pvm

I think you'll find they are Video clips, it you play each one, the crowd difference becomes apparent.

Just as a matter of interest, How will medical cover be affected, will medical cover be available to hold meetings? The way things are going it's going to be" all hands on Deck" to keep the NHS running.

According to this Speedway History site, he doesn't appear to have ridden for Newcastle. http://wwosbackup.proboards.com/thread/2855/doug-templeton (disclaimer:- I don't know who runs the site, so I can't verify the accuracy of the information contained with-in the website, but it does seam to be a good reference source.)

As an aside, Chiltern Railways ran a test train, a couple of years ago, full of local dignitaries along the rail line that runs behind the stadium. The idea being to build a passenger station to run services to from London Marylebone. Oxford station has limited capacity for terminating services and a new station would give the flexibility to run trains through Oxford station without occupying platform space. I haven't heard any further plans being put in the public domain, but if it was to transpire it would put the stadium with-in reach of public transport from as far afield as London.

In order to solve a problem, first you need to understand what the problems are. Judging by the comments on here. Comments like “too few fixture”, “not enough variety”, “poor standard in the top league” “doubling up/down” “excessive use of guests” etc. When you look at some of the problems, the main cause is too few riders to go around, to fill the number of teams wishing to complete in the current league structures, so how do you solve the problem, well unless you find 50-100 new rider of the required level, the problems will never be solved. This year the Premiership was made up of 7 teams, meeting each other twice at home and twice away, 24 matches (12 home/12 away). The Championship was made up of 11 teams, meeting each other once at home, once away, 20 matches. Plus, the National development League. All these fixtures take place between March & October To solve these problems the sport, needs to get radical, why does each leagues fixture’s need to be over 6 months. To expand on an idea put forward in this thread, why not have a 12-week season for each of the two main leagues. Championship League: - 12 teams, 22 matches (11 Home/11 Away) at the same level as now. But here's the radical bit, it runs from March 28th till June 12th (11+ weeks), teams involved can run any night they chose including Monday & Thursdays, but all fixtures must be completed by June 12th. On the weekend of June 20th-21st you hold the Championship Play-off finals at a neutral venue (National stadium? assuming Bell Vue are not in the League), this could be 2 semis on the Saturday and Final on Sunday, or 2 semis and Final on the same day. Teams based on Averages, with Total team average limits. Premiership League: - Made up of 10-12 teams, 18-22 matches (9-11 Home/9-11 Away) raced Mondays/ Thursdays from July 1st- Mid September (7th/14th) with Plays-Offs run as they currently are. Each Premiership Team can sign up to two riders who did not take part in the Championship League e.g Doyle, Batchelor, Iverson, Lambert, Fricke, Musielak etc. The remainder of each team will be made up by way of a draft system based on riders' averages in Championship league fixture. Not based on total team averages. The draft The top 10-12* in the averages are grade 1, the next 10-12* grade 2 and so on. The first year would need a bit of fine tuning, but the second year the Draft would work on the principle of the team finishing bottom would have first choice in round 1, Promoters could do a bit of horse trading with other promoters around positions in each round of the draft. *Numbers dependent on numbers of teams in Premiership. National Development league: - would run as it currently does from April to September at the level it currently runs at but split into two competitions, National trophy Apri-June, National League July-September. Some Championship teams could run a team in the National League once the Championship is Finished. Theoretical Leagues: - Championship : Birmingham, Berwick, Eastbourne, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leicester, Newcastle, Poole, Redcar, Scunthorpe, Sheffield, Somerset. (NB I would be tempted to replace a team with Peterborough due to their problems running fixtures in August). Premiership: Belle Vue, Ipswich, King’s Lynn, Swindon, Wolverhampton plus up to 7 teams who could race on Mondays & Thursdays between July 1st and October. Rider & Stadium availability would determine how many teams would make up the Premiership. Championship teams not in the Premiership would have the option of running Open meetings or a junior team in the National League between July & Oct, Riders not picked up in the Draft could race in the National league subject to National league pay rates (if you're not good enough to get a team spot, don’t expect a big pay-packet from a national league team spot). Again, Rider availability would be a determining factor. From a rider point of view, the big boys can ride abroad and have 18-22 meeting in Britain between July-October, Riders willing to commit to British Speedway or only ride in Britain will find a team place in the Championship (March- June), and subject to how well they perform, a team in the Premiership (July-Oct). From a fan’s point view, you have a season that still runs from March to October, with meetings every week, the team you support may not run every week from March to October, but when they do it will mean something. And theirs's nothing to stop fans of Premiership teams attending Championship matches between March & June and vice-versa. Premiership: 3 months of Meetings, with a home Meeting every week, with teams made up of riders of a better quality than the Championship, two top riders + 5 of the best championship riders on current form. All trying to reach the play-offs. Championship: 3 Months of Meetings, with a Home Meeting every week, a Meaningful League with the target of getting to the play-off finals, and with riders who are trying to get their average as high as possible to get a better pay-rate in the Premiership.

