Hawk127

Mikebv sums it up nicely. Anyone who really thinks that you have a local team is in the main deluded. You have individual riders who are self employed and financially need to look after to number so will ride for anybody anywhere as long as they are earning. Individuals who rarely team ride or look out for their partner in a heat. So you have individuals who conveniently link themselves to a club name for their own benefit. No loyalty no local input, rarely out and about locally promoting their’ club and dictating when they ride, the type of track and not forgetting the weather has to be perfect. If a cat or dog pisses on a track, let’s abandon the meeting. People wonder why no one wants to be a major sponsor and TV uses the sport as a filler. Wholesale changes needed but it will never happen. It has lost its way and can never be compared to the set ups in other countries. It has fallen on its sword.

Amongst the general public, speedway in the U.K. ranks somewhere between lawn mower racing and conkers so understandable. It really is not on many people’s radar and those presenting news programmes have little or no knowledge of any sports apart from football, rugby, tennis, cricket and formula 1. Possibly horse racing but only the major meetings. Speedway is a niche sport not even well supported by motor bike enthusiasts and it is run by lunatics who have been let out of the asylum for too long.

Not seen it hence the question so not confused at all, just curious but no longer. I have seen the American car racing and it ranks alongside paint drying and counting nails in B & Q. Thanks for the reply.

Noticed that the above programme is on Freesports. Has anyone seen it? I guess it is road bikes but probably does not help the general using Speedway in the title when most would expect the conventional form of racing.

Sad indictment that the good name of Ipswich witches has reached its nadir thanks to inept performances by too many. Let everyone hope that the proud name regroups for next season and invites riders who want to do well for Ipswich first and foremost. It is a shame that the team is fodder for every other team in this league. A clear out Is needed and I would also make changes at the top. Hawkins needs to go along with at least five of the current line up. Fresh start and new hope cannot be achieved without wholesale changes. This alongside a change in presentation and something more that 15 heats of four laps interspersed with gardening and tractor speed trials no longer cuts it. CL sits on the top table so do something about the sad state that the sport is in and do something about re-establishing Ipswich as a force to be reckoned with and not a laughing stock who are currently taking the p of every fan who has loyally supported the club.

Totally agree. Any rider who drives around the country to gain track time and experience deserves praise for putting himself on the line even for little return. I wish a few more experienced riders would make the effort. I just hope that he does not lose heart.

I think that the IOW appeals to the non speedway purist who wants to be entertained over a period of time with a variety of two wheeled action and other distractions. Speedway as many know it and has operated for years cannot survive as you have too few teams and fewer riders who have actually honed their craft and know how to set up a machine for the range of track conditions that the prevailing U.K. weather requires. The sport needs an open policy that allows tracks to remain open and offer entertainment on days/nights that suit. Ignore Europe and with the tracks that are left run fortnightly on Friday, Saturday and Sunday between April and October and most of all go out to provide an evenings entertainment not 15 races with gardening interspersed with tractor time trials and many examples of restarts with the mechanical clowns trying to rectify what they failed to do before the first attempt to run the race. If a race needs to be restarted, the riders need to get back to the start not fart about making adjustments giving an unfair advantage. The sport is old hat and it fails to attract new followers and fails to try something new. It is dictated by riders who expect the unattainable in terms of track conditions and weather capped with promoters/club owners who think what they offer needs no change. These two need to ask themselves why the numbers on the terraces are falling. Sadly they have no interest in the punter or the potential entertainment value that a professionally run sport could offer. The current crop of riders (with few exceptions) and promoters apart from two or three really deserve each other and can be proud that their actions are central to the decline of speedway in this country and fully responsible for where it sits today.

