THE DEAN MACHINE

the NL will always be a league for up a coming riders by its very nature and KL, rye and scunny have different agenders to the others which is fine ,if supporters like June want to watch young up and coming riders then they are very well catered for because the natural way is young riders but not everyone wants to see that and by restricting the league to that you alienate other supporters ,and as i said before ,speedway is not about what the riders want ,its what the people who pay to watch want , we are a form of entertainment not a youth training scheme by being on here and expressing my views i am leaving my self open to be shot down ,which is fine if you dissagree with me then thats ok ,we are all entitled to our views on our sport ,im just putting across mine , i am really passionate about the NL i think its the best speedway this country has got and i want to see it flourish as im sure you all do , one other point i want to know is does phillip rising read the NL on here ,he never comments on it but is always on the forum , just wondered if he did and what his views were and if he dosent that sums up what everybody else thinks of the NL

it could go 2 ways ,either i will try a job within the sport at NL level or i will just finish riding and walk away from speedway and with all the crap that goes on behind the scenes in speedway who would blame me , i would love the challenge of the NL but it would be a week before me and the bspa came to blows if i did ,lol

yes i have thought about possibly looking into it when i finish but ask yourself how did the current co-ordinator get the job , cause from what ive seen in the last few years he is hardly a well liked and respected person ( and i dont mean that on a personal level) just in the job and had a very heathy fan base , horses for courses, from what i witnessed when i rode for them the isle of wight is mainly a middle aged island (i dont mean that in a nasty way ),its not really a youthfull place so accordingly the crowd on the island is middle aged , so its hard for the supporters to bond with 15 year old riders , im not saying they dont im just saying they seem to bond more with slightly older riders , so surely thats what the isle should cater for , nick simmons is a superstar over there ,he is no spring chicken but he is a rider the fans love on the island and thats what they want to see and if he brings in more fans than a new rider just learning then thats what a promoter should give the fans , if scunny want to field a team of young riders and they feel thats what their fans want then great go for it , the b all and end all of it is the paying public and what they want cause without them paying to be entertained there is no speedway and then it dosent matter what you call the 3rd division cause it wont exsist

the point of team speedway even of 3rd division level is for the team to win ,thats what the supporters (the people who without their money through the gates ) want , if its sole purpose is to train riders then the public shouldnt pay to watch , speedway is an entertainment sport at all levels not a youth training scheme, riding aside i watch speedway to be entertained not to watch riders learning , i want good racing ,i dont care if you dragged ole olsen out of retirement and raced him against the under 15 champion ,if its good racing thats what it about , if you want to watch riders learning go to the dragons meetings or the southern track meetings or the amature meetings its free to watch , the 3rd level will never prosper while is thought of a gloryfied training league , supporters need winning teams and in those teams they need hero's ,riders who they can relate to, riders who want the best for ther team and gives their all for that team and it dosent matter if they are just starting out or been around as long as me , as long as they are doing their bit and the team is winning , the supporter wants more ,ive said before on another post that speedway at higher levels is getting to expensive to watch ,the NL offers good value for money but you have to make it a professional looking league that is serious about its racing , i am trying to sound unbiased about these posts cause i see it from my point of being an older rider but my time is coming to an end for racing and i want to see 3rd division speedway flourish, it really deserves better from the bspa , and british speedway in general owes alot to the conference/national league but like most of speedway these days it needs to show some professional outlook before people will start realise what a great product it really is

after seeing the sad situation with newport my first thought was why dont they enter the NL? , if the NL was a well run league and was seen as a bonified 3rd division instead of an development league maybe they would want to join , like stoke did , i know certain people winthin the stoke set up thought it was a bad idea to join , but they did and those people loved it by the end of the year , i really do belive we can make the 3rd division a shining light in speedway instead of the ugly sister it is at the moment , its a british riders league full of riders who are not in it for the money ,who dont jet off to ride for other teams ( of which i still feel is working against team speedway ) but i understand riders need to make a living , the league needs a leader someone with ideas someone who dosent tow the bspa line and pushes the league for all its worth , where is the publicity for NL meetings ?, there is needle between a couple of teams because of events that went on last year , well make storys out of them , when the 2 teams meet , the week before team A puts in the star " we are going to beat team B cause we beat them last year and they are bad losers so we are going to rub their faces in it and do it again " words like that , create some intrest , then the supporters from team B want to go to the meeting cause the meetings mean something , its basic publicity ,make some heroes and villians from the riders , the riders would be willing to go along with it im sure , stop this development talk , it does nothing to attract supporters to meetings , yes the league is used for riders to learn but supporters of dudley ,mildenhall, isle of wight ,stoke want their teams to win cause after speedway at all levels including 3rd division is about WINNING , maybe newport would want to be a part of that , , (at least i havent got to headbutt their safety fence again) but joking apart push the league , make it proper team speedway and maybe supporters will want to pay to watch it ,

i enjoyed riding at Wimbledon but i do remember everything being vastly over priced as everything is in London and that was for conference league so you could imagine how much it would cost to attend a GP in London , stick with Cardiff , they welcome speedway and really have bent over backwards to embrace the sport although financially its in their interests to do so

is the olympic stadium in the LEZ charge , if so that rules out any fan who owns a diesel car or van over 2ton and 10 years old from attending ,unless they want to pay £200 a day

i dont think it would get a better gate , it would put me off for a start ,i not haviing a go at this new manchester speedway stadium either but looking at the plans ive seen better stadiums used for training by football teams , it hardly looks state of the art and is open to the elements for a start of which manchester is well known for

