Chris116

I would say that the crowd levels were very similar at most meetings. Both sports had some meetings with better than usual crowds but there was never that much difference.

At one time the Mildenhall fish and chips had a brilliant reputation among the stock car and banger fans. I found the Rye House chippy was brilliant at speedway meetings but not as good at stock car meetings for some unknown reason.

Because of the size of the league it has been decided to have five teams qualifying for the playoffs.

You must remember that we are dealing with the BSPL when talking about deals.

You wake up a moderator.

It was Skegness that had one and a half seasons of Speedway. The stock car track was rebuilt from a narrow tarmac track to a very wide shale track. The track has been changed back to tarmac although it is still wide. Northampton has the major disadvantage of having a raised centre green which could make things awkward for speedway although Birmingham Wheels had a raised centre green so obviously not a complete barrier to speedway.

Having been a stock car fan all my life I can say that Yarmouth has tighter bends than Northampton but the straights appear about the same length.

Yarmouth is a dreadful shape for modern speedway and the stadium owners would never want a shale track. Also it would not suit the car racing for it to be shale.

Hackney had some very old buses which ran before and after meetings for many years. They were very reliable for many years but then they became unreliable and my parents started walking to and from Leyton Central Line station and a few years later the buses stopped altogether.

I was brought up living near Wimbledon Stadium and my family went to the Speedway and Stock Cars. We would also travel to other Speedway tracks like Hackney, Romford, Rye House, West Ham, Crayford and Rayleigh. All of this was by train and bus. For the Stock Cars we went to West Ham, Harringay, Walthamstow, Crayford, White City, Rye House, Rayleigh and Aldershot. In later years, once I had a car, I also went to Arena Essex, Skegness, Swaffham, Kings Lynn, Ipswich, Yarmouth, Coventry, Brafield, Crawley and others for either one or both sports. Once all the London tracks had closed I went regularly to Rye House for the Speedway and when that closed would pay Poole and Smallbrook visits two or three times a season for my Speedway fix and Aldershot for the Stox. Then COVID came and the last trains back to London are an hour earlier which means both Speedway tracks have to involve an overnight stay so I haven't seen a Speedway meeting for five years but still can get to the Sunday afternoon meetings for Stox at Aldershot. I wish I had means of seeing Speedway but I no longer have a car and until the railway restores the later trains all I have are great memories of Ronnie Moore, Peter Craven, Andrew Silver and Steve Schofield to name just four out of a cast of hundreds.

I will show my age but Ronnie Moore had superb control of his bike and watching him from 30 yards during the year when the league was run with handicap racing was just amazing.

There is a very simple way to stop riders just giving up at the back. Make the scoring 4,3,2,1 for those who finish the race and 0 for those who don't finish for whatever reason.

Best wishes to all involved in Mildenhall Speedway. I see the SCB is trying to scare riders into not racing anywhere that the SCB/BSPL does not control the racing with their latest missive.

My parents used to take me to Rayleigh and we would enjoy both the Speedway and Stock Cars before rushing back to the station to travel back to Wimbledon for the evening meeting at Plough Lane. The last few years saw the Stock Cars replaced by PRI Bangers and Mini Rods or Anglia Rods, personally Stock Cars and Mini Rods would have been our favourite but the Stock Cars had been replaced by the PRI Bangers by the time the Mini Rods started. Being a Stock Car, Speedway and Railway enthusiast I thought it was a great day and always looked forward to our Rayleigh visits.

The others were already bald!