I really do not think that it matters whether Buster has recently had rider experience. In years gone by riders honed their craft and knew how to control the machine in a variety of track conditions and could work the track. Today you seem to have machines where riders are simply passengers and many are a far cry from the experience that prevailed in the 60’s through to the 80’s. Riders have the right not to take to the track but if a rider is prepared to give it a go to see if it is rideable then why not allow the trial to go ahead. Referees are unlikely to have the same experience as a rider and frankly should allow some benefit of the doubt to the riders. How often do you hear from the top riders criticism of referees who make a call but have little or no knowledge of the bikes/riders and the track conditions. No rider wants to deliberately injure a colleague or competitor but speedway is a risk sport and those that compete know the consequences of their actions. Buster, love him or hate him, knows how to prepare a track and would not go out of his way to raise the risk of injury by preparing a duff track and riders should know the bikes and arrange them set ups to suit the conditions so it is a case of give and take. Unfortunately riders today want perfect conditions and neither the sport, the weather or the tracks will rarely offer this as an option and those who are looking for the ideal world should sell their machines and look for another job and stop letting down the punters who turn out to see racing. Any right minded businessman would not invest in the current set up and if the figures stack up re bangers and stock cars where I believe most competitors pay to compete in a meeting, then why the hell run a speedway team. Get back to part timers etc and those who think they are so good enough, ply your trade in Poland or elsewhere and you will then soon receive a wake up call to your worth.

Perhaps riders at KL should have a spare bike set up as a ice speedway machine. Bruce Cribb manage several laps round IOW so why not use the set up on wet tracks? I then remembered that the riders don’t like getting their kevlars dirty. Oh well add riders to those who really are hell bent on bringing the sport to it knees. Don’t spout about rider safety, anyone with the skills as was the case in the 60’s70’s and 80’s could ride wet tracks and those tracks covered in sawdust. Tracks became more rideable with use but today’s wimps are on over powered machines with no real track craft and most would have failed as competitive riders had they had to compete in years gone by. No wonder the sport is in the state it is in.

What is the future for the witches given a poor season, the rumoured sale of Peterborough and Kings Lynn and the possible demise of one or two other tracks. Hopefully the sport can survive but it looks grim for speedway. Has it reached its nadir?

No one with half a brain would invest in a speedway track run under the current structure. Sadly a few owners have dragged the sport down to a point where the only survival route is probably amateur riders racing on open licensed tracks and a maybe a mini league. The BSPL had the opportunity to do something different this year but decided on a tried and failed product formula. If the stories are true and you have the futures of Swindon, Birmingham, Newcastle, Eastbourne, Peterborough, Kings Lynn, Poole (track ownership) and possibly one or two more in doubt then sadly speedway in the U.K. will be a shadow of its former self and possibly resemble France in terms of league racing and Belgium/Netherlands in terms of individual events. The fans and supporters are not to blame, many turn out each week but are pissed on from a great height by club owners and the governing body is solely responsible for systematic failures including squandering t v revenues and pricing the sport beyond those who would have given it a go as well as looking down its own nose on those from grass track etc who may have given it a go. None of those in charge have the balls to come on this forum and be answerable to the supporters. Gentlemen and Ny Ladies, you are cowards and much more you have driven the sport to the point of dying out completely. Your failure to even acknowledge the punter whose hard earned cash you take each week is a disgrace and you should hang your heads in shame except that you have no morals. To the directors, board and whatever you call yourselves on the BSPL you are a disgrace to the sport.

I hope the writing is not on the wall for Eastbourne or any team as the sport struggles now with fewer clubs and so the adage of a track near you to watch it live becomes less and less of a true marketing statement. I am sure many supporters would rather have a competitive team at a lower level which can wash its face cost wise through the season than have no team at all. Covid is not to blame for the state of speedway, it may be a minor factor in terms of cross border rider availability but the flaws in the finances of the clubs are down to the club owners where for some it is a hobby and not a business. Riders, owners and supporters need to accept that the money is not around for a sport like speedway and so it needs to operate at a level that is realistically affordable. The governing body also needs to get its head out of the sand and allow various operating models in order to keep tracks open such as open licences and allow other ‘IOW’ projects to run without threats to riders livelihoods. It is the self interest of a few promoters that are bringing the sport to its knees and with outside pressures such as the demand for house building etc. tracks become targets for development so the need to keep them operating cannot be understated yet the few on the top table seem plough a furrow that suits their patch rather than work for the collective good of all tracks. The BSPL had a chance to reinvent the sport this year and offer something different given all the likely issues with riders etc but instead they ran with an outdated boring business model, insisted on race nights when it really made no difference due to overseas travel restrictions and seemingly failed to understand why it might be necessary to carry out a SWOT analysis. Had they even thought about this then you would have a very different outcome and just maybe a few tracks could have opted to do something different rather than be coerced into doing something that benefits only a few operators. Let’s hope some sense prevails before we have nothing left.