Just watched BBC Look North, got to admit Jeff Brown does an excellent job of promoting the sport to the wider North-East public. A segment of almost 3 mins of coverage with-in a News programme is good going.

No, Lawson can't ride for Leicester, the rules prevent that from happening, as explained by someone in an other post.

Sounds like a very sensible change, which is a little surprising considering this is Speedway.

Redcar's Facebook page is reporting a 6.30pm Start at Leicester tomorrow night instead of the previous 7.30pm start time.. Anybody travelling will need to alter their travel plans accordingly.

In light of the good reports regarding the racing at Swindon, would it be a option? Could the facilities at Swindon cope ie viewing, car park, catering etc. In terms of distance, anyone staying in the Cardiff or Bristol areas, the distance difference between travelling to Somerset versus travelling to Swindon is relatively small (Cardiff-Somerset 60miles, Cardiff-Swindon 76miles/ Bristol-Swindon 48miles-Bristol-Somerset 39miles) the main difference ,if the M5 on Friday night is anything to go by, getting to Swindon would be quicker. As an example, We set off to Somerset with an ETA of 5.50 (according to the Sat-Nav) everything was fine until we got to the Bristol area and hit large traffic volumes. We watched in despair as the Sat-Nav ETA changed, by the time we got past Bristol we had a new ETA of 6.40 Phew!! That was 50mins of lost travelling time stuck in traffic on the M5.

Track grading normally takes place after Heats 4,7,10(interval) & 14, which is what happened tonight, so no different to normal. I think the trackman expected the track to dry a bit quicker than it did and got caught out a little with the amount of water put on the track, but these things happen occasionally. It's a fine balance between being too wet and too dry, when you trying to predict the rate at which it will dry out during the night after a warm sunny day with a mild breeze. Your trying to create a good racing surface, whilst at the same time trying to avoid it becoming a dust bowl, on the whole our trackman does a pretty good job most weeks. As to it dragging out, All 15 heats were complete by 9.00pm, so not that much difference to any other week. I think you just missed "Smoggy" not being there to distract you during the lulls in action (she is a tremendous asset to the club, the way she get's the kid's involve).

Meeting OFF, Just been posted on Redcar Facebook page.

Meeting Off Redcar Bears 1. Ben Barker 2. Nike Lunna 3. Dimitri Berge 4. Mark Riss (guest) 5. Ty Proctor (guest) 6. Coty Garcia (guest) 7. Jordan Stewart Sheffield Tigers 1. Charles Wright 2. Todd Kurtz 3. Lasse Bjerre ??? 4. Broc Nicol 5. Kyle Howarth 6. James Shanes 7. Joe Lawlor It's been a mixed day weather wise, torrential thunder storm around mid-day, followed by brilliant sunshine, so should make for excellent track conditions (if there no more further heavy rain). Lots of speculation surrounding Lasse Bjerre's position in the Sheffield. I was hoping we might run Sheffield close and possibly a win, but after the event of the past week, I'm more optimistic of a Redcar victory. But this is Speedway and as we all know nothing is certain when it comes to Speedway.

