&nker like yourself

I'm pretty sure he said to me about riding some second halves as a teenager, lad called Flynn Scott used his old leathers. Like my old leathers they were several sizes too small for 50 year old Dave Be surprised if it's not the same feller

Judging by the people emerging from our local co-op when I went past hot cross buns do so I'm sure you're safe with crumpets.

I'm 95% sure it is him, he did a bit of Speedway as a youngster too then didn't race for years but I know he did some Grasstrack later on before the flat track. He's definitely from Essex and I think he is a year younger than me and I'm 58.

I flat tracked with Dave (assume it's the same one) until he packed it in a couple of years ago, we were of similar ability and progressed through to the Pro's almost together so had some good races,think he is doing MX now. This is my first ever flat track race, I'd had one go on the bike beforehand you can see I am learning each lap. Dave Holman is the guy who won the race and went on to win the Restricted class Championship that year, it was close on the line, neither of us was sure who won at the time. So there I was thinking how I was Billy Big balls nearly winning against the fastest guy in the group, went out in the next race and broke my Tibia and Fibula and messed the ligaments up a fair bit. Back to earth with a bump - literally

Nothing changes for me work wise still doing 12/13 hour nights, horses still need looking after so that's most of my morning done. Converting a Norton Commando for flat track so that takes up the rest of my time and if I finish that I've the Ariel I used last year to convert to a green lane bike. If I run out of things that need doing this will have gone on for a very, very long time!

Seems to me that schools closing are likely to put many of the more vulnerable in harms way as in so many cases Grandparents will be taking on the childcare. So in a classroom where one vulnerable teacher might be at risk from say 30 students we could have 20 or 30 grandparents at risk from the same children. Whatever measures you take to try and limit the spread will always have consequences and the very best you are gong to do is slow it down a bit. My opinion is that we should let the majority of the population carry on as normal and put all resources into testing and helping the most vulnerable. Those people could be receiving some very good care already if those who are very unlikely to suffer more than a dose of flu weren't so selfish. Speaking to somebody working on the NHS helpline last night and she was telling me how at one time they had 200 calls waiting and dropped 2000 calls. People waiting an hour to chat about their cold and a GP refusing to see a vomiting child supposedly because of coronavirus when it's not even a symptom. How many of those dropped calls were from people in genuine need of help who were put at risk by the same selfish morons that think toilet rolls are the answer? It is mass hysteria whipped up by the press and now politicians have been put under pressure to act solely because of the public concern created.

I thought this one of the better, more informative articles I have read on the subject. Not necessarily what we want to hear but seems like a realistic scenario.

From a government report into flu vaccines :Since 2003, 860 cases of avian influenza A(H5N1) have been reported including 454 deaths, giving an overall case fatality rate of 53%. Cases have been reported from 16 countries. From 01 January 2018 to 09 April 2019, no futher cases have been reported. Looking at the fatality rate you have to wonder why we are arguing about whether it is 1% or 3% for the current outbreak. Remember bird flu was just as big a thing in the press a few years back as coronavirus is now. https://vk.ovg.ox.ac.uk/vk/influenza-flu would seem to be a reputable source. Average of 600 people die annually in the UK from flu complications however there have been two recent winters where it has been well over 10,000. The latest bad winter of 2013 - 2014 had 11,000 deaths and it has to be remembered that this is against a background of the most vulnerable being vaccinated. The estimate of 250,000 to 500,000 deaths because of flu worldwide each year puts the current situation into some sort of perspective though in my opinion. I'm still not going to stay indoors, wear a mask or avoid people. If any good comes of this perhaps it will make all those minty buggers who leave the toilet without washing their hands change their ways!

No, us is plural so obviously I didn't mean me! I meant us as a country generally and if an outbreak happened in the far North I could equally mean us in the south. But I meant a significant risk to this country in reality not in press and internet scare stories.

I actually had to write risk assessments for Motocross tracks....that was a pretty silly thing to have to worry about too! It's possible to pick and choose the things you worry about. Until and unless this virus becomes a serious risk to a reasonable number of us I choose to worry about other things.

