weatherwatcher

It is always nice to see new members on here and I hope that they all feel welcome here. The only down side is that a few people on here and it is only a few who spoil it for other. Who make comments about other posters that all you can say about them is that they are downright rude. I hope that this fails to put new members from staying and enjoying the posts of those that really love the sport of speeway and are only to glad to help others to get the most out of and to understand and enjoy the sport of speedway. I go to Leicester when I can which is not enough it is 25 miles away and the nearest track to me. Being in a wheelchair and at times not being that well, I am afraid that me and my 9 year old granson manage to get there about 5 times a year if we are lucky these days. What with fuel cost and then the admission prices I sometimes fail to come up with the money need to go to as many meeting as I would like to. Gone are the days of getting to all the meetings as I now find driving any great distance a big osticle. I hope that the sport gets back to its hey day with full stadiums. But there needs to be something done to draw the crowds back again.

*+I may be a great event in Poland, but I would think twice about taking my 9 year old granson with me as I do now. With riot vans and riot police lining the route to the stadium and in the street that surreound it. Does not sound a very nice atmosphere to me at all. Give me a nice relaxed British stadium any day. Only thing I would like to see if stadiums like the ones they build in Poland, most of ours are the same as they where in the 60's and 70's with very little money being put into doing anything with them, some are an absolute disgrace.

He is one of those lads that you can't help but like. He respected both of his parents and from what he said he never said a bad word to them. More than can be said for a lots of youngsters these days. He Mum said to him not to have tattos on his hands or on his neck and face, but he said it was his body to do what he liked with it, so he must have had some disrespect in that. But there are bigger freaks around the streets than Tai. With hoen implants and nose studs and where ever else they can get a piece of stailess steel implanted into thier bodies, it is not what we look like on the outside it is what we have inside of us that counts. Tai is one of those lads that comes over as a very nice person and not afraid of working hard to get where he wants to get, without being big headed about it. Good luck to him and I hope he wins again this year.

A well put together programme. It just showed what life is like for not just Tai but all the other top riders. There is no way that I would want to do what any of them do. You have no lifre other than going from track to track for most of the year. It must be a fealing of relife when the season comes to an end just to have a break from flying and driving from one place to another. It could have should more but what can you fit in on a one hour programme. He has got that get up and go attitude and I just hope that now he has come into form that he can go on and win the world championship again this year. Speedway rider have only got a short career, and not many make it to the top. He is one of the lucky ones and he knows that one bad crash could end his riding days before his time is over. He said that all riders have that fear of bad accidents with broken bones and maybe even getting killed. How anyone can push thierselves to a schedual like that I will never know. How many people out there have to suffer a 19 hour day grab a bit of sleep in the back of a car or on the plane and then be awake enough to ride another meeting. I have respect for all the top riders putting thier bodies through this, week in week out throughout the season. Yes they earn good money, but what for only to entertain us the sppedway sports fans. Because without us there would be no speedway.

Found this nice clip on you tube of some old uprights. Some very nice bikes on here. Hope you enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esQixdiNJyU

The whole EL this year has been an absolute farce. Why do teams that have riders that are assets in the PL chose to ride on the same night and lose that rider. The GP qualifiers have also caused inumarable problems with teams that had riders missing. If teams can't sort out the meetings when riders are going to be missing then it is very bad planning on the managements behalf. Also, the teams that race on a Saturday with GP riders in thier teams, should not race on a GP night. This whole fiasco of guest riders and R/R has now gone to a new level, with so many riders missing from teams weekly. I know teams have injuries, but I am sure they could sort out 1 rider to cover that position until the other rider is fit again. Gone are the days when you knew who rode for your team. It now seems that you have a team that changes week in week out, the teams can't work together if the riders are not getting the chance to get to know who they are riding with every week. The new reserve riders seem to be getting it together a tle. But even that needs sorting out if they carry it on next year, there are 4 or 5 riders in there that should never have riden at reserve, they should have been riding in the main body of the team as they are weel above the standard of the other riders. If it is worked out properlly, with riders in both the 6th and 7th berth of equal standards then the racing should be far better than some of it now. Do the riders these days even bother anything about being a team memeber. Lets have teams that start the year end the year. So at least the fans know who it is that actually ride for thier team.