I agree with most of what you say but the description used is not going to work. You have promoters (leaping Len Silver or Dave Lanning) no longer allowed to wind up the crowd, character riders who were the baddies no longer exist except NP and the rest is muted compared to the 70’s and 80’s. What it needs is some excitement put back into the sport. For example using six riders run the first part of a meeting as two rider two lap match races, then run pairs and finally draw names randomly for one on one match races but with handicaps so that if a number one rider is drawn against a number six they start off a handicap. It needs something that is fast furious and snappy, not the gardening diehards who if an infringement at the start, go back and basically fart about for five minutes before a restart. What happened to the back to the tapes without the pit gate being opened. The current situation is pathetic throwback and will hardly excite the potential audience who don’t want inordinate breaks between four laps of processional racing. It needs some umph not the flop that league racing more often than not offers.

Agree it will be extremely sad if another historic team is lot to the sport but the sport and those in charge have done little to ensure clubs survive and collectively work with clubs facing adversity. It is a case of look after number one and given that it is a minority sport speedway needs every club to work for the good of all but that simply does not happen. You only have to look at the imposition of race nights for the benefit of everyone outside the sport and internally the riders, yet the fans can go screw themselves and be taken for granted. Run your business as a few may dictate (BSPL committee) but you as the club owner accept the consequences if it does not pan out. No wonder the sport is dead in the water. Back to watching the cricket 100 on BBC 2 to appreciate what can be achieved with forward thinkers.

Currently watching the cricket 100 on BBC 2 and not being a cricket fan, it is entertaining it is different and is nowhere near as boring as I remember cricket. Speedway needs to try something different. What speedway offers is old hat and suits the diehards but to attract a new audience, forget the current format. Speedway can be fast and furious but league racing does not cut with today’s potential audience and if you watch the way this form of cricket is presented, speedway could do the same with the same level of analysis when it comes to bikes and riders and use various formats for a race meeting with teams of seven riders and it could be so different.

All looks very promising and seems to be progressing well. Given what is, or more to the point is not, going on elsewhere what are the chances of the Swindon licence transferring to Oxford?

I wholeheartedly agree with you. I was trying to generalise the sad state that the sport finds itself in partly due to the lack of competitive track time. I was a regular week in week out up until around 2017/8 but the way it is run now I think twice before spending hard earned cash on second rate entertainment and until they do something different and really think about providing a decent nights racing, they can whistle.

Maybe the riders do need regular track time and many like Troy thrive on racing but the U.K. scene is not conducive to likes of Troy and many others. Hit and miss meetings and without doubling up (which I am not a fan of) these guys are rusty and in the current climate travelling around Europe is not going to work. U K speedway could help every rider by being innovative by putting on meaningful sponsored individual meetings and the 4T T to give these guys track time. What we currently have is a formula that may have worked in normal times but that does not apply now.and the powers that be will never admit that they have failed the riders and the punters with their intransigence which is the core of the problem here in the UK. Don’t knock the riders blame the sport’s managers who sit on the top table

Those sitting on the top table, hang your heads in shame. You really do not appreciate how much he and his now legacy magazine did to promote the sport over so many years and in many troubled times which is far more than any of you half wits at the BSPL have ever done. You keep on digging that publicity related hole for yourselves, you are doing a grand job.

