Tsunami

Where does it say that their banner is going to cover up your plaque. Surely, given the length of that straight, it is big enough to accommodate both. Or is one of you looking for a fight.

Jonathan Swales not Stuart Swales.

I haven't been there this winter. As you say the track has been smoothed out with the big Redcar blade. Pity the blade takes ripples and peaks off, but not hollows/dips. There has been vandalism to the home straight fence, and that is currently having to be replaced, posts, mesh and kickboards. The airfence still has to be returned to the track, and most of the kickboards repainted ready to be refixed. With some decent weather(obviously not this Sunday) there is still plenty of time to get it done if there is sufficient volunteers.

Yes. I think Rob did say on Friday night that the new website would be installed soon.

Newcastle, like a lot of other tracks, can't afford or not have enough riders to complete a complete season in the NL. I was looking last year at the possibilities of a NL team based on Newcastle/Redcar with shared home meetings, but the only NL track near to us was Belle Vue, which is 140 miles across the country. With the possibility of closure of Newcastle suddenly, we were resurrected by Rob Grant, but Edinburgh have now decided to enter the NL this year and they now have the Northern riders who wanted to ride NL. Rob obviously wanted an outlet for what riders we have, and a small venture in the NT seems like the perfect opportunity to test the NL water. Remember he has had a massive job on to get the Diamonds/Gems/Sapphires set up and running from the available riders, plus some new riders to the UK. As well as Wallinger, the NT will give both assets Josh Embleton and Joe Adcock a chance to show their skills having not been picked up in the declared NL teams. Newcastle will be back in the NJL this season with the Sapphires to defend the league title the Gems won last year The double headers will start earlier on the Sunday afternoon and the admission will be £3 extra. To think you can give the fans two meetings, and not charge extra, shows you don't really have a grip on the finances of running a business.

Yes. It's a good chance to put himself in the window if there is a vacancy somewhere. The fact both David and the Newcastle Gems are Northern is good, and it's only 6 meetings plus friendlies.

I'm told that there was never a burger involved, surprise surprise , and someone had advised Wolbert to turn around at the airport, when they realised the consequences with his average if he had rode. My version would be he never left his house.

There's no real benefit to have wider straights IMO. The legal limit is currently 8 metres wide, which is quite adequate to accommodate 4 riders abreast at the starts. Probably the only time they will be in one line in the whole of the race. Far better to concentrate on widening the entrances/exits to the corners, and widening them to give more racing lines especially with some decent banking. There should always be banking on every track.

Yes, that would be common sense you would have thought. But it is the BSPA. No doubt there's something about getting more riders involved rather than doubling up with youngsters.

Many thanks for that. The main meeting of course is the top riders event. In addition, there is planned to have as many as possible previous Diamonds doing demo races, possible uprights races and special races including the Gems/Sapphires members. The doors will be opened earlier and there will be entertainment for the kids in the form of fairground rides. No doubt a hog roast will appear at some time. The meeting, as well at the whole season, will be sponsored be our areas largest radio station. Metro Radio, who will be allied to the big sponsor which has yet to be announced. Yes, exciting times ahead.

Ha Ha. Yes it would have been great to get Nicki but I am sure Rob would have considered it especially with the pull he would have added to the event. Knowing Nicki, if he could have made it he would of. He always speaks so highly of his time up here, and what it did for him. His biggest regret was he didn't stay up here, having digs in Peterborough with the same arrangements that his brother Ronni had enjoyed. He wished he had stayed up here for to know and socialise with his favourite fans. Ironically he did the same at Wolverhampton which is why they didn't really take to him. You never know do you.

Rules have been changed from the published ones at Xmas. A rider now can't ride for 2 teams (Leon already signed for Armadale) so Newcastle have acted quickly and signed David Wallinger. Not a youngster, but he is a very experienced rider who, from observation, is very helpful and encouraging for our younger team members.

Yes it's been a brilliant start in the Rob Grant era at Newcastle Speedway. Two fans nights both packed out, all the team in attendance and the return of many old faces that I think have been missing for a long time. Let's hope this continues into the season, and we see the two new foreign riders getting to grips with Brough, whilst James eases himself onto a speedway bike and hits the form that fans have hope for. These 3 riders are key to our success, remembering we have to make up about 2 points to match the strength of the other teams. I am sure we will. Brilliant field for the first meeting celebrating the 90th anniversary of Newcastle Speedway. It could only be improved by the inclusion of Nicki P, but it's still a cracking field. As one illustrious fan said to me last night "I've got a feeling that this year is going to be a great year". I don't think he is wrong.

I lived in Maryport with work many moons ago. I lodged in the Golden Lion, which was down the hill just where the start of the marina, which was just starting to be built. That was a classy joint. We used to go to Cockermouth for our nights.

Or place an order with George/Rob on Friday night at the Meet the Riders/Race Night, 7.00pm at South Gosforth CIU Club(beside the Metro Station). Plug Plug.

Given what he said in his own Tweet last week, the first need is Benji Compton. He tried to take his life the same weekend, and has just been discharged from Hospital.

There was an interesting article in the Speedway Star dated 18th January 2020 about Danny and his life, written by Neil Skelding. Worth a read.

Please delete my Quote.

Also been mentioned on Facebook by Jason Pipe, but delete my post if you want.

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Yes, there is a lot going on in the background that most fans don't know about. All teams should consider training their own, as well as making speculative signings. It's not one and not the other.

Beat Archie twice at the last Amateur meeting at Scunny, but Archie has a 60.3 around Scunny.

Yes, Andre did get himself a bit of a reputation. I was at that meeting BTW. Hard as nails he never backed off, as seen at Lakeside when an Arena rider was going round all the riders on the outside of the 1st and 2nd bends, when Andre went to the fence and the Arena rider when through the fence and took several sections of the fence with him. All 4 back.

Yes I think he did. Pickering did some funny moves and was too fast at times. When he joined Reading he suddenly shot up the table to be one of the highest average riders in our League. In the race in 1999 Wilson, who later took the track record a few years later, missed the gate and was left trailing by the usual fast start Robert in heat 1. Derroll Keats followed him down the back straight and Wilson turned it on, passed Derroll on the back straight and by the time he got to the third bend he was going too fast to properly turn, and just went straight on and hit Robert midships. Robert flew off the bike, landing on his shoulder when he came down. Broken collarbone for Robert and an exclusion for Sean. It was one of the plainest example of a rider just going for the rider and not only should he have been excluded, he should have gone from the rest of the meeting. Unfortunately the ref chickened out and it meant we had to use Dave McAllan for Robert's replacement for the rest of the meeting, but Sean was allowed to stay in the meeting and contributed to our loss on the night. I think I took Robert to the airport home are we had been to the hospital. Being retired I was the one that got those jobs, with both George and Peter working. The worst dirty riding I have seen was the deliberate fencing of Christian Henry on the 4th bend by Magnus Zetterstrom in the early 00's. Christian hurled into fence probably not knowing what had hit him. This time, the ref Stuart Wilson, applied the not often used rule to exclude Magnus, who was not concerned what he had done, from the rest of the meeting. Poor Christian wasn't up to riding after that, having lost a big chunk out of his bum flesh hitting the fence. Horrible smash, only followed by Rene's big smash many years later at the exact same spot.

Agreed. Paul suddenly gained a lot of speed when he was at Reading and not all riders thought that was fair. Can anybody remember the details of the crash that badly finished his career ?