Chris116

Isn't that the way speedway rules have always been written?

No real news yet on the state of play at Mildenhall following the fire but the one piece of news is that a championship qualifying round is being advertised for 24th May 2025 so Spedeworth must be fairly certain things will be back to normal by then.

When we had tracks in London, I regularly attended Wimbledon, Hackney and Crayford. You knew which night of the week they ran and didn't need to check the fixture list as they ran every week. Len Silver made a point of 'Make it a date, Friday at eight' and that is exactly what the fans did. The same weekly format was the norm throughout the country so it meant riders were on average racing one home and one away meeting every week during the season. How the promotions get things back to that is a major problem to which I don't have any real answers. Back in the 60s and 70s supporters would arrive in equal numbers for league, KO Cup, local derby challenges and individual meetings. These days many are only interested in league matches and don't even support a second team in a lower league (Oxford being a notable exception).

Sadly, it is the fans who have caused the loss of international matches by us not turning up in sufficient numbers to make them profitable. We have also lost most of the big individual meetings due to lack of support caused in some cases by promotions reducing their costs with cheaper riders or running with only 12 riders instead of running a full 16 rider 20 heat meeting. Costs being reduced by those methods give the promotion a higher profit the first year but further reduce the attendance in following years which leads to more economies, further loss of attendance and then the loss of what used to be a well attended meeting. I can understand why the promotions did what they did as I suspect that the rise of Polish speedway meant some riders started asking for more money. At the other end of the sport, we often read how much we need a thriving Development league but such comments are often followed by the same correspondents saying that they don't want to watch Development league standard racing as they only follow professional team racing. I used to enjoy the international matches, both top level and junior level. Equally I can enjoy meetings in all three leagues run in this country. I have seen good and bad meetings in all three leagues. How the promotions get the sport back to what it was I don't know and I fear none of them have the cash backing to be able to run big meetings in half empty stadiums.

I have reported your post asking that the mods do as you request.

I thought you had improved the forum by leaving. Please stay gone.

The one problem with using Monday is that it will mean less time to work on the track after Stock Car meetings over the weekend. If too many teams go Monday as their regular day then there could be problems with fitting in fixtures.

R.I.P Len A good rider, a great promoter and a nice person. I saw you race a attended many of the meetings you promoted. Thanks for the great memories.

With 8 riders, the same as the Ipswich 16 lapper. I think Arena ran it over 12 laps just to make it different to the Ipswich race.

Very unlikely but we would all love to see your back as you leave the forum.

If you are worried about a £1 increase in admission for the Playoff finals I would advise you not to follow BriSCA F1 Stock Cars as their normal admission is the same as a normal Speedway meeting but for their main event of the season it was £45! If I still had a car there is no way I would have missed it even at that price.

I have been watching the snooker that is on Eurosport this week and compared to BBC coverage it has the same faults as their Speedway coverage when compared to BSN. It seems that Eurosport are just not very good at sports coverage.

Retain - Speedway Replace - BSPL

The simple solution would have been to agree the dates each team would run their home meeting on, which means TV know where they need their OB team to be and then sort out the opposition in accordance with the rules.

I am a member of another forum that uses the same software and the mods regularly merge threads there so it is possible but only for the mods.

That always works.

Sadly since 22nd July the Warriors website has not been updated with either meeting previews or reports.

It has been boring for a long time and is like a leopard, so won't change its spots.

When I started watching speedway (1955, age eight months) and through the 60s and 70s the tractor came onto the track as the riders left. It did two laps and left the track as the riders came out for the next race. While that was happening about twenty rakers were busy pulling the shale back towards the inside line and away from the fence which meant the tractor had shale to move around. The racing was never delayed by track grades but the racing surface was well looked after. Then we got health and safety saying that no riders or staff could be on the track while the tractors were and the tractor had to be in the pits not on the centre green. Add to that the near total absence of rakers and we end up with lots of delays for tractor racing while the track is not maintained as well as it used to be.

Here is a copy of their message on the website. "Mildenhall Stadium was the victim of a large fire on Tuesday 30th July - causing significant damage to the venue. As the leader in promoting oval motorsport events in the country, our commitment to improving the facilities at our venues was no clearer than at Mildenhall - with significant investment and hours of hard work being undertaken at this much-loved venue prior to the fire. We are devastated at what has happened, but remain committed to getting the venue back on the map, and back on track to play host to more oval motorsport in the future. Crucially, we can thankfully say that nobody was injured, and we would also like to thank the firefighters who tackled the blaze. We will be making no further comment on the matter until an official investigation into the fire is completed. Spedeworth/Incarace/Mildenhall."

Spedeworth do own the stadium and have put out a message on their website to say that they intend to get the stadium back working and look forward to continuing the improvement works they have been doing since taking over the ownership of the stadium.

Surely you mean Canterbury.

I have just watched the video on YouTube of heat 2. Two riders landed in the fence in different incidents and both times it looked as though they had assistance from the rider on the inside line but both times the rider who had fallen was excluded. Maybe this is why a lot of riders won't try to go around someone. I fully accept that the angle shown in the video may give a false impression of what actually happened and would be interested in the views of those who were there.

I find it interesting that Scunthorpe Eddie Wright Raceway are affiliated to NORA for Flat Track, Speedway and Oval racing, practice and training. I wonder what the difference is between Leicester and Scunthorpe other than where they are situated in the country.

No, just on the football fans with any luck!