Perhaps even Eurosport are bored with filming the same six teams with riders who are at best second rate. As Baldyman said, lucky anyone is broadcasting this joke of a sport. Why didn’t you the BSPL try to negotiate a deal that covered the three leagues not just the so called top tier so at least a bit of variation albeit you are then left with trying to explain to the average viewer the double up/down and the same riders competing for different teams in different leagues. Yep only speedway could be lead by a bunch of inept negotiators who still believe that the U.K. side of the sport is not in need of major surgery and still don’t ask themselves why so many stadia are virtually empty on race night.

The IOW seem to be doing OK and in reality have always run during the summer months when they are reasonably confident of getting a good turnout. Speedway has generally become unreliable with say the hint of dampness in the air and a meeting is called off. Few riders are prepared to tackle a track and adapt to the prevailing conditions and the weekly fix is dead and buried. People have found other things to do since the riders and clubs took the punters for granted and treated them with such contempt over the last few years. Sorry to say but most clubs and owners are their own worst enemy and many have lost the plot coming out with the begging bowl when things get tough which shows how unsound their business plans are and the model they use.

Out of interest do grass track riders have the same over the top expenditure for the bike, are they forced into using a particular tyre, do the bikes engines last more than a few meetings before having to be rebuilt, do they have to use expensive engine tuners? One of the problems with speedway is that it portrays itself as a working mans sport but the participants need wealthy benefactors simply to start a bike up let alone ride the thing. Take speedway back to basics and make it affordable and then a few more grass track riders might consider taking up speedway on a part time basis. I do agree that back in the 70’s and 80’s you would see speedway riders at grass track meetings and I like many others use to attend grass track when you had a top name speedway rider in the meeting like. Dave Jessup or many of the witches riders from that era. As has been mentioned by numerous people, stadiums/clubs need to run on days that suit the local market and with so few league meetings and shortage of riders it makes no sense to run with seven man teams. You need to reduce these to five or even four and run a league format that can be fulfilled on the basis of rider availability and then run individual meetings or meaningful second half individual events that could in effect be a British Championship with the top twenty scorers at the end of the season participating in a grand finale like an old world championship final. Something needs to change as what is on offer now has virtually no appeal hence dwindling crowds and poor t v coverage. Speedway U.K. at domestic level needs to forget the rest of the world and run on its own terms. Overseas riders can take it or leave it but few clubs can realistically afford to employ an overseas rider without a serious sponsor, hence that tells you that in the cold light of day the business model that includes non British riders is on viable.

Totally agree. The sport has been sold down the line by going with this bunch of cowboys but then you have to look at who runs the sport in this country. They have dragged it down to a new level and allowed themselves to be lead up the garden path on a promise and little else. Eurosport could not give a fig about speedway. They have dominated the Olympic coverage much to the sanguine of the viewers who believe that a public broadcaster like the BBC has the viewers best interests at heart. If anyone at BSPL level is lining their pockets on the back of a Eurosport deal then they are taking the p.... No wonder speedway has lost its way and so many cannot be bothered with what has become an embarrassment. Little credence and what could have been ground out from regular t v meetings has gone up in smoke. Thank you BSPL and every promoter throughout the land (except IOW) who have stood back and let the sport down. You are a credit to speedway.

Joking aside, it is sad that what should be a thrilling sport finds itself in such a sad state of affairs. Yes we are probably on the same page and I use to go week in week out irrespective of the result but since 2016, it has in my opinion gone down hill and I really can only bring myself to watch the up and coming riders who do the utmost and ride with heart on sleeve. I was really hoping that the NDL meetings would be part of the entertainment at the top tracks but they just paid lip service to this idea and nothing so my local club have again lost out on my attendance. Only Mildenhall provide the sort of racing that will get my support. Raw talent but entertaining and in the main only ones way to go, that is up.

No problem. Like you, I and most on here have lost the plot so back to the entertainment with WWE and the Undertaker and this will be followed by the riveting world fishing championship from a local garden pond near you. Eurosport have pulled out all the stops.