HGould

Used to be a wall just below surface off 2nd turn allegedly at Long Eaton Dave Perks knew exactly where it was and stuck his back wheel on it and get massive speed off it

I remember speedway at Brandon. Every meeting right after second half you could stand in the upper bar and watch them blading the track back to perfection. I was told back then that a blade in the wrong hands is counter productive as you need an expert. Otherwise you just blade the contours of the old surface in to a new one, hence may be why dips remain.

Really I recall major problems at some Polish tracks in last few seasons with tracks and complaints, especially when it rains. They also have loads of modern state of the art kit. Besides most Polish tracks have full time employed staff, many UK tracks have 40 year old tractors and willing hard working volunteers making do.

Thanks for clarifying

It's all about balancing the need for income and the quality of the track. The more you use a track for training and as a commercial asset the quicker it will deteriorate The more you use it in winter the quicker the deterioration. You reap what you sow. Maybe they need to cancel all non match day track use now until they get it fixed?

Its always tough to prepare when rains about. Genuine question, with Steve Lawson spending so much time creating what looks like a masterpiece at Northside are they missing his magic touch track prep wise?

Has Mr Shovlar got a flat battery? Surely can't say gate and go based on speedway updates?

It was borderline in my opinion. Hard very hard riding. Just very strange that the race vanished for 24 hours.

Might take that long to get to hospital and back BUT if there is a 4 hour delay to get in to A+E the Ambulance can't just leave the patient in the Car Park on a trolley. I have known riders being ferried in cars but any sort of head or breathing injury or bad break the paramedics won't allow it.

Having watched heat 14 which mysteriously vanished I'd say right on the margin of hard but fair and unnecessarily dangerous that saw young Dan in the fence. Hopefully he will make a full recovery physically and mentally.

I was referring more to whoever replaces Pearson. Kelvin is fine as the 2nd man, but needs a "commentator" not an analyser next to him in my opinion.

They say politics and sport should not mix TOO RIGHT. No one can condone some of the Russian atrocities but to say Russia has no right in Ukraine is basically a 100% complete failure to understand history, certainly in parts of the Donbas region. Who is more culpible in war, the aggressor, the defender or the Arms supplier, or all three?. War means no one is ultimately blameless. The aggressor rightly takes the lions share of the flak but the defender can also commit atrocity and the arms supplier in many ways is as bad as the aggressor and the defender. As for those seeminly desperate to fund and perpetuate the conflict to save their own political skins elsewhere, the word "contempt" is not sufficient. Yes you Boris! Aggressive acts bring out aggressive responses (just look at the carpet fire bombing of German Cities in WW2 as an example) . The hatred between some Poles and some Russians also goes back to WW2 (and before), when in their desperation to rout the Germans who had been responsible for the deaths of 10's on millions of Russians with their barbarity, the Russians swept through Poland treating some Poles as German collaborators and not waiting to pick and choose who was friend and who was foe. There are NO winners in war, and certainly in the context of Speedway the GP series is the loser without Emil and Artem, Emil and Artem are losers for not being there and no one wins as a result.

Hopefully Henry will continue. He will need time as he has really missed 3 seasons, 2020 to Covid, 2021 to injury and much of 2019 to injury too when he rode injured.

The actual explanation of the sport, bikes, rules etc in the first 30 minutes was excellent. Best I've seen. Understandably Kelv is upset and lost. Scotty would have been better commentating rather than monotone Chris Louis. I wasn't particularly a fan but huge boots to fill with Nigel gone. May be they will have to find an experienced commentator from other genres of motorsports to try to take things forwards.

The rumour mill wasn't that it was going to close, more that the Owners weren't going to lease it out anymore, but bring it in house and appoint a speedway manager. Given the owners track record it would undoubtedly be very unpopular surely?

I must be looking at the wrong website too then as it says Lawson (Guest) Bowtell Palm Toft Barker Andersen Gilkes Nathan Ablitt (Guest)

I was told at Lakeside some years agi that Lawson didn't like being v in heat 1 so would seek to let teammates win and pick up the bonus point when possible and safe to do so. The rumour was that he was often late because Mrs L took so long doing her make up. So Heat 4 was his favoured first race.

This match and the return on Friday are a perfect example of why the bonus aggregate bonus point is worth revisiting in my opinion. I think both matches will end up 20 to 25 point home wins. Imagine the excitement if an aggregate bonus point were up for grabs. Indeed go a stage further, allow only reserve substitute rule and scrap tactical substitute rule and then every point every rider scores has more value.

