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So not content with already being the joint most expensive Elite League track to attend (adult with program) they have now set their stool out to be the most expensive National League track in the country and this is not even a proper official fixture, just a challenge match. Even more so unjustified when so many of the support likely to be attracted to this meeting will be South of the river and therefore having to pay toll charges before they even get in the stadium.

For a few short hours we can forget about the broken Elite League, poor stadia, poor presentation and enjoy Speedway how it should be.

Gustrow track and place it on the Essex county showground

As i was there throughout back in 1991 aged just 18 i have many fond memories of that season and that team was pretty awesome, imo yes it was better than the Edinburgh team this season, Karger and Petersen in particular both subsequently raced back in a higher division with the club and were heat leader performers in what was then a much harder first division. Backed by Galvin, Moggo, Pratt, Hurry and White it was a very formidable side in the end but it was not the same 1-7 from start to finish. I am also aware of the legend that is the Newcastle team of 1982 but i don't know enough to make a judgment call on that side in comparison to Arena 1991.

Back in the day when i was a child and long before team suits were invented i used to get my copy of the star and get a family member to show me a picture of a rider in action whilst covering the name underneath and i would tell which rider it was, not against team suits, they look very smart but it did make every rider unique, you can still tell them apart a little thanks to most keeping their bikes individual.

I love this track, i wish we had one like that in our leagues, i think Mildenhall used to be like this or very similar?

A good example of something personal to a rider was when we (Lakeside) had Christian Hefonbrock and they used Wunderbar by temple tudor as his theme. PK has when at Wolves i think they used to play super trooper by Abba, again it works well. All i am saying is it would not hurt meeting presentation if a bit of thought went into things like this because it seems bar the odd exception clubs have just taken the exact same seven songs and given them to their riders at random instead of thinking what would be a apt song for this guy. I like the old school way of doing things where different clubs had a different way of doing presentation, do Rye House for example still come out to "those magnificent men"? i know its not a great song but its an association, Hackney always used to come out to the "magnificent seven". I will take my hat off to Kings Lynn because they come out to "Written in the Stars" which is not only a good song but also very appropriate.

Having now experienced various speedway tracks via the likes of sky and bet365 Why is it that all the tracks all seem to play the same stuff? I don't mean the music in between the heats but the music chosen for riders when they win a race or music for when a team gets a 5-1 or the music before the first race. Did the bspa simply say to all clubs here is a load of different songs, you must use these? Why cant clubs be more unique, the only exception i found is Davey Watt's heat winning theme ("David Watts" by the Kinks) How many riders for example have or have had Blink 182 "Girl at the rock show" as their theme? Everyone plays the same thing, no uniqueness, no imagination.

We have a lot of well meaning hardcore fans on here but unfortunately and this is not going to be a popular comment but thanks to a lack of order and moderation by those that run the site it has fallen to a level where arguments and abuse are the things which people outside the BSF associate it with, multiple aliases etc etc its no wonder that the BSF has become a dirty word especially to those who run the sport. There is so much wrong with British Speedway but the trouble is because the BSF is associated with a negative slant, promoters assume that any negative comment made on here is being made for the sake of continuing that negativity, i am sure most if not all people involved in running the sport don't read it anyway. The BSF is really the daily sport equivalent of a news paper stand and it might be too far gone for it to be turned around into a creditable voice of the people.

Kelvin said he has a look a track, hmmm sounds like they are in a studio though and probably not even in that country.

Excellent thread as its so easy to miss bits of action with so many sports channels around not too mention everything else, i have 12 sports channels and that does not even include sky sports F1 or or any of the horse racing channels etc

Here are some that spring instantly to mind. Sean Wilson Andre Compton Martin Dugard Richard Hall Andrew Silver Bjarne Pedersen Nicki Pedersen Josh Auty Cam Woodward

Wrestling is very much like speedway on sky tv in that results are predetermined before hand, all in the interests of whats best for business of course.

Can only see the situation we had last season getting worse with now the potential to have both reserves and maybe two out of the five main team riders being absent to ride for other clubs, record season for guests and rider replacement?

Not read through all the posts but want to touch on what White Knight said a couple of pages ago, he summed up my thoughts when i read the statement about these young riders no doubt going out to buy the best and fastest bikes they can and then racing above their level of ability and end up injurying themselves and possibly others. Not against the concept of pushing the younger riders but like everything with the bspa its always done in a way which suits them first and the sport second. One other thing, all very well having these new rules but whats going to be done to improve the match day experience? if meetings are still going to be long drawn out affairs on poorly prepared tracks with little or no entertainment then what is the point.

After the storms on Monday i wonder how many tracks have suffered damage and how many have been improved by it, by nearest track is Arena, no need to say which is the more likely outcome there then.

Would not be surprised if sky did have a problem with crowd levels at meetings they show, after all most sporting events are made to look better when there is a good atmosphere, a great race can only look so good if no one is there to see it and for the people at home tuning in its going to be a case of what is that? well there is hardly anyone there so it can't be that good, i will switch over. Said it once and i will say it again, the promoters got greedy, they took the money and ran instead of taking the ball and running with that instead.

Would like to make a comment on the point Arthur Cross made about where the next generation of promoters will come from. I immediately thought of the late great John Berry when he said that and about how back in the day someone young with vision was looked upon in a not too nice way by the powers that be! The bspa has always been a closed shop and it probably always will be, which is why you will never see an independant body in charge of the sport. But this is what the sport needs, younger minds with visions and the ability to think outside the bubble that the bspa have long been trapped in.

Lakeside have been getting decent crowds the last couple of months but nothing spectacular i would say but for the first couple of months and the 1st meeting in June when it was on sky the crowds were well down below what would be perceived as average. No idea of actual numbers but overall the pattern is not good because the drop off when the weather is not good or there is no kids a for quid deal is quite alarming.

Like others have said its down the promoters that the sky link up did not work, they had a great opportunity to show their product off but what did they do? The carried on making no more effort than normal to prepare tracks that would provide good racing and 95% of the time offer no incentive for people come to and watch rather than sit and home. Week after week after week, they just accepted the fact hardly anyone was going to turn up, it could not have bothered them too much otherwise they would be begging for sky to stay away as it costs them money. In short they simply took the money and ran and sod what happens in the future.

I always used to be keen on collecting programmes, there was a program I really would have liked to have got last season but they sold out and never done a reprint, I think being a lakeside fan you will all know the meeting I'm referring to. A few weeks back I turned up for a meeting a despite only a fairly average crowd they had sold out of programmes so I improvised and used my phone to keep track of results, in the end I figured what's the point in wasting £2.50 every time so now I don't bother, that's at least £35 a season the club has now lost. The trouble is programmes in general are a rip off and promoters rely on people wanting to collect them and refuse to publish team line ups to try and prevent fans making their own ahead of time.

Tac subs in the WTC are fine, Jokers are not and for the very same reason they should not be used in league racing but we all know the promoters will never get rid of them because its a way keeping scores artificially close without having to pay the riders more money.

Spot on Steve Brum, we go to watch Racing not this load BS, if this starts happening in league racing i would stop going tomorrow.

Exactly right Brummie it just goes to prove how much of a farce double points are, will Nicki be paid for coming 2nd thats the question?

Chris Gay got himself in a right mess with that heat but to be fair it did not help that the incorrect flag was shown to the rider in yellow, he was shown the chequered flag when he still had one lap to go having fallen earlier in the race, the ref actually robbed Shane Hazeldon of extra points because there is a small chance he could have got to the line ahead of Ben Holloway who was given 2nd even though he was 3rd when the ref incorrectly put the red lights on.