Chris116

Yes, that is very true. It is true that the international meetings due to take place for National Hot Rods, F1 and F2 Stock Cars and possibly Superstox have all been cancelled due to the limited crowds that are being allowed.

Nothing, hopefully!

There are some important differences between stock cars and speedway when it comes to the promotions. Speedway is a part time job for the promotions who have other jobs to provide the funds that enable them to run the speedway whereas most of the stock car promotions have offices and staff working seven days a week throughout the year with some running five or six meetings during a week in the summer which means that Spedeworth run more meetings in three weeks than are in the normal speedway season. Autospeed, Incarace and Startrax also run a lot more meetings than any speedway track sees in a season.

While the lower cost of track preparation is true on tarmac tracks both sports have costs for track preparation for shale tracks. Incarace spent a fortune to put shale down at Northampton and have to do a lot of work between meetings to keep a smooth racing surface. Without that work you get tracks like Nelson was where a scrambles racer would have been unhappy with the track surface. As a fan of both sports (I am going to Aldershot on 26th July meeting) I think the problem that speedway has is the international nature of the riders. It is notable that the World finals for BriSCA F1 and F2 Stock Cars plus National Hot Rods have all been cancelled due to the problems with travel and needing a much fuller stadium than can be allowed at the moment. Speedway at NDL level and below is ready to run at some tracks with the same rules as apply to Stock Car crowds.

The only Spedeworth formulae that paid to race were the Rookie Rods and Bangers. The National Bangers were sometimes paid start money and the BriSCA Formula One Stock Cars are paid start money. However no drivers make any money out of the sport these days although some claim to nearly break even.

While what you say was true up until the virus stuck, the new normal is that drivers have to pay £25 to race and that will kill the number of entries which will kill interest in the sport. The meetings at Ipswich on 25th July and at Aldershot on 26th July will have drivers paying to race in National Hot Rods, Superstox and 2 Litre Hot Rods. They will also feature crowds for the first time. Exactly how many will be allowed in is not known at present but as the Superstox are racing at Aldershot i hope to be among those who see the meeting, I just hope the car numbers make it worthwhile as small grids can be like watching a bad case of gate and go at Speedway.

That is exactly what Spedeworth are doing at Ipswich and Aldershot for their first two meetings.

So is the meeting against Berwick or Hull?

If you wanted narrow you went to Romford. The handlebars of the all the riders were touching each other at the start!

I only got to two meetings last year having only missed one Rye House meeting the previous year. I enjoyed my two days on the Isle of Wight and was looking forward to going two or three times this season. As well as missing Speedway, I am also missing my Superstox meetings, guarding on the Mid Hants Railway and going to Country music concerts. So Speedway is one of the four things I am missing due to the damn virus. Stay safe and hope for a better future.

You can add Walthamstow and White City to that list although to be fair both had stopped running both Speedway and Stock Cars before being sold for development.

I don't know the Poole area very well having been to about a dozen meetings over the last 10 years including one for the sidecars. I take it that creekmoor is a lot further from the station than the present stadium so if Speedway was moved there it would make it impossible for me to get to the meetings in the future. I know that my attendance in the past will not have kept the stadium in business but on everyone of my trips at least a dozen people joined me in the run to the station once racing had finished and I got the impression that they were regulars.

My thoughts are with ALL those affected by mental health issues and their families and friends. Very glad that Chris has been found is hopefully be helped to recovery by our medical friends.

I have heard on the radio news that at least two large Universities have said that all teaching for the 2020/21 year ending in June 2021 will be web based as they think that social distancing will still be in place! That could really cause problems to all sports, concerts and life in general!

So why don't we get tarmac tracks? Gets rid of the gardening at the start and probably means that rain would affect meetings a lot less than on shale!

I thought it was the start of the cricket season that brought the rain!

I saw the crash when Sverre was injured on the third/forth bend and a lot of other racing there and while it had its moments I always liked the smaller tracks. That said I loved my visits to Hyde Road to listen to my mother cheer her Aces. She never wanted to go there after Peter Craven was killed and I therefore in later years only saw the BriSCA F1's there.

Back in the 1960's I used to watch racing at Wimbledon, Hackney, West Ham and New Cross. As a kid I never liked West Ham because there were such large gaps between the riders after the first lap. I loved New Cross as they were all bunched up and even if they never passed each other it looked good. Wider, I would agree makes passing easier but that can be a double edged sword as the top rider misses the gate and can easily make a pass on the reserve who made the gate! There are arguments for and against all sizes and shapes of tracks but the thing that is a problem is that the current engines cost far too much for the riders.

I agree that a scoreboard should be at every stadium but then I was brought up at Wimbledon who used the dog racing boards they had from the time I started going in 1959. They had the heat result, time and score up on the board. Could be very useful if the speakers were not working too well.

Chocolate pudding with chocolate custard by any chance!

Please put the Q&A onto the website. I enjoyed the video of the NICE 2v Challenge, just wish I had got to see it live.

Thank you for that information. Very sad whenever a rider get hurt.

Now you have us all in suspense over what happened in heat four! How about the polite and impartial version, if such a thing ever exists in sport.

It is called Isle of Wight, Smallbrook Stadium! Sadly not going to work the way we would all like.

I have two model railway magazines on subscription and one of them charges me £3.45 a month by direct debit. Maybe you need to push your bank a little harder as Bauer Media can do it with their bank.