Just what I have been saying on this forum for weeks now. Speedway has gone down hill for some years now, the true speedway we used to see where riders rode as a pair have long gone out of the window., as you say open the trottle and go, it dosen't make very interesting speedway. I used to love it at Long Eaton, watching riders race as they should do these days looking after thier team mate, not worring if they came first and boosting thier averages. But getting 2 team memebers past the line in 1st and 2nd place. It was a skill in those days and I wonder if many riders these days even know how to ride a race like that, they just seem to have this, tunnel vision of winning, without even bothering what thier other rider is doing. Bring the dirt back on the track, change they engines if need be and the bikes. It is up to the sports governing bodies to not just sit back but to promote speedway in the media and get it back to what it was in it's heyday. Because at the moment it is nothing but a minority sport. When years ago people used to come to speedway and enjoy it and enjoy the racing. I think we lost a lot of spectators when the riders, strted to alter the way that they went about thier trackcraft. Lets take a good look at the sport and lets turn it round again. It can work, but at the moment, we are paying admission prices to go and see what is not speedway as it should be.

So it looks like people would rather go to watch riders that don't give 2 hoots about other riders safety and watch them get slammed into the fence. That is until one of of those riders gets carried off to the morgue. I for one would rather go to see riders that have a little bit of guts about them but in the end give a gare for the other riders. There is a limit to how far you want to call it good riding or being a danger on the track to the other riders. There are far to many bad accidents as seen in the last couple of seasons. You only have to look at some of the injuries. 2 riders last year with brain injuries, and other with bad broken bones. Not only top riders but there have been far to many crashes with the new reserves who are trying way to hard. Kyle Newman springs to mind with some very dangerous over taking manovers, mark my word it will not be long before someone is killed. Would you be the one who wanted to go and tell the parents or wives or girl friends that so and so is dead. I wouldn't. Lets stamp it out now, we can still see good riding without all this kamakazii piolet stuff. Lets keep the riders safe.

He was taken out by Smolinski. He has suffered from 2 fractured vertibrea. V3 and V5. He may be out for 6 weeks or more. This stubid riding has to be stopped. Not sure what actually happened but I am sure someone can tell us

I personally agree with this idea. The riders that pull off this stupid manovers that could threaten the lives on the fact that the rider could be so badly injured that he could never ride again. We need to stamp out this dangerous riding by a very few stupid individuals. Some people like to see it and say it just part of the racing. But to cut someone up and take thier racicing line with no opion other than to go into the fence or bail off the bike if you have time, ifs far from sporting. Some of these riders are riding against each other week in week out in different leagues throughout the world. I hope it is not only a matter of time before one of them retaliate and hit back at a rider that has treated them badly at another meeting and sending them crashing out to cause terrible damage or even killing them. It as got to be stopped before it has gone to far

Northern Ireland is part of the United kingdom, some of them would go nuts if you stated other wise. Eire and all the other countries make up the British Isles, which contains all the five 2 Irish states, Wales, Scotland and England and all the surrounding Isles. This was pointed out to me when I started my weather webcam page on the internet by a rather berate man that lived in Eire when I called it The United Kingdom weather wecam page and he told me that they where not part of it, so I changed the name before I had anymore complaints.

What a terrible meeting. The track was far to dry and no amount of water they put down could stop the huge clouds of dust rising up from the track. 15 races with nothing to make you scream. Nice setting though and a great setup that they have got with the pits area. The teams where nothing outstanding if anything they could have both come from our PL league.

