Stoke Potter

I still have my programmes from Stoke going back to 1983 and various programmes from away tracks over the years. I got rid of my Speedway Stars from the 80's-90's quite a few years back unfortunately. I also still have my Stoke coat somewhere covered with patches, badges and stickers. And I've still got a scrap book with rider photos and articles in and a couple of photos of me with riders. Happy days! Used to live for Saturday night down Loomer Rd. :-)

I find it odd that people are commenting about the quality of racing last night as it was actually better than what you get at most tracks. Still not great but that's 21st century British Speedway for you. The changes to the track have improved the racing without doubt. Hopefully the changes this winter won't ruin what has gone on before.

Still light years ahead of that crap at Wolves though!

Side on only for the first 2-3 metres then front on. You need to capture the elbows, kicks and bites(!) on the first bend!

I.e. if your face fits, you can do it.

Well done Swindon, they deserve it to overcome the Wolves massive track advantage.

Missed that, but you did. Just checked back.

Surely no shortage of tools at wolves??

Told you the tapes were too baggy!

8 heats, 2 passes, riders locking up all over the show, even home riders. Dire.

All correct!

Tapes are too baggy need tightening up and should they really have the start tape cone on the track with a rider off 15m?? 1 pass in 4 heats, yawn...

Poor spectacle, especially for a Grand Final. Swindon never seems to be prepared for decent racing. 10 Passes in 6 Heats, 9 Heats no passes. This is what's wrong with the sport!

Morris: "One line and it's slick." Crap track prep again and it's a Grand Final!

Just seen Lindgren's crash on BT, bloody awful, lucky to walk away. Speedy recovery to him.

I appreciate that you're not making it an argument (unlike that Brum fellow). It's unfortunate that most tracks in this country have constraints with the shapes/sizes and this is one of the fundamental problems with the sport in this country that I have commented about various times on threads in this forum. Genuine question, was the shape prior to '96 better and did you see less locking-up in the corners? From the TV view there appears to be a grass area on the back straight that may be possible to use should the track ever change shape again?? Edit: Looking on Google maps shows that the track could be a very different shape. Excellent, I'm glad you've now realised I have the vastly superior intellect. Perhaps your next step will be to realise that the Wolves track ain't that great! ;-)

The Loomer Rd track has changed 2 or 3 times over the years since the 70's. It used to be outside the dog track but was moved inside around the early 80's I believe. To answer your question I guess there were few restrictions but can't say for definite as I wasn't even born.

That comment tells me all I need to know about your intellectual capacity... The comparison with Stoke was from the 80's/90's as I'd explained, comparing the BV dog track with what I'd seen at Stoke. If you are saying that Stoke is now poor then that is something we can agree on. Back in the day though it was a very good racing strip and even now is a better shape than the Wolves tricktrack.

When Stoke shut in the early 90's I regularly went to Belle Vue instead. I couldn't believe how crap the track was, but.... Wolves is worse!

What a dire track Monmore "crud" really is!

I'm glad you both remember that as I vaguely recall a gas jet type thing on the back of a tractor somewhere but it could've been abroad. Limestone(?) powder and saw dust are old favourites that seemed to have gone out of fashion I think. Perhaps they didn't work.

What methods (other than sun and wind!) have been tried or researched to dry tracks out after a rain storm to get a meeting on and, more importantly, allow some decent racing? As we're talking BSPA I can be fairly confident there will have been zero research into any appropriate methods but what, if anything, has been tried in the past?

It's an interesting point about the demands of today's riders. I'd question if any of them have actually ridden in the era when speedway clubs were viable. Any clubs been viable in the last 10-20 years? Poole? Anyone else..?

There's a rider shortage and folk are on about banning nations of riders. A plan worthy of the BSPA if there ever was one!

4 passes in 4 heats, 11 heats no passing, leader of world championship falls off at the exact point that Tatum said riders fall off, no end of locking up going on... Never mind, it's still an amazing track!