RogH

Football and rugby fans are used to their teams not being at home every week, so speedway might follow suit. It might allow speedway to concentrate it's fixtures on one or two nights a week, as in Sweden and Poland rather than the disjointed system now in place. Also there would be no place for the meaningless fixtures that so often clog up the fixture list. Open for debate.

Very interested in your proposed book, Moxey, a much needed addition to speedway's library. If you get no joy with Tempus, you might try the people who produce Backtrack magazine, they've done some books, or possibly Methanol Press, who do Jeff Scott's books. Robert Bamford, author and Press Officer at Swindon was a great help to me when I did my Hull books, he would help, I'm sure.

Thanks for your good wishes, 25 year fan. The Boulevard is out of the question for two reasons. One it is surrounded by houses at present, and two the stadium is shortly to be demolished to provide low cost housing. The search goes on though.

Would'nt it be wonderful if all those tracks could be reborn. Trouble is, the alarm clock rings and we're back in the world of reality. Ask people at Cradley, Long Eaton, Norwich, Halifax, Trelawny, Bristol, Southampton, Wimbledon, Boston, Leicester, Bradford and latterly Exeter how easy it is to find a suitable venue. Add to that list Birmingham as per this thread together with us at Hull. Finding a site that is available at an affordable price that the planners will accept is a nightmare, as any promoter will tell you. The promoters at Scunthorpe, Plymouth and Redcar have done wonderfully well to revive their clubs, although all three clubs were many years out of the sport. I believe that professional advice should be available via the BSPA for promoters looking to open new tracks, to weave a way through the planning maze. The consultant helping Cradley Heath would be an ideal choice. Also, I know it upsets the purists, but I believe speedway must address the noise issue, which has prevented and indeed closed many tracks. Noise reduction measures for the machines must take place plus acoustic fences as at Weymouth need to become standard. Such changes must make us more user friendly and increase the chances for new venues to be established.

Taking a different angle on the same theme of "Keeping Speedway alive", I am involved with the team trying to bring back speedway to Hull, and it has become very clear to me that trying to set up a speedway track in an urban or semi urban area is not much short of impossible with the planning and environmental regulations, together with the inevitable forest of objections based on real or imagined fears of what speedway might bring. Watching GPs / World Cup meetings from Sweden and Poland, I notice that most of the tracks in those countries seem to be located in a rural setting, and I wonder if speedway is to have any kind of secure future here, pehaps that is the way we should go. Of course, like eveything connected with promoting speedway it would be a gamble, but it could lead to speedway clubs owning their own stadiums, or enjoying long lease arrangements with their local councils, and thus a measure of stability. One UK template for this seems to be King's Lynn who own their own stadium, stage a multitude of events there which help to subsidise speedway by generating non-speedway income, and are also heavily involved in their local community. This would involve a culture change for British fans, who would probably have to accept that they would have to travel greater distances to support their team at home, but if it means club stability and a promise of a more hassle free future, maybe that's a price we must pay. What do other fans think ?

Can't think of anywhere on line that gives all the tables, but there are a couple of books which do. Peter Oakes's Complete History of the British League goes up to about 1990 but covers the years you are mainly interested in. The British Book of Speedway Champions by Speed-Away Promotions Ltd contains all the league tables up to 2004.

I'm not saying you'll be wrong because I don't know, but that's a highly cynical attitude. The Council's track record is not bad with £43M spent on the KC Stadium, £500,000 just been allocated to Hull KR, and much support over the years for the Ice Hockey team. I think that the new stadium would be Council owned and managed, and like the KC would be home to various events as well as speedway and the dogs. The Council are well aware of the prestige that accrues from successful sporting teams, and also the loss of prestige when a professional sports team folds. Even before planning permission is applied for, potential sponsors are making themselves known, this would go some way to defraying the construction costs. I think you should give them a bit more credit. Regards the management of the club, shall we say there is a long time between now and March 2007, plenty can happen.

