Chris116

As a former fan of Wimbledon, Hackney, New Cross, West Ham, Crayford, Arena Essex, Skegness and Rye House I would settle for any speedway near where I live and would be happy pay £17 for National League standard racing if that was my only choice.

There is that word again! PROMOTION. Last season I went to all but what turned out to be the last meeting at Rye House. They have a large advert just by the road entrance which had the next meeting date and time. Trouble was on all but two meetings when I arrived it showed the details of a previous meeting. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot, surely changing that hoarding should have been the first job on the day following a meeting.

In the old 13 heat format the top five riders had four rides and the two reserves had three. With two extra races four riders will have an extra ride.

In all the leagues we need to happen to get back to a full season of racing instead of two or three times a month with all the postponed fixtures held in the last week of October. The easy way to do that with the current size of each league is to race home and away more times. Each round of fixtures to be run in a fixed month time slot. Such an arrangement would give 18 home league fixtures in the Premiership with each side racing home and away three times. First round in April and May, second round in June and July with the third round in August and September. In the Championship it would be home and away twice for 20 home fixtures. First round in April, May and June and the second round in July, August and September. The National Development League could run the same way as the Premiership with 21 home fixtures. KO Cup and other fixtures could be used to fill in any empty dates so every track is running every week through the season. Regular racing means supporters don't find something else to do and makes advertising much easier (if a track does actually advertise!) Last season at least one track had an advert just outside the stadium which was regularly showing the previous meeting when I arrived for a meeting, no wonder the crowd vanished and it went bust!

Wisbech went seriously downhill when South Brink Stadium closed and became a Tesco like so many Speedway and Stock Car tracks have done over the years.

Gordon was the star of the last ever appearance of speedway bikes at Wimbledon making the tarmac look as if it was a shale track on the bends. The video is on YouTube

I totally agree with you that a event held 60 years ago does not prove that it would not work now. Having followed both Speedway and Stock Cars for 60 years I have found there are very few people who are interested in both sports and most are very much against the sport they don't follow. Sadly I do not think mixing them on the same programme will work as many regular supporters would stay away as they don't want to pay for half a meeting they are not interested in and the families that might be attracted will not make up the loss of regulars! This discussion started with comments about Basketball, a sport I also enjoy and in the days of the Embassy All Stars used to watch a lot. I agree that the razzmatazz is good but sadly most only works indoors and most stadiums I have visited the sound system is so bad that they can't even get the music and presenters at a similar volume. Most of the time the speech alternates between deafening and so quiet that you can't hear the result! The music is just loud and the problem is that what one age group like others hate. Having being the commentator at hundreds of meetings I found that whatever music was played the only comments I got was how it was the wrong era. This was having played a mixture of top sounds from the previous 30 years to try and keep everyone happy.

Back in 1959 Harringay ran a Cavalcade of Speed which my parents took their young son to. It featured Greyhounds, Trotting, Stock Cars and Speedway. We all enjoyed the event but with only a Speedway type fence the Stock Car drivers were under strict instructions not to go near the fence or to push any other car into it! Apart from the cars all the racing appeared to be genuine but the followers of each sport did not appear to be interested in the others and my father years later said that it had not done the intended job of bringing new members of the public into the stadium. In the 1980's Arena Essex held an important Speedway meeting and with no safety fence at the time it was possible to run two Hot Rod races as pre meeting entertainment. They were two good races which I did the commentary for. But most of the Speedway fans spent much of the meeting complaining about having cars at "their" meeting. I know such mixes work in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa but many oval race fans are very limited in this country as to what they will watch, even to the point of some BriSCA Formula One Stock Car supporters at Long Eaton used to turn their chairs around so they had their backs to the track when any other class was racing. I know all this is negative but it does show that in the past some promoters did try but the paying public were not interested. I wish I could go to five or six tracks in the London area to watch two, three and four wheel motor sport but all the stadia have been pulled down so I console myself with the knowledge that at least I saw it in my younger days.

I used to think that was great until I got to my 60th birthday and can now do it for free!

Would never make it as an MP, answering a question is against their way of life.

Or George Beech for Wembley Lions! Or the great referee, Ernie Leecock, who would have a nervous breakdown at what goes on these days on a Hockey Rink.

So now we have three clubs (Isle of Wight, Glasgow and Eastbourne) trying to do the right thing which is very good news but seems the BSPA still have their heads in the sand and many promotions would stab each other in the back before they joined in trying to promote the sport.

So Glasgow and Isle of Wight are on the path to improving and one of them finds they are throwing good money away. A very sad indictment of where the sport has found itself. Ronnie Green, Johnny Hoskins and Charles Ochiltree must be spinning in their graves.

The only promotion to be doing anything close is Isle of Wight and look how they are going in the right direction. Sadly the only club in UK Speedway who have the right idea.

Yes, that is possible meaning he can do the Belle Vue meetings but not Championship meetings.

Appears that his mechanic only works two days a week!

BSPA fixture list says 19.30 but Redcar website fixture list says 15.00 Based on who is running the meeting and the ability of the BSPA to get anything right I would say 15.00 is the right time!

The cars Hans Kirimar designed are called "Rebels" and they race on both shale and tarmac tracks around the country. Their 2019 fixture list has 23 dates including dates at Stoke and Mildenhall. The Rebels would never have been run on a track bigger than a quarter of a mile as with 750cc Reliant engines they would run out of revs long before the end of the straights. They are a contact class which are probably more fun to drive than watch although I have seen some very good races from them.

The BSPA only use the bond to pay standard rates. If riders had a contract that paid them more then they have to sue the Rye House promotion and a major part of that was recently made bankrupt! The situation appears to be that the riders have been paid at standard rate but therefore still feel they are owed money.

I am pleased to say I saw racing at all of your ten and wish I had got to The Firs for both Speedway and Stock Cars!

ADD Wimbledon, Wembley, Hackney, Crayford, West Ham, Romford, Rye House, Harringay, Leicester Super, Belle Vue, Cradley Heath, oh dear, I seem to have gone over ten, better make it 50 for safety! I saw racing at those mentioned except Leicester Super and although I prefer smaller tracks it has always interested me what racing there would have been like.

The carpet has a slight ridge which is disappearing slowly!

There are many who would fear a 21st century Mike Parker in both Speedway and Stock Cars. I for one prey that Buster is not a second coming of Parker.

The reference to "dual owned" is to Buster owning more than one club (Kings Lynn, Ipswich and Peterborough) not that he is in partnership with another person.

A second Mike Parker, I fear!