So far in this century, like a cat with 9 lives I've managed to survive Mad cow disease (not the 80's version, the new one from the middle of last year) Sars (another coronavirus) TB Ebola a Flu pandemic Possibly Brexit - although that might be premature. and probably more that I cant remember. All of which according to the press were likely to result in vast swathes of people dropping dead worldwide. (possible exception for Brexit but I thought it was funny) As a child of the 60's there are another 39 years before that where I was fortunate enough to survive all sorts of certain death such as lead paint, wrapping asbestos string around exhausts and working on asbestos brakes, walking through a workplace without a bright yellow vest on, lifting more than 25kg all on my own and so on. So no matter what the press and internet tell me I'm going to keep riding my luck and carry on just as I am without giving a toss

No chance, as long ago as the 70's the ACU tried to do this in MX with the AMCA and it was put through the courts where the ACU lost. We've seen it in Speedway where riders were told that practicing at a track would see their licence revoked, that didn't happen either. The BSPA/ SCB might make the threats but it'll never be enforced because they risk the whole house of cards collapsing if people start looking too closely at the way riders are employed.

Since BMR made the track changes at Rye there is a lot more dirt down to work with, certainly more than I remember at Arena. I have practiced there in the afternoon and seen a really good track prepared for the evening that has produced good racing. They have to keep putting water down during practice to avoid dust for the neighbours anyway which must help a lot.

I've probably still got that in the loft, it certainly wouldn't have been overplayed

I think once he settles in he will be within a hairs breadth of being as fast as ever out on his own but a little less likely to take big chances for a point and probably less forceful in the first corner. He will consistently gate most of the riders he comes up against though so I would expect his average to be about a point short of Pedersen and put him up near the leagues top guys. What he loses in aggression I would expect him to gain most of back in consistency at our league level. Very different from trying to win in Poland or the GP's.

Even if the track has changed drastically, which mostly they won't have, he can set up a bike to be spot on after one race while less experienced riders will be chasing the set up all night.

I think he'll do pretty well and you have to add on the points his team mates will gain by learning from him. I would think on top of the points he scores you can expect another 5 a meeting (especially away) from helping his team with set ups and coaching.

No idea what is happening at Rye Speedway wise but I can say with certainty as I've seen it done a few times that Saturday evening Speedway could follow a day of Speedway or flat track practice. There is plenty of time to prep a good track in normal weather conditions. Also it seems certain that since most Speedway teams are said to be making a loss that the practice sessions are more profitable!

Id agree with much of what you say except that Football gets the gates it does because the product is right. It has the huge advantage that supporters are almost born into the sport simply because it is already so popular in the UK and children follow their parents in so many cases. Almost every kid plays football at least for a while. The atmosphere of supporting a football club is so tribal that for a large number they simply can't imagine doing anything else on a Saturday afternoon (mainly), after all there are plenty of poor games played at all those clubs during a season. The success of being in the top division counts for a lot as well given that they get to see different world class players most weeks. I don't think it would suddenly bring big crowds to Speedway clubs if the tracks and racing were great every week. We now have one of the best tracks in the world in a large city producing consistently good racing in front of relatively small crowds. Still seems that winning is what will bring crowds into the local Speedway track every week and as soon as the winning ends so do the reasonable crowd levels.

I always think of Martin Lampkin as a Trials rider, first ever World Trials Champion in the mid 1970's on a Bultaco where previously it had been a European Championship.. Quite possibly he did some scrambles too as many did in those days and I remember they did a superbiker challenge where everybody had a go at other motorcycle sports and Martin Lampkin being useful on both Speedway and grasstrack bikes in that. Arthur Lampkin was definitely better known as a scrambler and I may be wrong but I think Sid did a bit of both Trials and Scrambles to a good standard.

One of my heroes from my younger days, always the rider I wanted to see win the big meetings and now and again he would pull it off. Particularly remember seeing him on the CCM, he looked a bit of a geek with his thin frame and glasses but must have been immensely strong the way he used to hustle big four strokes around.

I think it's in On any Sunday 2 that there is a segment about Japanese Speedway, obviously from several decades ago. The parts that stick in my mind are that the crowd was pretty much silent, in Japan they were for some unknown reason using Triumph engines and as you say the riders were kept isolated and taken out to their bikes in a covered trailer so they couldn't be in contact with anybody.