From Hul Daily Mail VIKINGS COULD GO 'HOME' TO HEDON Hull Cpd Vikings could return to their 1940s home next season. The out-of-town Hedon Aerodrome site is one of two earmarked by Hull City Council for the reigning treble champions. The other is near Makro, alongside Clive Sullivan Way. A third location - Chapman Street - has now been ruled out, due to lack of size. Vikings are also likely to share their home with the greyhounds. At the moment, the Hedon site appears the favourite, especially given Vikings must leave Craven Park next month, having been unable to agree a new deal with Hull KR. Councillor Phil Webster, the Council's portfolio holder for sport and sports development, confirmed: "Chapman Street is big enough for a track, but not to fit in spectators. "We still have two other sites under consideration, one is where the old go-kart site was housed on the Humber corridor. "The other is the Hedon Aerodrome site." Their old home at Hedon appears to give Vikings the best chance of racing next season as it is City-Council owned, even though it lies under East Riding Council jurisdiction for planning purposes. The central site is undeniably a better location, but is privately owned so could have an extra cost, joins into a main highway and may have implications for the wildlife. Those factors may make it impossible for Vikings to take their place in the Premier League next March, and force them to take a year out. Webster explained: "We've had an informal conversation with the East Riding regarding planning permission. "We have already contacted the private owners of the second site. "As a Council we would possibly need to either purchase or lease a four-acre piece of that land. "A valuation is currently being carried out." Webster acknowledged both sites have plusses and minuses, especially concerning the timescale of the project. He added: "Hedon is probably favourite on the speedway front, but for longer-term sustainability it may be the more central location is better. "My personal view is I would like to keep speedway at a more central location." Vikings' owner Paul Hodder was delighted that further progress is being made, but sees the pros and cons of both sites. He said: "Hedon is our former home and, timescale-wise, the easier option, which gives us the best chance of continuity of speedway racing. "However, the central site is very high profile." Webster meets the City Council leader and deputy next week to discuss the Vikings. The next inter-departmental meetings will also include representatives of the greyhounds.

I agree with a lot of Ivan's comments in Backtrack. Of course you can never know who would have won what if the GP system had been in force in Ivan's day, but I was more interested in his opinion that the GP can not be called a World Championsip when it is invitation only and there is no qualifying. IMO he has a very good point. He also goes on to say that the current GP format is making the whole series static. The top riders have only to get 8/9 points out of 15 to reach the semis, and a rider like Tony Rickardsson will feel confdent of beating anyone in a knock out race. The effect is to make it harder than ever for up and coming riders to dislodge the Rickardsson/Crump/Pedersen trio at the top, which if allowed to continue will create a same old same old feel about the GP and will potentially turn off TV viewers. Ivan also said that if you replace the bottom 7 riders, who do you bring in that's any better ? There is a need to keep things fresh, and a qualifying system for the 7 available places would do that. A lot of good sense IMO Ivan. BSI still haven't got it right and will need to look at it again I think.

I would change the format of the knockout races, so that higher placed riders get a second chance if they miss out in their first race. For example... Heat 21: 5th to 8th placed riders (3rd and 4th eliminated) Heat 22: 1st to 4th placed riders Heat 23: 3rd and 4th in Heat 22, 1st and 2nd in Heat 21 (3rd and 4th eliminated) Heat 24: 1st and 2nd Heat 22, 1st and 2nd Heat 23 <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I like this idea, it keeps an element of the current system, whilst still ensuring every rider has 5 rides.

Surely if you have a format where every rider meets every other rider once, and has to go from each gate position. that surely should be enough to determine the winner. If you reverse the running order of the heats you get nos 1,2,3 and 4 in the final heat which for GP1 means Crump, Rickardsson, Hancock and Adams and for subsequent GPs the top four from the previous GP. Surely as good as any final can be. I do not see why a rider who wins after 20 heats should have to go out and win it again. It's not a knock out system any more.

I reckon it'll be the top 8 plus Andersen, Nicholls, Richardson, Sullivan and Bjarne Pedersen or Holta for the last slot.

