THE DEAN MACHINE

It’s the engines itself, short stroke, light flywheels etc , it’s a very high revving rocket that has a very small margin for error, compare it to a long stoke which has loads more scope but less speed

It’s not the set up of the engine it’s the engine itself , practibility and general control has been binned in pursuit of speed, it what the riders want and it understandable but the modern engine doesn’t like less than perfect tracks, Stoke was rough when I rode there in the 90s but the bikes managed it ok, the problem is the modern engine but unless it’s made the rules where a more manageable engine is mandatory then we will still get the same issues and I’m afaid convincing riders to change anything is impossible even if the sport benifited, at buxton I’ve seen riders who ride with the throttle wide open bin it because buxton takes more brains than horsepower and the stocks are no real difference to a sufface , Scunthorpe, Kings Lynn, Sheffield all have stocks and are fine, if you bump into Tony Atkin ask him if he like stoke or buxton rough or smooth ?

The question should be when are the riders going to get their head out of their arses and see that the engines are so unforgiving that at the sign a unperfect track the meetings get called off, get in to conversation with top riders about a meeting that gets called of and their response is the worksble spot in modern engines is so small that anything other than a perfect track they become hard to ride, so as I said at the beginning where is the problem ?

You would think that test matches against Denmark were already arranged for this summer but the new GB team set up seems more interested in get the unemployment figures down rather than putting a team on track

Match is a bit of a non event but some of the racing is decent

Well done to woffinden, rode some smart moves and a couple of brave ones when it mattered

I think i pay about £350 a year for 2 policy’s but they are not the basic ones with CICA, it’s a small price to pay even though I don’t race anymore, I did have another policy with them for being off work through sickness but being self employed you find you need to be almost dead before you have a day off so I stopped that one, I don’t know who the top riders use but there must be good insurance out there

It costs about the same as having the latest mobile phone with a contract

The public liability insurance is more for the crowd than the riders, the basic insurance for the riders is poor and always has been but is better than nothing so most get their own personal insurance and the riders benevelent fund also help, I’m not sure they take on new riders anymore but the one to have was the CICA insurance, it was used by pretty much all the riders and sports people in general and it covers you for all sorts of injuries not just racing but they stopped taking new riders a few years ago I believe because some sports competitors were falsely claiming for injuries, not speedway riders other sports but I have always had my suspicions about one rider that was abusing the system

I didn’t even know it was on tonight at Poole until I saw Cook had pulled out

It doesn’t work like that for competitors in motor sport and rightly so, nobody is forcing you to race and so you are really you are excepting the dangers involved, the last thing any sport needs is someone trying to challenge that, it would end up there being no sport whatsoever, but there should be a lot of care taken on fences, lighting and objects on the Center of track, it’s up to the rider to take out the necercary personal insurance, any rider riding without it is a fool , I still have mine today even though I retired years ago as it covers pretty much any accident ,on another point about stoke’s track being rough or whatever has it ever occurred to riders that they maybe riding the wrong engine ?? Unlikely, but it is a fact that a good percentage of NL riders are riding engines that they have no idea about the equipment they are riding or how to set a bike up but of course they will always tell you it’s the track

Again I haven’t said anything bad about the track, it’s brilliant, I don’t pay my money to be told how to walk ,talk, drink,stand sit and to be generally treated like someone who doesn’t understand how to live without dying every day , the London stadium is exactly the same and im in no rush to go back there either . Insane I may be but doesn’t change the fact that I have no intrest in going to the NSS but I may go to stoke again this year and if one person would disappear I might even try to help the club

While this maybe true about speedway in general my dislike of NSS is because of my hatred of health and safety but I still sat with a blank piece of paper to start with the stadium is very ordinary and not even a modern stadium design

I have not said anything about the racing being bad although the day I was there mechanicing the racing was spaced out with I think 1 pass but that was more to do with the away team being poor , but as I said enjoy it, it’s not for me and in the last point I am on the verge of joining the lost 1000s and becoming an ex british speedway fan

The size of the crowd doesn’t matter it’s a dull uninspiring design for a new stadium that hold similar size crowds to some new polish stadiums ,it’s not even 50 miles away and I agree the racing is good but I’m not paying my hard earned money to be treated like cattle who can’t think for themselves, enjoy your stadium it’s nust not for me

I’m not winding anyone up and I didn’t say loomer road was a better venue than NSS I just said it has more sole and I prefer to go to stoke of which that is a fact , I don’t think I will ever attend NSS again, it’s not a threat I just don’t like the place and have no wish to go, I missed my first World Cup in years when it was a NSS just because of the venue , it has no sole

I’m sure everything you say about the NSS is true but I won’t go, I don’t like it, it’s soleless and a H&S jizz fest and although the track is amazing I just feel about the stadium is they had a blank piece of paper and that’s the best you could come up with ? I guess I compare it to polish new stadiums which have sole and create atmosphere even when they are half full , my problem with stoke is one person, yes the generator issues need to be fixed but the fact is I have been to stoke twice this season and I have no desire to attend the NSS

While stoke may not be perfect and does have a issues I would still rather go to stoke than the Health & safety hell hole that is the NSS and indeed do, the NSS has a great track but to be told you can’t do this or can’t do that and you can’t go here or there ,I’ve been twice , once for a buxton meeting where we were treated like cattle by the stewards and the second time as a mechanic where you are given an envelope containing do’s and dont’s , the place is soleless and that’s something stoke has , bring back Kirky lane at least it had sole

Or they bring in everyone in the top 5 has to have minimum 2 rides

I think if nicki hadn’t come back strong this season tarnow would of struggled to beat buxton

Jamrog and kildermand as a pairing are terrible, they just race each other, taking each other’s lines

There were over 80,000 fans attended 10 matches over the weekend in Poland in all 3 divisions, with division 2(third division) clubs like rzeszow and opole getting over 5000 fans, poland is doing something right

Another 2 pages in the speedway star today, it’s all bells and whistles and still no mention of how it’s going to be funded, they even talking about a high performance Center, where is the money coming from ?

The Aussies are giving the poles a good run for their money, quicker out of the starts and not the easiest track to pass on but good pass by hampel there

I think this was possibly the perfect meeting , it had everything speedway could offer and was a joy to watch ,only regret was I wasn’t there