mikebv

They will be PAYING THEM a tenner to attend.... British Speedway... If it didnt exist the way it does, you couldn't make it up enough to truly do it justice could you?

It is amazing that the TV matches dont have any seperate focus from the promoters isnt it? Guess what. Breaking news. Whisper this. Spoiler alert for any Promoters reading this.. "Unless its the play offs. Your crowd will be a lot less for a TV match than a non TV match, and it will do you no favours when it comes to showcasing your sport to potential future Speedway fans"... I presume the above must be "earth shattering" to read and some will he amazed at my "Poirot like" mystical powers of deduction, but it will invariably be true, given it is based on decades of TV coverage, and hundreds of TV matches.. And when you add in a "poor meeting", with strung out races and little passing (which let's be honest most meetings have more of than close exciting racing with lots of paasing), then anyone watching will put two and two together and decide "no wonder nobody goes", and wont ever bother trying it for themselves... Last night was an example where the scoreboard would have kept things interesting if a large noisy crowd had been in attendance, adding atmosphere to the occasion.. And if the promoters say that they couldn't afford to drop prices for the TV matches then they must rather have someone NOT there, and NOT paying them ANY money at all, than someone actually BEING THERE, GIVING THEM MONEY, say a Tenner, and adding atmosphere to the occasion, improving the overall positive experience of the visit, and making it look to the wider outside sporting world that have tuned in, that the sport is popular and that they could just be missing out on something.. A "strange" and quite "unique" business plan to have a two hour advert on TV, and make your product look so poorly purchased.. ....

Of course they should do... As they should have done for a long, long time.. Two hours of free advertising for the sport so maybe they should at least try and make it look popular..? Restaurants put you in the window tables early in the evening for a reason and that is to make their establishment look "popular".... As they know that people are "sheep like" and easily led and influenced... Speedway showcases itself with rows and rows and rows of empty seats.. A bit of a waste of a two hours advert I would suggest...

The challenge is when we have heavy downpours and the track becomes "too grippy"... The track team do a great job but just need to find a way of keeping the great racing when a lot of grip around the inside has been created.. I am sure they are working on it though and will no doubt find an answer.. For me. Not too sure about grading it after four heats when "grippy" as we need the racing line to move out and the inside become slicker as soon as possible.. The racing definitely improved as the material stayed mid track to outer so maybe letting it move out earlier without pulling it back in might help? Overall an ok meeting with some decent, if not spectacular racing.. And considering the weather, (and no Matej), I would suggest the crowd was "not bad" at all.. And great to see Jason Crump too... What is noticeable is how "social" UK speedway is with the riders of both teams standing together watching, laughing and joking, and two from opposite teams even shared a mechanic in Robbie Kessler.. Not quite like Poland where even the mechanics wear the club colours, and riders from each team invariably stand apart.. I suppose it reflects where UK Speedway is in that it is more about riders getting rides rather than anything else... Not a bad night overall and it is still great to attend a racetrack where, even if not the best racing ever seen there, there is always enough to keep you interested for four laps in most races, and, unlike far too many tracks, the places are not decided coming out of bend two, lap one..

There is a lot of repeat coverage of Speedway on Eurosport so fair play to them... Hopefully it will enter slowly into the psyche of those watching enough for them to decide to visit their local track...

Far too many variables make up averages... Eg a riders liking for a home track v his away performances, his position in the team, how many points get "gifted" or "lost" by engine failures, falls, riders "giving up at the back" and riders "managing" their own averages, riding in meetings missing the best riders through fixture clashes, team riding by riding "shot gun" and probably many more... Grade them all...

Dan does seem to struggle to ride an inside line around a bend when in front... Gets passed underneath too much...

I presume no rationale has been explained with the rule change? If so, I can only think that it actually could be designed as a way of reducing averages for next season for some riders... Isn't the plan to bring back more GP riders next year? If so, including them AND all the doubling up Div One HL's currently sat on 6/7/8/9 point averages might be difficult... Therefore the current lads drop a decimal point or two and they can then get team places to keep doubling up next year... As if they dont double up, they then may want more to ride in Div 2...

