Jonny the spud

Thinking of taking my 86 year old aunt to her first meeting in nearly 50urs today. Is there an indoor area at rye house stadium for her to watch as its a bit cold to be standing outside ?

It's all irrelevant as Ward has just tweeted that he's got his passport and visa

Let's face it, Ward is well known for being as thick as a plank and Middlo cocked up. It doesn't matter how much money Sky tv or Matt Ford put into the sport, none of it seems to filter through to PR. Unfortunately Ward is a big fish in an ever diminishing pond and wouldn't really be missed if he couldn't race in th UK next year, it wouldn't have that much effect in general terms to the sport. Let's just all move on and worry over the next minor drama. It just paints a whole picture of mishandled amateur dicking around, we can all shout in faux indignation but in the grand scheme of things it won't change diddly squat. Neil's time to publicly refute the accusations has passed and Darcy's too damn stupid to realise the rubbish he's caused . Same old, same old . .

makes you wonder how long drugs stay in the bloodstream and what kind of drugs testing (if any) takes place. I mean did he ride last year under the influence ?

Doesn't Darcy live with Middlo?? Judging by his comments maybe that's where Darcy gets his standards from ?

Trees, totally agree. EVERYTHING should be secondary to racing, but unfortunately racing alone isn't proving enough to attract new fans. You have to make an event of it. The music and commentary here in Europe certainly does that. As I said earlier,even at a wedding a good DJ can make or break the evening. After over two decades of being away from British speedway I honestly couldn't believe I was still hearing mud, Gary glitter etc !

That's the thing though, I love led Zeppelin, Black sabbath etc but realise that if i played that to my customers i'd have 3 men and a dog in my pubs. To appeal to the masses it's not just a case of opening the doors and expecting the public to come in. You have to give them reasons to, and that's where i feel promotors are letting the public down

In my business I've found that a promotion ( whether its live music, DJ's, offers etc) wont make a bad night good, but it does make a good night better. It may take some tweaking to get right but surely it's not beyond the realms if possibility to fade in / fade out good music with the announcements ?

If you attend a wedding / function a good DJ. Will be able to read the crowd/ create an atmosphere etc ,,, I have DJ's as well as live bands playing in my pubs from weekly and they really do make a difference. Has any club ever experimented with a DJ working in conjunction with the announcer to get the crowd going ?? Over here on the continent it's just accepted as part of the razzmatazz. I was really disappointed / surprised last year to still be hearing Gary Glitter / Dave Clark five / mud / sweet etc after an absence of over 20 years isn't various uk tracks . Thoughts please ?

You sure it's not his brother Colin ?? ( nice chap, met him a few times and he knows all about bikes )

After a career ending neck injury Phillipe Bergé moved back to France and Haida a hairdressing salon on the coast at lacanau. Then he moved on to the island of Mauritius where he opened a restaurant After two years there he came back to France and now has a pizza restaurant in the suburbs of Bordeaux. His son Dimitri is a world youth champion in both 125 & 250cc on Grasstrack. He beat my son Adam for the title in the 250cc French championships last year. He is 16 years old like Adam, weighs about 55lg and is bloody good on a speedway bike. We're hoping to get him some second halves this year

Maybe they buy them because they like the way they look. By using your analogy everyone should drive a ford fiesta because they do 70mph just as we'll as a Ferrari It can just be to personal taste. Not everything is there to go faster

I used to be a 500 sidecar passenger and heat from the exhausts was s big problem as they ran next to your left leg. I got burned several times on the 1000m track at herxheim. We tested a carbon end can from a Ducati super bike once. No discernible loss in power but you could still touch it after 4 laps ... As they are already homologated by the FIM Maybe worth testing ??

Maybe if a road silencer in carbon could be used there will be no need for a heat shield. If a race can from a super bike is homologated for road racing. Can it be used in speedway ?

The league itself, a team or just a rider ?

Unless you live next door

The "rich father" line doesn't always ring true. My son has two complete bikes and a third being built up. All secondhand, all built up over a few years of buying and selling equipment, taking loans, finding sponsors and with a lot of help from friends. We're just getting by the best we can. It is an expensive sport but is you're hoping to ride as a job, you need good tools.

Last year I made a return to several UK speedway tracks ofter a 23 year absence, same 4 guys racing round, Same noise, (roughly), same atmosphere . Down side....... Same stadium facilities, same music (really), same amateurish "promotion", no other interval entertainment. In short nothing new on offer. That's it basically, i may be missing something but i cant think of anything in the last nigh on quarter of a century that's a great improvement for the customer to make a night out more enjoyable or appealing to a new audience. Now look at other forms of motorcycle sport and see what's happened in the last 20 odd years. Quite sad really .

"Made a loss"= good accountant. Don't want a profit to we. The taxman would come sniffing.

I think this whole thread sums up why your average man in the street avoids speedway like a tarts toothbrush. If even die hard fans can't understand the rules, what chance does a newcomer have ?

Failing to move with the times, Supercross was unheard of 30 years ago, now with loud modern music and razzmatazz they pull in hundreds of thousands of young (and old) fans worldwide. Speedway spends too much time looking backwards then wonders why other forms of motorcycle sport are way ahead of them. I'm trying hard to think of another kind of motorcycle sport that has declined so much from its former glory and what do people moan about on here ??????? ehh in the old days we had 2 valve zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Not sure, but i know the first home meeting is on his 17th birthday.. hopefully a night to celebrate for more reasons than one

D'ya think they'll invest in some music from a decade later than the 70's ?

Any ideas on when a fixture list will be released ?

Any ideas on when a fixture list will be released ?