martinmauger

While my interest in speedway remains I don't study the minutiae (yes, had to look up the spelling) as much but why does it appear Jedd List is stuck on a 4pt CMA seemingly no matter what. Surely if he gets to ride a few matches, 3H & 3A or whatever, he will attain 'true' average. Apologies for calling anyone 'Shirley', hey it's a bank holiday....

I was being kind. A lot of people in the UK don't know what speedway is either; "speedway ? what's that" still gets asked, that and "speedway, is it still going?", like why shouldn't it still be in existance. But yeah, most Amercians presume 'a speedway' i.e. one of the bigger tarmac ovals, but speedway as we know it (Jim) is very much a small potatoes sport 'the states and sadly not hugely bigger over here anymore....

Ivan was known to deliberately give the Exeter steel fence a clout exiting the bends, sometimes bending his silencer, or when going into them for added speed. Vaclav Verner did the same at Hull, a loud 'thud' denoting his successful exit from the bend, accompanied by a cloud of shale thrown into the air....

^^ This, though they are vaguely aware of the sport of speedway but with very few tracks & riders it just ain't that big in 'the states' , a bit like baseball in this country I guess. Though some motorsports like Nascar, drag racing & especially drifting (high-speed powersliding) rule over there....

Could have I suppose, strange my friends & relatives in 'the states' have never mentioned the brand, perhaps I've finally 'turned them right off speedway, the sport' . Mind, in Hull we have Speedway Couriers with no actual speedway connection as far as I know.....

I just read there are Speedway Gas Stations in the USA, had to check if it was true. It is so had to post, obviously (hope links work) .... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speedway_LLC https://www.google.com/search?q=speedway+gas+stations&tbm=isch&source=univ&client=firefox-b-d&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjDofKE6LbiAhUVShUIHay-DzUQsAR6BAgHEAE&biw=1024&bih=604 https://www.marathonpetroleum.com/Operations/Retail-Gas-Stations/

This is true....

A thrilling race for sure and without taking anything away Joe Screen often rode a smilar line around Craven Park, Hull in 1999....

So sad, almost identical to what happened at Hull after winning the treble in 2004, least we had most of the next season, though with 2 matches outstanding ....

Never seen drag racing and it doesn't really appeal as its' almost literally 'blink and you missed the race', that said I'm told the noise of the big engines, acceleration and atmosphere are incredible. Seen road racing though, exciting but as we are aware one cannot see all of the track, a couple of corners and straight if you are lucky, confusing regs for the different classes. Literally "oh, no.2 is in front of no.3 now wonder how that happened but no.4 hasn't turned up on this lap, wonder what happened to them, etc". A mate has been to Silverstone; brilliant day out and craic with motorsport enthusiasts, but he watched from Stowe corner, 1/4 mile away from the actual circuit and so didn't see much racing. Speedway has the advantage of being able to see all of the track all of the time, mostly straight forward rules (mostly) and any less-than-thrilling race will soon be over to be followed by a new one. The sport 'just' needs acually promoting. 'Promoters' run their tracks ok, but how many actually 'promote'; seemingly only when their track is on TV....

So, it would have been 2018 (where does the time go) when I mentioned I picked up a leaflet advertising Santa Pod Raceway (drag racing) in a Hull Asda store. Well the other day I picked up a leaflet plugging Cadwell Park (road racing), maybe these leaflets are delivered to nationally to all Asda stores; Santa Pod is 110ish miles from Hull, Cadwell Park around 50 miles. I wonder if speedway would benefit form such a leaflet campaign, I seem to recall leaflets being produced, but maybe not widley distributed, when the 1999 Elite League was on SKY Sports with all fixtures listed. I read once that leaflet advertising realises a 2 1/2 % - 5% take up rate, if one is lucky. Though I'm not sure what the costs would be, but paraphrasing a well-known movie tagline: "Tell them and they may come, don't tell them and they won't since they won't know."....

As above, some good racing and close finishes, thoroughly enjoyed it. With rain threatening they quickly rattled through the heats, good call as we hit heavy drizzle 10 mins from the track....

The track announcer and Rob Godfrey on his roaming mic can (mostly) be heard ok, but for some reason whenever Roger Westby speaks he always seems muffled & unclear. Just sayin'....