Most seasons many of the play off positions are pretty much guaranteed for some teams by the end of July so plenty of scope for manipulation I would think... Matej at 6 would be good for the Aces.. ..

Woukd make sense... Is it Wright, Brennan and Blodorn who can take the rides? Pretty solid four rides covered by those 3 I would think.. Bailey could then maybe take one or two rides if the meeting isnt in the balance later on..

My lad used to ride cycle Speedway and was told "you don't need to be the fastest to win, you just need to be fast enough to win"... Track craft so important... "None shall pass"....

Dan Bewley I believe...

Almost needs to be a bit more ruthless to compensate for his lack of speed... Not sure it is in his make up though.. Freddie, Doyle, Nicki P and Bartosz wouldn't bat an eye lid to do it if they felt under pressure for horsepower..

Woffy does ride strangely at times.. They water the track so he rides wide and gets filled in as everyone piles under him... Its clear the inside was the line in Semi 2 so he rides mid track until realising that he should ride the inside... Very confusing for such a great rider to get passed in the "obvious ways".. He seems to not be able to hook the bike up around the kerb.. Maybe his ribs are still giving him some discomfort...?

Is it still Fireman Phil in charge?

I seem to remember this being the reason rolling averages were brought in, in the first place wasnt it? With the wholel premise being the longer the number of races and meetings, the less impact a few dodgy ones had...

Makes total sense.. Phones can break or have no battery charge or get nicked or lost... "My ticket was on my phone. Honest!" Might not get you in..

And were 2nd Div standard riders not 3rd tier... The Championship seriously needs to be the stepping stone between Div 1 and 3 with the team strengths spread out accordingly and evenly... How they do that after many years of running teams made up of the Div 1 HL's I dont know... Can't charge circa £20 for a lower standard of product can they? And I would imagine they will be loathe to drop the admission price..

Very true... With the ultimate irony being that those within the "Speedway Bubble" don't see the untold damage they do by the way they run it... Not many successful businesses will have part of their business plan.. "Proactively alienate a fair proportion of our customer base through our operating model" I would imagine.. A great product but in the wrong hands maybe?

It's UK Speedway.... It doesnt really matter... Just go along and hopefully enjoy a good evenings entertainment... There is pretty much no kudos in victory, no major financial reward, and hardly any media coverage other than the odd mention in a few papers for the play off winners allied to good coverage in the Speedway Star, so it really doesn't matter who wins any league.. What does matter is that teams win at home most weeks and stay solvent, which ensure riders who spend tens of thousands on kit are able to ride on many nights of the year to justify their expense.. The sport has been ran in a "bit Mickey Mouse" way for decades so it wont ever change.. It still has the capability to deliver a cracking night out, and the racing today is as least as good as I can ever remember, so just go along and enjoy what is on offer.. You might be even be lucky enough to be there for Bomber's 100th appearance of the season...

He will have his own personal fixed race night rules soon... The fixture list will have to built around him....

Now this surely is one of those instances where the meeting shouldn't be ran or made into a "challenge".. Does the sport no favours constantly having such "made up" teams.. If you win, it's not really your team, and if you lose, it's not really your team.. Meaning you wont be too happy nor will you be too disappointed, depending on the result.. . Team Sports shouldn't ever as a result of their operating model remove that emotional attachment the fans need.. Not to mention the possible impact to attendance with the No1 crowd puller missing in Bomber.. There must be other Saturday nights when this could have been ran surely? Getting the fans to believe in the "product" is a key issue for UK Speedway to overcome... Constantly churning out such situations doesnt help it achieve that sadly... A shame, as what can be such a great spectacle deserves a much better infrastructure built around it...

That went well then....

Interesting thought process... I drive a Citroen 2CV...

Maybe because he is a Promoter in that league possibly? .. Commenting on other teams' riders might get some negative responses from some? Definitely the most informative and natural of all the co commentators, and should be used often...