Well there is a passing reference to housing in the article :- "There will also be an "enabling" housing development which will help offset costs, although the clubs announcement does not say where this would be" I'm sure it will only be a small development, just enough houses to create the funds to build the Stadium, Hotel and Events Arena, it can only be a win, win situation for the people of Torquay

Sorry, I missed Parsy29's post when I was replying to one of your earlier posts, so wasn't aware of things already being put in place, thanks for pointing out the extra information I'd missed...

According to the Teesside Aerodrome's own website, no events are scheduled to take place on the weekend of the Fours. I'm sure Kevin & Ben will hold (or have held) discussions with operators of the Motorsports park to iron out any problems. I believe they have a good working relationship.

Towards the end of last season, A Friday night match against Sheffield, Half the Car park was in use for an event at the race track, so arrangements were put in place to use a newly constructed (It wasn't quite finished but was relatively flat and Clear) Car parking area behind the Back Straight next to the Moto Cross Circuit. Looking at Bing Maps (the most up to date Aerial Photos)the area is much bigger than the present Car park. I'm sure permission will be sought to use this area again.

Great News.. Based on what happened when we staged the Re-arranged Fours a few seasons ago it should be a cracker of a meeting with great racing, and with it being a Sunday Afternoon in July instead of a Thursday Night in October, it should be an even bigger crowd. A win, win for both Redcar & the BSPA. Well Done to Kevin & Ben..

In all fairness 1999 is a long time ago, man and machine have moved on a lot since then. Modern bikes can reach quite a speed on the Newcastle straights which creates a problem getting round the corners, or if your not so brave it means shutting off halfway down the straight.

I've just been looking a Google Earth, and they have updated the maps of the area around the National Stadium, and it's interesting to see the difference in track shape between the old Belle Vue Track and the new National Stadium. One thing I was surprised to see was how the track measurements, in terms of length from the apex of one bend to the opposite bend are very similar between the old and the New tracks. The old Belle Vue measures approx. 118 meters, compared to the National Stadium which measures approx. 128 meters. The big difference is the measurements between the home straights and the back straights. The old Belle Vue measures approx. 40 meters between the two, where as, the National Stadium measures 70 meters. Based on these figures the Old Belle Vue stadium has an approximate 3 to 1 ratio between Length and width, where as the New stadium has an approximate 1.9 to 1 ratio. It got me thinking, is there an optimal ratio that produces excellent racing. I know there are some small tracks that produce good racing, and there are some big'ish tracks , in terms of track length,that produce poor racing. Is Shape the main factor in producing great racing circuits, irrespective of track length. (Disclaimer:- All Measurements are approximate using the Google measurement tool, so may not be 100% accurate, but are close enough in accuracy for purposes of this discussion)

Couldn't agree more. With a transponder there would be no doubts as to whether it was a jump start or good start. You could also set a system up that randomises the time between the Green light coming on, and the tapes being released all with-in a set time period. Eg Start Marshall gives a signal that he's Happy, Ref Presses button, System then puts Green light on, with-in set time frame (1-2 secs), then then tapes are released with-in randomised set time frame. minimum1sec Maximum-2 secs (A trial would sort out the minor details). From the time the Ref get's the nod from the Start Marshall to the tapes being released is controlled by the electronics. It's something that should be trailed at least..

That was what we thought had happened, but nobody near us seamed to know what Ludvig's ave was, so they were unsure, which opened the possibility of having Kus's 2pts removed at a later date...

During last night's meeting there was a query over who was allowed to take the R/R for Palovaara. The programme had Stuart Robson as the rider with the next highest Ave above Palovaara, yet it was Kus who took the R/R ride. Can anybody clear thing's up?

It's been fine all day, should be similar to last week.

Just had a look at the forecast for later today and it slightly different to yesterdays forecast. There's a forecast for a light shower around 8.00pm, which is a similar kind of forecast to last week, and that turned out OK. I'm hoping, because it's an overcast cool day, it give's the track staff the opportunity to prepare the track well (ever the optimist). I'm certainly more optimistic about tonight than I was yesterday regarding the weather.