got to say i share this view , cardiff is a far better venue than wembley or the olympic stadium, have you been in the surrounding areas around wembley and hackney these days ,to think 40,000 fans hanging around acton doesnt fill me with joy , london is only important to the people who live there , the rest of the country are happy for cardiff or any other stadium for that matter , why not have it indoors at the nec or other venues around the country , its a tempory track anyway so laying the track is not an issue

this sounds strange and its not what should happen but the NL should make it self so successful that premier teams should want to drop down , the product is right just the way it is projected into fan base is all wrong , but that is speedways problem in general ,i really dont care what the premier or elite do i am only passionate about the NL and its way forward

i just think we should make the NL as professional as possible , the reality is its a 3rd division with better racing and more unpredictability , just at a slightly slower speed ,

i think for a start drop the development or amateur tag from the title , while it might have the intentions it puts people off straight away , use the word training ,development, amateur and fans think wobblers going round at 5mph and crashing every corner , make it look professional , i know fans who just wont go to watch NL cause they think its a glorified training school,it does not matter what its intentions are it must be seen as a 3rd division, this is not the answer to all the problems but i think its a must as a starting point

now that it looks like less teams in the league unless any new teams come forward, places are more scarce than before and the big money that was paid to some riders a couple of years ago is not so widespread and its about 50/50 that get paid £10 per point and 10p per mile and those who get more , so i think its about time the bspa did their bit and made some efforts to reduce riders costs , standardisation of bikes/engines ?, the price of the licence ? ,new tyres ? .speedway has got to start reducing costs somewhere it might as well be at the bottom and work up

i would be happy to see davey watt as the wild card in cardiff if he is the next in line , i dont think bjarne pedersen is going to do much for the GP but he is there on merit , he has earned that right , if we are going to go down the route of putting riders in to pull the crowd then put jason garrity in at cardiff , the other 15 riders would be a lot more scared of him than he would be of them

i am not really opposed to the new gaurds except in looks maybe , i just think its a change that will just change the injury rather than eliminate it ,and if you think how many races have been run for years and years with the current style gaurds how many riders have got caught in the mudgaurd? , the bikes are a minefield for getting tangled up with and suffering burns but thats the nature of racing motorcycles and always will be and as for safety at all levels what about rear wheel spoilers , it is now a rule at all levels you have to use them to stop fingers getting caught in the back wheel except in the GPs ? ,why what so special about the GPs that makes them exempt from the rule ,

this is not taking anything away from jason ,jason efforts in New Zealand should be commended and im sure he will give it all , but the point is this is the world championships, to find the best in the world , not a celebrity big brother on bikes , where you can just introduce a person to boost the ratings ,

other 15 riders all over world 45 bikes all over the world another 3 bikes and another couple of seats on a chartered flight surely next in line should be davy watt ? and he is in aus

and going by the crowds , speedway is not going in the right direction for a lot of people

then if your right , dont bother sending any riders half way round the world , iron maiden will be touring there soon just get them to play , the stadium will be packed and bsi will make a fortune , the gp is just turning into xfactor on bikes ,

ive got nothing against jason but the credibility of speedway is a stake here (if it has any left), if its about putting bums on seats then get Justin Bieber to ride , he will get 1000s of screaming girls to attend ,this is selling speedway down the river , this is the world championship ,its a competition to find the best speedway rider in the world, what bsi do about promoting the gps should have no influence on the riders who ride in it

just to let the organizers know I'm available for the Cardiff wildcard, my mom is welsh lol

it does pay some of the costs , it pays travel expenses and it pays points money and nowhere else will you get that racing motorbikes , ,but untill you get to at least a second string in the premier league you shouldn't be thinking about getting anywhere near breaking even and not treating it as a job , it would be wonderful if speedway was raking money in and could afford to pay riders decent money but it cant, i'm not saying riders riders don't deserve getting payed for it ,i'm just saying that with what speedway does pay you should be grateful that you get something that you love doing , and to be honest if you are doing speedway to make a fortune and earn a good living ,then you are in the wrong job , cause unless you get to the top it isn't going to happen ,that does sound a little harsh but its a fact , speedway itself could do something to make it more affordable but it wont , costs will just keep rising and about 80% of British riders wont get past premier league standard in their career and will not have made any sort of money , but 99% will say they had a fantastic time trying

for me it has to be ermolenko/ correy and hamill/hancock and when wolves met cradley somebody had to lose ,those were the days

im going to annoy some with this post but , to be a speedway rider is your own choice nobody is forceing you to do it , it is a fantastic often painfull career/hobby , you have to sacrifice just about everything to do it , no other motorcycle sport pays you anything other than prize money to compete, you dont have a given right to earn money at it ,especially at NL level , it takes a silly amount of money to compete above NL level and although sponsors are great and well recieved why should you expect someone else to pay for your privilage/hobby/passion, as brits yes we do get less backing from our govening body than say Denmark,Sweden or Poland but it will never change , i do sympathize with anybody trying to get started in the sport ,the fact is it costs a stupid amount of time and money and your always going to be on a loser , but the sport dosent do anything to help out with costs , ive been going around in circles for long enough now to know how it works ,and when i think of the money i lost around 1997-2001 trying to compete in the premier league it makes me cringe ,i was traveling to berwick and glasgow for home meetings but i wanted to be a rider and thats what you have to do no matter how much money you lose , i actually didnt lose money last year by doing my own engines and frame straightening and wheel building , im just seeing out my career this year and having fun , hopefully all you young new riders will get to the top and make loads of money from speedway , but what im trying to say is to be a speedway rider is a privalige not a right and to get to the top its going to cost you in money/time/effort/tears/heartache/sweat and blood , enjoy the ride

the new guards will now just chop your fingers straight off instead of burning your skin