JamesHarris

I don't know about the original St Austell at Par as that was way before my time but the Eden Project is not situated in the quarry where the speedway track was situated in the late 90's early 00's. The Eden project is very close to it but opened in 2001 whereas the speedway closed in 2003. But saying that they may have extended it. I went to the 90's St Austell whilst on holiday in 2000 and I will fondly remember it. Good racing in what has to be one of the strangest places ever to host a speedway oval. It was like being on the moon. The funniest memory is my mother wouldn't go to the toilet as I told her the toilets were over the lagoon and you had to hold on to a rope to squat over it!

I may have been away from speedway for a few years now but still keep track of the news and results. One thing that always keeps being mentioned is the declining attendances and tracks closing, most notably my local track at Coventry. The question has to be asked - in 2018 is speedway in the UK still a viable spectator sport? There will always be the "die-hards" who attend their local track but these are becoming few and far between. They are passionate about their sport and will preach it to others like a missionary spreading the word of God to a newly discovered Amazon tribe. The majority of these die-hards though are now in their sunset years and to be brutally honest will soon start dropping off. Are the younger "Nando's" generation going to replace them? I think one of the biggest problems Speedway in the UK has now is that it is overpriced for the spectator when there is so much better entertainment on offer to spend one's cash on. What are you getting for your hard earned cash? Are you seeing the worlds best riders every week -errmm NO! What you get is a watered down product dressed up as a Premiership. In fact what is the difference between the Premiership and the Championship? Isn't it just the same riders in different race jackets depending on what night of the week it is? My Step-Father who introduced me to speedway back in the early 90's has often spoken about when he went to Coventry in the 1950's and would see the likes of Ronnie Moore, Slit Waterman, Barry Briggs ect on a weekly basis and the terraces being packed to capacity. Different times yes, but can we go to speedway here now and see Tai Woffinden, Greg Hancock, Nicki Pedersen and so on on a weekly basis? Of cause not. They gave the British league the elbow and probably for good reason too. I personally think the seeds for the decline of British speedway were sowed way back in 1995 with the introduction of the Grand Prix. It was only 6 rounds then compared to the 11 or so we have now but what the Grand Prix has done is effectively wiped out top flight Speedway on a Saturday night and with it the Worlds best riders. Weekends are prime time for entertainment and people like to spend their disposable income but want value for money at the same time. Monday and Wednesday nights? your'e having a laugh! OK a few tracks have operated on these race nights for years and have attracted the aforementioned "die-hards" but in future will they attract the Nando's generation who are conscious about going out on a "school night"? We have all seen what switching race nights from a weekend to a weekday has done to Rye House. Possibly another impact facing speedway now is the value of land for development. I work in the housing sector so I know how land is needed for housing. Brandon will soon be a housing estate - its only a matter of time. If you are the owner of a motor sport oval that is at a loss and you are suddenly offered millions of pounds from a housing developer for your land what would you do? Stick it out and hope that a bunch of regulars will just about cover the costs of your race night or enjoy your retirement on a sun soaked beach in Barbados? I know which one I'd rather do. Based on this along with the rising costs for its riders I can only see speedway becoming a semi-professional sport in the UK within 10 years. The National League or whatever it will be called will thrive just as it has done since 1994 providing the tracks are in country backwaters away from town and city centres. So just how could the rot be stopped? Well abolish the BSPA for one and let the sport be run by a professional independent governing body. Stop the practice of the points limit every year. If a club can afford the best riders then so bit it. British speedway has to be one of the rare examples where a team is punished for being successful. Could you imagine a situation where Manchester City won the league and cup one season and were told the next - well done but i'm afraid you have been too good this season so you are going to have to get rid of a couple of your best players and replace them with a couple from League 2. It would never happen and would never be accepted so why should it be accepted in British speedway. It all goes back to the punter wanting value for money and offering a quality product is part and parcel to that. If you had a bad meal at a pub that an enthusiastic regular had been raving on about would you go back to that pub? I think the practice of doubling up has also killed British speedway. As I have already pointed out above - is it not the same riders in a different race jacket every night? If we are going to carry on stats que then lets jazz it up a bit and give value for money. If they said to me what would you do different then it would be this - In every meeting lets have 3 "Booster Heats" over the 15 races. The numbering of the 3 heats would be drawn at random before the meeting and the only person to know would be the referee. They would be run with a "pairs" point scoring system 4-3-2-0 (I think that's how it works) and would only be announced to the crowd and the riders within 2 minutes of the race so no tactical substitutions could be done. This would encourage team riding in these heats and would do away with the stupid double points joker. Just a thought. Anyway thanks for reading my post. I hope speedway can once again be a big spectator sport in this country but it has got to change and change fast.

Well I hope people are still interested. Myself, Nigel Hinchliffe and Laurence Rogers put a lot of hard work into this project and although I'm no longer involved in speedway I'm pleased to see that it is still running. My only gripe is that I now see the league and the SDL as being infiltrated by fantasists running ghost teams of whom there is very little chance of them ever getting land for a track. Some call themselves promoters but would not dare put their money where their mouth is. On one side of the coin the ghost teams are giving young riders an opportunity but unfortunately on the other side all they serve as is an ego trip for the fantasists who run them.