One of the best GP'S so far if not the best. The track rode well and gave some very good racing. Well done to Tai. Pederson should be banned from riding for a monthy or more for what he did tonoght. The way he acted in the pits was just disgraceful, how he could make such a big joke of what he did causing the crash and then kicking out with his steel shoe is not the way a true sportsman should act. Plus it is not the first time that he has acted in this way. A shear disgrace to the sport

I go back to the late 50's and have seen some great riders and some great team riders. Yes Sam was one of them and did a great job in his early years with Hull and then again at Coventry. One of the best team riders of this era is Grg Hancock. He can ride the inside line and help his team mate win a race. As long as they score a 5=1 he is not bothered if he comes in second just as long as the team needs those points to win a meeting. He rode some brilliant races last year with Poole and they would have dropped quite a few points if he not been there to help his partner keep his first spot. At the moment British speedway is struggling to get the top riders to come over here, they get better options by racing abroad, it all boils down to money as most British clubare sruggling fimacially, they just can't afford the fees etc that some of these top riders are asking. So we are left with perhaps on of the worst speedway leagues in the world as far as getting top riders to come here. All said and done if all else fails, the EL and PL leagues will some how have to come together and this may just help to bring on some British riders that enter into the top flight of world speedway, Other wise our sport will slowy die. But the prices would have to drop that they charge on the gate as people would not pay what they do now to see nothing better than a big PL league. Then again would the fans still go to watch the riders that are on offer if all the top riders just stopped coming over here. We managed years ago with the help of riders from Austrailia, New Zealand and the U.S.A.But would that be enough to tempt the fans to come and watch it.

That was a very good meeting. But it is one of a very few. Manybe they need to take some leasons from them

I can see where you are going. Do we need these top riders just to draw the crowds or is that all the fands come to see. I would rather see British speedway go along with what you are saying, half the riders that come over here are not bothered if they ride here or not. That has been proven at Leicester already this year with 2 riders giving up on British speedway after only a third of the season. Not even telling the club they had gone till after a month or so. I for one would be more than happy to see our teams with riders that are determined to give it a go and to make speeway fun to watch again. At the minute it is nothing short of a farce. We can't carry on with riders missing from teams week in week out. Weaking the teams, with the team bringing in guests, some of them not bothering to put in the effort. So, unless we do something on this line our sport will be lost, as it can't carry on as it is now.

Speedway these days has now turned out to be an individual sport. The teams are no longer working together as a team should. Or very few are. I have seen lots of meetings of the last few years. It seems now that the top dog has to have to get to the front so that that he can win evry race possible. Nothing he winning. But I have seen far to many races where the top rider comes from the tapes and figths to get to the front, even at the expense of of taking his team mates line and then sending him back a couple of places, He will even try his best to get by his team mate so he can get that coverted race win. Normally the top rider goes flying into a lead of 4 or 5 bike lenths in front of all the others, leaving his team mate to fight of the other 2 riders all on his own. This should never happen, how many races have there been that have gone from being an easy 5-1 to becoming a 3-3 because the other rider has hat no back up from his team mate and has to fight a lone battle against the other 2 riders only to go to the back and lose valuable points for the team, Gone are the days when 2 riders worked together and covered all the racing lines one up top one on the inside, It seems that all that matters is to keep your 9riders averages up at the top and then come out as the top rider of the league, it is now just about personal glory. I used to enkjoy wathing speedway when speedway riding was an art. Much closer racing with the 2 teams riders working as a team and riding together. I thought that is why we had teams. There are a few mjeetings that have some good team work but very few far to much, of this long spread out line of riders after turns 1` and 2 have been achieved and once the battle behind has been sorted out we get this long spread out line of riders. It looks more like a meeting at the GP,s these days than team riding on a club track. Until the promoters get the riders to work together would see a great change in the outcome of meetings if the riders started working together as a pair, What doe it matter if the No2 rider is in front of the No.1 rider, it is time to make the top boys to work with thier team mates and not just storm off from the start to get the win at all costs. With the riders on such a busy schedual, riding the EL and doubling up in the PL then guesting for other teams, riding in Sweden, Denmark, Poland and the GP,s, it makes you wonder if they even know which team they actually ride for. There is no luxuary of teams being able to get together to practice as a team. And from what I have seen of recent years, very few riders these days are not capable of riding the inside of the track, or even capable of riding together as a good pair of riders should be able to.

