marko

Not surprised dogs love it, we all as fans love the smell, Dogs have much better ability to smell, so the methanol fix for them must be off the charts 😉

Nothing wrong with technical tracks, I followed Arena Essex from 88 to 2018

Rider assets went with doubling up, if a rider rides in prem and champ, who really owns his British league contract?

Location wise probably not the easiest track to get to and for travelling in 2025 that has to be a consideration, along with the track itself, not only is it very small but it’s also far too narrow, see Ben Barkers crash, you get it wrong and not much margin for error and bang your in the fence or over it, the more width you have on the bends the more time you have to bail out or put the bike down. Plymouth would better suited in a third tier where costs are lower and riders not so fast around such a limited space but still a good track for teaching lesser riders how to turn harder.

Five teams, Four places, it’s not really that exciting. Five teams and two places, that would change the dynamic. Always said too many play off spots, for a system of four play off spots you need at least a eight team league minimum, how can you justify finishing in the bottom half of the table (4th in 7) and still being potentially crowed champions, no credibility in that.

True but I am talking about applying water to a track that effectively has no or very little dirt on it, your down to the hard base which is like concrete and nowhere for the water to go other than run off onto the centre green if there is enough of a camber or more likely sit on top like a wet tarmac road, doesn’t need to puddle to become dangerous.

If I can play devils advocate for a minute, if watering would mean it would sit on the top, doesn’t that mean that there was no dirt to soak it up? My own track (Lakeside) was no angel either, it was often so slick, adding water would turn it into an ice rink and if there is dirt on the outside and you water that and it binds, you go from slick to grippy with bad consequences. From what I have seen from clips from various media outlets, the tracks this season are just the same old same old and no one is prepared (no pun intended) to address the elephant in the room, these modern bikes are so crap and can’t handle anything other than a smooth track with a fine layer of dirt that is gone after a couple of heats, hence follow the leader, the riders like it, ok they can’t pass very easily but as I have mentioned elsewhere, most have a min guaranteed payment anyway, so do they really care if they come first or second? Bring back the uprights and then you can have more dirt which will also help prevent rain offs, because if you have dirt down you can always scrape some off (provided it has stopped raining)

I think the biggest issue the sport has is guaranteed money, coupled with a rider shortage it’s perfect for some riders, they get paid whether they score 8 or zero and they won’t be dropped because there is no one to replace them. Look at Tungate (others are equally guilty) riding around looking at his engine all the time, do you think they would be doing that if they wasnt being paid? I think if riders only got travel allowance they would be trying a lot harder to fix a problem and make more effort. They certainly wouldn’t be giving up after a lap and then riding back to the pits. I haven’t been to a meeting for years now, do riders still come out after the meeting to test a few things? Or get other riders to ride their bike to prove its not the bike but the rider?

Tried twice to buy the stream yesterday but BSN wouldn’t accept my payment, bank said it’s nothing their end, BSN didn’t bother to reply to my enquiry so I guess they don’t want my money. Disappointed to read that even riders like Tobias were not up to much, he is normally excellent value on these small tracks. I think Ipswich could be on course for one of the best seasons ever seen in the top flight, competing with the Oxfords and Cradleys of the 80s

But by the same token though, wouldn’t a heavier rider gain at the start? Where if you have something powerful but light it will generally spin more?

It doesn’t seem to matter what it is in this Country, it’s always a race to the bottom, not a race to the top.

This weeks bumper issue actually scanned at my local WHSmiths, I almost fell over in shock lol

I maybe in my 50s now but have been buying the star since I was in my early 20s

Had to manually input the code for good couple of months now in Smiths but yesterday I brought one in Smiths at Liverpool Street station and to my shock it actually scanned. ps outside of the issues of barcodes failing to scan, I still love the magazine, I would not buy it if I didn’t. i especially love the throwback features to the sport before my time 70s and earlier, great piece this week on West Ham, wish I had been alive to have visited Custom House in its hey day.

Last two weeks in a row Star brought from different WHSmith retailers have failed to scan and numeric bar code had to be entered in manually.

Ok thanks Next time I have any issues at my local smiths I will ack them to get their machines checked in case the issue is with them, not the magazine.

A code on an envelope would be different to the one on the magazine which is what you scan why trying to buy it, the machine can’t read it, and sometimes the number underneath isn’t helping, the staff in my local WHSmith have mentioned that it’s a frequent problem they have seen with this magazine.

There has been an issue spanning a couple of months where for some reason the bar codes are not scanning properly when you buy the star in WhSmiths. Can someone look into this please?

So it’s now Monday and still no star in my local WHSmith Maldon, guessing it’s not going to turn up now.

No star in local WHSmiths today (Friday)

Lubos Tomicek had a different style, always looked to me like he was unbalanced and could fall off at any point. Another couple of riders who spring to mind is Barry Thomas and Paul Whittaker

Congratulations to the Aces, very strong team at the right point in the season and they had a very good balance from 1-7. The Leicester track has never been great but it’s a damn sight better than what it was when first built, there is plenty of room there, you don’t need every inch to be race able, I like tracks with wide corners as it allows a bit of get off time should a rider hit trouble, some tracks your racing right by the fence, there is zero room for error.

I know exactly what some riders would say “ those long seats weigh to much” 😉

Spires and Cheetahs two different teams but had Bomber been allowed to guest at Oxford for Poole, that would have been interesting, on his home track in front of his home fans, after all, they might have two teams at Oxford, but it’s not two sets of tracks or two sets of fans. Would the fans applaud Bomber if he cost the Cheetahs the tie?

I think it should be a good tie over the two legs, gutted for Ben Cook as one of the reasons I wanted Aces to make the final is that it would hopefully see two full teams and no guests. No idea who will take this or who I will be routing for, been super impressed with Blodorn and Voulas when I have seen them but equally Lions have two ex Lakeside riders in Lewis Kerr and Richard Lawson who is one of my all time favourite Hammers riders. Hope it goes down to heat number 30