'I was there' too, rammed, packed it was....

Least they are finally getting on with the track work fascinating stuff, just need the 'Lego trucks' to arrive. One thought, would have been a lot easier and quicker if they just raced on the mini track in the centre green . I'm joking of course....

Sad news, enjoyed reading his speedway stuff RIP....

At Hull in 2005 each rider was issued with 2 fork covers & 2 rear wheel spoilers both of which carried the team sponsor who also featured on the front and back of the body colours and extensivley in the match programme. Just sayin'....

Always reckoned that if Billy (and everyone else that day) had not met Muller at Norden in 1983 he'd prob have been Champ that year, he was 2nd with Lee 3rd. And I also wish Penhall had stuck around a few more years to hopefully give Gundersen & Nielsen a run for their money. It's fun to compare rider & eras, but conditions are always different (bikes, tracks, competitions WF v GPs) so one ends up with 'if only's' & 'maybes'....

In 1997 one could have bought Hull's Craven Park stadium lock stock and barrel for, wait for it, just £600,000 - bargain mate ! A relatively new venue, built in 1989, in 1997 Craven Park was running speedway (yay!), rugby, thrice weekly greyhounds, and had many bookings in the function rooms and today with little alterations also hosts dance / excercise classes. This (together with speedway & dogs) would easily have fitted into the late Ian Thomas' mantra of 'not opening a shop for just one day a week but probably still paying rates for 12 months'. To say the least. Though understadably my interest in the activities at CP are nil there's zip chance of a speedway return as turns 3 & 4 had a blooming great stand built on them. Apart from that new stand and 99% disappearence of the speedway track (still a wee bit of shale here and there) the place looks the pretty much same as it did pre-2005, when speedway ended (sad). In fact the turns 1 & 2 area, especially the terracing, was knee deep in weeds the last time I looked. These days think the only activities taking place are rugby and the dance / excercise stuff. Sigh.....

I forgot about Rye House closing. So including Coventry at Leicester, though it could be argued Coventry had already closed the year or so before, that makes 5 clubs lost in the last year: Buxton, Coventry, Lakeside, Rye House, Workington. There's hope for them all (except possibly Lakeside at least in the immediate future) as the tracks still exist, but worrying just the same....

Big Al was a legend at Hull too, 1995-1998, many times he team-rode home 2nd strings & reserves....

Asking fans for help with pre-season tidying up is a common thing. At Hull , Craven Park there were promises of tea / coffee & biccies, with maybe fish & chips if the work extended past tea-time, sadly I was never able to join the fun as it was always on a week day. Two local girls regularly tidied up pits, changing rooms, etc. On one occasion help was requested to paint the safety fence, one enterprising chap turned up and painted the entire fence, kickboards on straights boards on the bends, all by himself taking some 8 hours. Refused any form of payment, now that's dedication. Also, pit accomodation for 2nd halfers was roomy, in front of the old dog kennels....

No not another speedway track as we know it (Jim) but Rockingham Motor Speedway. Someone at work asked me if a speedway track had recently closed, I asked of the sad list of 3 (or 4 Coventry at Leicester) "What Buxton, Lakeside or Workington ?", I was told "no, somehere in Northampton". Frustratingly I can't get links to copy & paste or work but type Rockingham Speedway and info & links should appear. A shame and is oldish news and hardly relevant to the sport of speedway, except the site is to be some kind of 'vehicle hub complex', whereas I'd have bet money on it being sold for housing or retail. Always thought the place was a bit of a white elephant TBH as with many existing, established race circuits (Brands Hatch, Donington Park, Silverstone, etc) there didn't seem to be a demand for a large 'stadium-type' facility, albeit with a large Indy Car-sized tarmac oval....

Some F1 fans and many drivers' wives / girlfriends used to do this, maybe they still do, record each car for every lap of a 70ish lap race covered....

New regs on qualifying with transponders; another case of a simple sport made (unnecessarily) complicated. Transponders; a good idea to time races accurately & spilt dead-heated riders, but individual laps times are really just for interest only. Starting number and therefore gates picked at random still the best, fairest method IMO, I mean heat details are rcorded but does anyone record who arrived at turn1 in what position and then whether they were overtaken or not during a heat.....