Some of the bikes are a lot faster than other you only have to see this when they are riding side by side on the straights. When a bike pulls so far ahead of the others in cases like this this is not down to the riders, or the gearing setup.

Never having worked on a speedway bikes engines, can anyone tell me what the parameters of these engines will allow tuning wise. Is it possible to overbore the engine, to give you a larger bore size, what tolarance allownces have you got for skimming the head to give you a higher compretion ratio, and what sort of work can you do to the valve setups. The toop riders in the world who have that extra spare cash to be able to afford some of the worlds best engine tuners, seem to be able to get at least an extra 10 or 20 mph out of thier bikes and I am sure this is not just down to carbs and nozzles in the carb jets. What is the most work that can be done to an engine that still makes it legal. If not legal then in some way that noone can tell without taking the whole bike apart.

I have asked the question several times now on the Leicester forum and have never got a reply to it. Why was the stadium squeezed into such a small footprint, when there is so much land going to waste all around. I have even stated that the centre green could or should have been at least a track width wider and the track should have been at least a lane wider both sides. Can't see for the life of me when you are building a new stadium to make it fit into such a small space. That is unless the Leicstershire County Council, felt that was all the land they where going to give up at BP to the speedway stadium.

It is the EL league sides that are coming off the worst it in. It would be such a shame With the posibility of 7 riders missing from one race. They will be very hard going for the teams to cover these places. It just goes to show just how stupid speedway is becoming. Nothing really special though from the British lads/ Even in a qualifier as this the best could only manage 7th. What we needs is British lads coming 123 and 4. But I think we are a long way of even getting close to that. Hope some of these young lads riding in the EL now can come good in the next few years and make us a top speedway nation again.

The rain and thunder started here 20 miles from Leicester at 8 this morning, it carried on raining until 12.30 and then started to brighten up and it looks very much like things are now starting to pick up again. I only recorded 7.6mm of rain fall in that time with one heavy burst of 46mm at one stage but that only lasted for about 5 minutes. Not sure if is moving up country. Just checked the rain radar and it is now all down the west side of the country, and going up through Manchest and a bit further east and all the way up to Stiling in Scotland. So not looking to good at the moment. The rain could easily come back again to the Midlands area from the west again. But fingers crossed it has finished around here for the day. Not looking very good for any clubs up north though.

The pressure as slowly been dropping since I said last night. We have very dark black cloud coming in from the south with the occasitinaol rumbles of thunder being heard quite close to. I expect the rain to start within the hour. It has come much quickr than I thought.

Clouding over as the day as gone on, there is a steady drop in pressure, but nothing drastic at the moment. I will see how it plays out overnight and in the morning and post again. It maybe that the heavy rain that is forcast may just drift away from the midlands area. They are still unsure where it will go it looks like the heavy rain will come from Grmany and France and hit the south coust late tonight or early morning and then will spead over the rest of the country as the day goes on. On Saturday, but the are still unsure if it will just drift off to the East and just go out to sea again we can only hope. But it looking like this speel of high pressure was only short lived.

Been checking thinks out and it looks very glum indeed for the Lions Kings Lynn match. From what I have seen on 2 sites I visit, that the rain will hit the Midlands region early afternoon and by 6pm there is a graet chance of heavy rain and thunderstorms. They have given a 90% chance of rain and given a forcast of 17.5mm of rainfall at 6 p.m. So not looking good. At the moment we are sitting in an area of high pressure that started this morning, I shall be keeping a close eye on my weather station reading in the next day or so to see if there is a change to this trend in the pressure, it can drop very quickly in this country and we are now in the 3 wetest months of the year. So summer is never what people think only what they tend to rememeber, when we those hot sunny days. The average for June is 132.6mm in our region and 146.9mm and 11.8mm, for the following 2 months. So not really very good speedway weather.