cityrebel

Yesterday at Kent they started the meeting with queues outside the stadium. With the 2 hour curfew now applying to bank holidays, it was announced they had no choice.

With the dreaded 2 hour curfew and the usual racing incidents at NL level, there is not enough time to do proper track grades and water breaks. It's very frustrating that the product could be so much better, but if the council wont budge, i can't see it improving.

That's Len for you. Why wasn't the track graded and watered during the earlier delays. Someone needs to get a grip at Kent to ensure delays are kept to a minimum. If that means a second ambulance, then so be it. The crowd levels and high admission price should be enough to cover it.

Totally agree. The star is meant to be the reference record of the sport. I wouldn't entertain it, even if it was free.

Curfew on a bank holiday is a new one on me. Plenty of meetings in the past have gone past the 2 hour mark. It would have been a disaster to pull the plug early today, with such a good crowd in.

Very interesting. I remember having a look at the present stadium, which was in a derelict state, before attending a meeting at the Ladbrokes Perry Barr track across the road back in the early 1980's.

The last era of New Cross progs are worth about £2 tops. They must have printed loads at the time.

Don't hold your breath.

When i worked at Wimbledon in the 1980's, if the weather forecast was favourable we used to flood the track for three days leading up to the meeting. This ensured the water got right into the base and made it a lot easier to manage on a race day.

Like you say, dusty afternoon meetings are nothing new. Some of my earliest speedway memories as a kid, were watching dust bowls at West Ham and Rayleigh.

It was dusty today and the breeze didn't help. Hopefully the next meeting will be switched to an evening start to help with the track preparation.

The track is the most important part of the business, but the majority of the promoters just don't get it.

I'll be watching them with interest at Kent on monday. Hopefully they can give the Kings a tough match.

The GRA only run Perry Barr and Belle Vue now, and the latter is due to be redeveloped. I'm pretty sure the council own the land at Brum, otherwise that would be flogged off as well, just like Hall Green.

Good friday is traditionally such a big payday, I'm sure they'd rather run with a few absentees.

Zach and Shanes are grasstrackers. A totally different mindset when it comes to bumpy tracks.

Good luck to those of you going tonight. I think I'll wait a while until a few meetings have been ridden on it.

That old chestnut!

Correct, i remember the hole in the wooden safety fence caused by the impact.

I was at the SKY meeting against Oxford when PK got injured. It was a sickening crash, where have all those years gone.

I saw Colin ride occasionally at Wimbledon in the early 1970's, and a few times at Crayford at the end of his career.

Not from where i was standing.

A superb gesture, not that I've ever had a speedway season ticket. Plenty of football ones though.

Eastbourne haven't charged to use the car park for a couple of years.

He was superb when i saw him at Leicester a couple of weeks ago, with some great overtaking moves on a difficult track. Last night was completely different. He looked well off the pace and didn't look interested.