Not sure I like the idea of awarded points for the final replacing points scored in the meeting. Seems inconsistent and would be confusing for the TV viewer ? How about using the race points but scaling down the final points to say 10,8,6,4 That would mean that a rider squeezing into the semi with 8 points and winning the final would get 18 against a rider with a 15 point max who gets unjustly excluded in the semi, who then gets 15. Not such a difference. Anyone know what the tie breaking procedures will be for riders with equal points, to decide grid positions in the semis and final and for riders tied for eighth place ?

Not the case because the numbering for GP No 2 would be based on the results from GP 1 etc

Someone on another board said that points for the final will be awarded as now, i.e 25,20,18,16 with nothing extra for 3rd or 4th place in the semis. Therefore, a rider getting a 15 point max and winning the final would get 40 GP points. I wonder if the heats for the main body of the meeting will be in the traditional order, if so how will they number the riders. Could be the first race of GP 2005 will feature Crump, Rickardsson, Hancock and Adams ?

Odsal Stadium has been partially squared off with hospitality boxes at one end. I fear no return to this venue for speedway.

I cannot see the point of staging A and B finals when the 20 heat format provides for riders to meet each other once. It would be better if : a. Race points scored in the 20 heats counted for the GP rather than awarding "GP" points. b. The race format was reversed i.e heat 1 becomes heat 20, heat 2 becomes heat 19 etc. That way heat 20 contains riders 1,2,3 and 4 who are the top 4 from the previous GP or the top 4 from the previous year in the case of the 1st Round, and becomes a sort of final. The only supplementary races should be to decide rostrum places. Ties would be broken by GP number order. A much fairer distribution of gate positions would result from this format, none of this drawing lots for gate positions in the semis and final. The system would be much easier to understand, although I have to say I enjoy the current KO system, it is obvious BSI want to cut costs and get rid of 8 of the "also rans". All we need to do now is do away with the system of behind closed doors nominating of riders for the series and go back to the idea of riders qualifying for the GP on the track, surely the only way to do it.

The White City stadiums were all funfairs. There was one in Hull in the thirties where we had an open licence track.

I know some soccer clubs are PLCs but I don't know any rugby league clubs that are. I feel that as a sport we are still in awe of SKY and feel they are doing us a massive favour by televising us, and this inhibits our leaders from extracting a realistic amount of cash from SKY. They are getting speedway on the cheap. Rugby League got £55 million for 5 years super league, why couldn't we get say £30 million for a similar deal. Think of what that kind of money could do to secure the future of clubs, and encourage new ones to open.

A couple of thoughts about SKY: 1. The new deal with SKY bet is for this season and next, previously we had a five year deal. Surely we could have got another 5 year deal, or are SKY not confident about the sport's future ? I get the impression that we grab the first thing that's on offer, and don't really negotiate. 2. Why is it that with SKY's deals with soccer and rugby league, it is well known what the clubs are getting from the deal, whereas in speedway this is shrouded in secrecy. I read somewhere Mr Russell said that this is a private business matter for the clubs, surely that applies to the other sports as well. I suspect it's another example of speedway's built in long standing secrecy culture. I don't suppose Mr Russell wants people to get an idea of his "remuneration" from the deal.

Regarding the Shay and Odsal, both venues have been turned into "sguared off" football / rugby grounds. No chance of speedway going back to either, I'm afraid. Hull's previous two venues are still standing, the Boulevard now plays host to greyhound racing following Hull FC's move to the KC Stadium, while Hedon is still undeveloped, staging kart racing etc. The noise factor and encroaching housing development would scupper any return to Hedon if needed, while back in 1995, Vikings first approached the Boulevard, but strong protests from local residents forced them to turn to Craven Park.

The old site at Hedon is still there, as you know. The problems I see are that Hedon is a fairly prosperous village, there would be many noise objectors probably well connected people. Also in view of the financial situation Paul Hodder has inherited, I doubt the capital would be there for investment. Re the book, Vol 1 entitled Hull Speedway 1930 -81 published by Tempus is scheduled to be ready by March. I have spoken to Paul Hodder about it and hopefully copies will be available at the club shop.

Ive also heard that Speedway is the second most watched sport on Sky

From Hull White City we had Tear-A-Long Thorne and Hurricane Dowse.