moxey63

Thought it was The Disney Channel.

... and before you know it, you'll be stood at home on racenights. I seriously question the antics of promoters when in this week's Speedway Star, one of them says the Tac Ride was binned because, in a way, fans didn't really like it! After 14 years?

Also like to further agree.... that I'm like a spoilt kid, throwing tantrums and not agreeing with what certain people think. But I don't throw insults when I disagree with what others think. How selfish for having my own mind.

Totally agree with you.

They usually say, you can tell how brave a man is by how he talks behind a keyboard.... You sir, are a 20 word a minute hero.

I know.

Certainly better than the double bubble but would really have preferred the old way - six down and you can use a run of subs. I found the old way used to keep matches interesting - even if the racing was off. A TS just once isn't as good, in my opinion, but better than the double points race. What do you say Hacksaw Jim, BeWitcher and that other one... the Newcastle fan?

How come you say the full word "piss" but use an asterik in "shi*t"? You had me laughing there Hacksaw Jim.... Just surprised you had to edit such a short piece.

Hilarious? No, not really. Just a former fan who wants a sport he once loved to claw itself back into being something of a serious sport. I cling on for a bit of sense, thought the reintroduction of the tac sub was the start, only to discover it is to be used the once per match. Speedway has always had its quirky side, and I accepted that. But come on... riders donning everyone else's colours to help form some sort of team, in every league on earth. Sides massaging their scoring ability to gain a better chance of winning the X-Factor Play-Off. Speedway is a team sport. When I feel I can support a team that is my team (all my riders), that team will get my support. It took 13 years for promoters, who we allow to run the asylum, to realise the double points thing made the sport look a joke. Therefore, at the moment, I wouldn't go for free (or complimentary, as it was called); I won't watch on TV, as the sport is too messed up and not a very serious product, and my opinions are offered out of frustration, hoping one day the sport will return to what I see as a serious offering. The promoters just had a bish-bash-bang gathering to thrash out ideas. They know they need to placate fans, the few that still turn up, but want to attract more. At the moment they haven't persuaded this one. But I'll wait in hope. I don't know what the disagreement is about with other posters on here. I know speedway can be a great sport... but it has allowed itself, or those who run it have, to wander away from a serious sport. A good promoter or business must be trying to win me, an old customer, back. The ones who still attend... they'll put up with anything and can be given any old tosh! There are others like me, ex-attendees who keep in touch. I am still looking in the shop window but won't enter it.Once they start selling something I like, you may hear the sound of the shop doorbell. Promoters should worry about those who no longer pass by the shop. You're good... will you be my solicitor?

Is it a mix of several things? Sure some riders have said they'd return to race the UK if racenights were fixed.

Others don't want to read this bickering. So what... I didn't pay, there you are. But the worrying thing was, I stopped going at the time the free pass was still there. One of the reasons was the ridding of the tac sub for the Golden Double. I thought the promoters were trying to entice back people like me, who no longer attend, but the one-time TS rule is a wet cloth. Speedway is on its rear, in fact there are many now who still keep in touch but don't attend. I had no association with Speedway Mail... but did use to get in for "free" to Belle Vue... but in turn I used to contribute to the programme, so, unless you believe in free-labour, i suppose the least I could do was take a freebie. It didn't cost BV anything... Thing is, before I started getting the freebie, I used to pay... with pleasure. Speedway 1990-style was more appealing. But how my views have changed. I wouldn't go now, even with the "freebie." It's on in the background every week, on telly, and I never watch it... so you can't say i stopped going because I had no "freebie."

Speedway Mail? Free pass? Sorry you have me mistaken for someone else. And while I'm at it, my paying for SKY TV since 1999 has helped keep your track alive and therefore gives you somewhere to harbour once a week. I may not attend anymore, but my generosity allows others to retain their programme-filling habit. Think of me, next time to patiently await the time for the last heat. So let's move on. But before we do, the person who started this myth about a free pass being withdrawn, the track photographer at Belle Vue, ex-programme editor (ah ah) has now regained his love for the sport and now attends regularly. Though he was quick to smear my name about being tight and not paying to attend to watch speedway, he only fell out of love with the sport because his freebie went astray. The freebie returned, dah dah, so has his love for the sport. It's like magic...