Thanks for the clarification. I knew it was 8 days wasn't aware of the No 1 exception.

Tapped up and with a sponsorship as a sweetener no doubt. Plus more certainty of more matches with the favourites to win everything.

Used to be an 8 day rule from memory meant you couldn't guest for home team 2 weeks running. When there started to be almost every team riding on a Friday night and the Chairman's Club had the need of a Guest all season in 2019 the rule was eased. It's created the equivalent of speedway mercenaries who will now ride 7days a week if they can, as heat leader guests are in short supply.

http://birmingham-speedway.com/news.php?extend.3149 Nothing else to say here. People who are NOT Brummies fans who are trolling and lecturing about Birmingham Speedway being closed should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. If you can't support SPEEDWAY as a Sport I'm not sure what the point is of attacking it! Those who HAVE paid good money to attend do deserve a hearing and hopefully the Club will come up with a financial solution to both deal with the current NHS crisis and its implications in terms of cover, and something to placate that rather poor PR and initial offer from last Wednesday

I'll be perfectly frank and say I don't think they can afford to. I've no inside information, knowledge, gossip it's just my own opinion. In one interview a comment was made about home matches and bad luck. Through no fault of their own the only match at PB that hasn't been called off lasted 10 heats on a horrible night with a weather affected crowd Some of the rain offs would have cost too as they were quite late ones We've ridden 5 away matches and have another before we're at home again. Nigel was very honest and said he'd put 70k in but it was a one off. Much of that would have been spent on his Bond, making up other payments, new fence and sorting the track out. We've lost the main sponsor and gained another who some people have said aren't as big although obviously helpful. I'm only guessing but by the time you've paid points nd travel for 5 away matches there's not much change out of 20 to 25k. Thats horrific cash flow for any business. 5 matches to pay out and income for 1 plus Wednesday. Two sides to every coin. I don't want someone from Sheffield telling me my club should close, might suggest he buts out

I don't think Ray is being disrespectful in making a what he thinks is a valid point. I also think that if someone dies that you don't respect or like for whatever reason, justified or not in the opinion of the majority, that the most respectful reply is to say nothing at all. Thats all I have to say on the topic.

On the subject of Ambulances and Paramedics it would seem that with our NHS in the state its in that the only resolution Speedway can have is to have 2 x Ambulances and 2 x Paramedics and other medical support at each Fixture. I won't hear a bad word about the Paramedics at Perry Barr though as there is at least 1 rider in the past few years whose life was saved by them. (Mitch Davey) That awful incident though casts a light on just how unforseen accidents can happen in Speedway that CAN'T be legislated for and for that reason I won't attack the Promotion for the sake of it. My recollection of that night was that whilst Mitchell's life was being saved another rider was being treated for a significant broken bone injury. So in that context even with 2 Ambulances and 2 paramedics and teams; a Meeting would still have been abandoned as both crews would have been working independently and both going asap to A+E. That's an extreme scenario but no doubt a few bashers would still have found fault with it. With regards the refund policy the Club have abided strictly to the letter of the BSPL regulations as they stand. In my opinion they are WRONG to do so and a small amount of common sense and customer relation skills would have quickly come up with an alternative. My question though would be - if the Club deviate from the BSPL specific Rules would they be penalised? Would a memo come from the Ivory Towers to tell them they can't do that as it sets a dangerous precedent. There tend to be 2 types of Speedway promotion in this era, the ones that stretch the boundaries with a customer slant are all too often frowned upon by the powers that be and the ones who act like they don't give a fig about supporters and abide rigidly to the BSPL rules are seen as glowing lights. There are 2 sides to every story and 2 sides to every coin. Strictly speaking Birmingham Speedway have followed the protocols. By all means attack them if you wish but we don't know the full facts and until we do I will reserve judgement. I will be writing to the Management politely to ask these questions and hopfully I will get a reply. I think with a businessman like Nigel in charge who will understand how important good customer service is, I will get a reply. Too many Speedway tracks are closing, we are all rejoicing in the return of Oxford and quite rightly and in Jamie Courtney there is one of those more forward thinking Promoters that are bucking the trend, but lets not forget HOW LONG it took to get Oxford back and how long it took Brian Buck to get Birmingham back too from the wilderness years. Thank You