I am guessing the one tac sub ride and the cost of sending that one rider to the tapes is reason why the promoters are allowing it just the once. Most fans I expect would like to see the tac sub an option as long as a team is 6 in arrears. But money is the problem. So, just saying, usually the top earners come to the tapes for heat 15, so just cut that and the money that is saved, we can pretend to have a proper sport that exists on penny pinching moves. The tac sub, say three times a match, would entertain longer than the one nominated heat. Just saying, that all matey. I am a non-attender... and scratch my head that people still attend, to be honest, especially after gimmicks like the new tac sub rule. Perhaps they could have a on-the-night terrace Go-Fund-Me sort of app, so teams can afford to send out more tac subs. May get young fans interested. Could even have a poll, see what rider the Go-Fund-Me people wish to bring in. Good idea that, I think.

That is a complete waste of time. Can be used only once? What is the point? I thought the promoters were starting to listen. Smoke and mirrors sort of rule change. This change appears to be good, but it's simply a Gotta-save-the-pennies motive. Get rid of the expensive nominated rides' heat and do the thing properly, if it's cash that's the problem.

Yeah, but that's about to change, ain't it so... fixed race nights to entice the stars back, at the same time the doors have been slammed on them coming back by the one 8-pointer thing.

The people who run the sport do come over as amateurish. Get old publications from the sport's early years and speedway was kept in shape by people who looked the part. Suits, blazer, shirt and tie. Even 30 years ago there seemed a bit of authority about our promoters. However, recent years have seen a reduction of the men who we expect to lead the sport. I believe the red blazers from 20 years ago was a low point, but we've had for years men in charge who wear blinking anoraks and run the gaff from a blinking portacabin! Has anyone else noticed though... speedway people don't seem to look the part in anything they wear?

Will they be having any drinking games this year, where a promoter thinks an idea and has to down a pint?

Another exciting new era. Can't wait... and have now broken out in a skin rash through excitement. What'll it bring? The AGM and Christmas so near. This is the life! Hope they bring back the green helmet.

Correct!

Fixed race night will, they hope, attract the superstars. Tragic though it is, even when we had superstars to attract crowds were falling. In the 70s and 80s, fans wanted more dirt on the tracks to encourage more passing. So the promoters ignored them fully and decided to increase the race format by a couple of heats.When a rider like Phil Collins became disillusioned with how bare tracks were and quit British racing, you'd think they'd have listened.

The lure of speedway will always be the spectacle. But equally as important must be the rules. Set race nights may or may not work, I doubt they will. But they will be harder to implement, surely, than a proper promotion and relegation system, which promoters have ran away from for decades. Surely a better system than the Play-offs.

Chris Morton is concerned about the reception he'll receive from speedway fans. Is he a nutter of somethink... the man is a legend at Belle Vue and should get his self down to that new stadium and track he helped build. For god sake! Am I gonna have to drag him down there meself?

Good post Grand Central (only because I agree with it!).. Two weeks on, I have to say that it was unusual that PC mentioned there'd be no Belle Vue if he hadn't helped save it in 1988. That was the most un-PC thing I have ever heard him say, as he has always been quite modest and never "bigged" up himself. That's what shocked me most about what he said. That wasn't like him. Like a lot of us feel though, I think it's out of frustration with the sport and people who run it.

Good post. It's sad, how easy some forget what others have given to us.

But Dean, who paid for Scott Nicholls, Natalie Quirk, Nigel and Kelvin, the cameras, the crew.... BT paid their wages etc and must have wanted some form of return from the speedway viewers, otherwise it will be waste of time and money for them. BT surely won't pay out without getting anything back. When they see many getting free streams or see the the amount of subs brought in by speedway, surely they will ditch us.