Hey Mr. New speedway fan.

[The White Knight]

5 minutes ago, singy13 said:

Why not add to the variety of meetings by bringing back the 'Golden Helmet' / 'Silver Helmet' match races? (anyone recall these?).

I never did understand why these mostly excellent two man races were dropped.

Money probably.

[heathen52]

2 hours ago, stevehone said:

wonder if they'll get the season done in a reasonable time so playoffs can be earlier in the year

Don't be silly they want you standing there freezing your wotsits off

21 minutes ago, singy13 said:

Why not add to the variety of meetings by bringing back the 'Golden Helmet' / 'Silver Helmet' match races? (anyone recall these?).

I never did understand why these mostly excellent two man races were dropped.

Possibly because the riders want paying ?.

[YeOldPitGate]

23 hours ago, a4poster said:

Mmm, five teams and six months of fixtures to fill.

Using the example of four weeks to a month will means seeing each of the remaining sides once a month.  Assuming September will be the play-offs (hard not to qualify) and a four team tournament to pad out the season and then each team having a round of a new Individual series  "King of the Premiership".

As someone once said "familiarity breeds contempt".

If you get one of those five times becoming the whipping boys on there travels are you going to get supporters paying hard-earned money to go and see them?

The only way I can see this working if all Teams were stacked with genuine  stars who can put bums on seats.

I hope I am wrong but feel this has disaster written all over it.

Your forgetting the usual three week breaks every month in the peak summer months , fear not the most lucrative play offs meetings will still be run back end of October when its back down to 7-8 degrees at night and the rain is back.

[stevehone]

remember there's not a full week break next year for the SoN

[singy13]

19 hours ago, heathen52 said:

Don't be silly they want you standing there freezing your wotsits off

Possibly because the riders want paying ?.

Well it was only two of them....with a maximum of three races....surely promoters weren't that stingy?

[Wee Eck]

2 hours ago, singy13 said:

Well it was only two of them....with a maximum of three races....surely promoters weren't that stingy?

So what would you think would be reasonable pay for the riders, bearing in mind those on, say £200 a point would expect £600 for a win and £400 for second?

[singy13]

54 minutes ago, Wee Eck said:

So what would you think would be reasonable pay for the riders, bearing in mind those on, say £200 a point would expect £600 for a win and £400 for second?

Seems a lot for match races. I think one downside of the Gold/Silver helmet challenges was fans didn't usually know in advance of it happening at their track.

So the extra needed crowds didn't materialise to pay for the additional racing. But if your figures of £1000 are correct I'd certainly tell the riders where to stick the helmets.

[mikebv]

47 minutes ago, singy13 said:

Seems a lot for match races. I think one downside of the Gold/Silver helmet challenges was fans didn't usually know in advance of it happening at their track.

So the extra needed crowds didn't materialise to pay for the additional racing. But if your figures of £1000 are correct I'd certainly tell the riders where to stick the helmets.

If those were the numbers, and I was one of the two riders..

I would make sure it went to three races each time, at the home and away legs..

And the decider would also be three races, at a neutral track (like it used to)...

Who wins? Well they both do...

Kerching...

[bellevueace]

On 12/13/2025 at 5:20 PM, singy13 said:

Why not add to the variety of meetings by bringing back the 'Golden Helmet' / 'Silver Helmet' match races? (anyone recall these?).

I never did understand why these mostly excellent two man races were dropped.

I remember when riders would travel to an away track when their own team wasnt riding just to compete in the Golden Helmet and second half races. One meeting at Hyde Road Gordon Kennett travelled all the way up to Manchester for a Golden Helmet match race and a couple of second half meetings, could you imagine todays breed of riders doing that?

[singy13]

22 hours ago, bellevueace said:

I remember when riders would travel to an away track when their own team wasnt riding just to compete in the Golden Helmet and second half races. One meeting at Hyde Road Gordon Kennett travelled all the way up to Manchester for a Golden Helmet match race and a couple of second half meetings, could you imagine todays breed of riders doing that?

To answer your question = NO.

[Rich]

On 12/16/2025 at 4:47 PM, bellevueace said:

I remember when riders would travel to an away track when their own team wasnt riding just to compete in the Golden Helmet and second half races. One meeting at Hyde Road Gordon Kennett travelled all the way up to Manchester for a Golden Helmet match race and a couple of second half meetings, could you imagine todays breed of riders doing that?

No doubt the fee/pay rate for the meeting would have made it worthwhile doing, and the increased crowd level covered the extra expense to the promoter. I can well imagine today's riders doing it if the money was right, but would the crowd level cover it today?

[M.D]

9 hours ago, Rich said:

No doubt the fee/pay rate for the meeting would have made it worthwhile doing, and the increased crowd level covered the extra expense to the promoter. I can well imagine today's riders doing it if the money was right, but would the crowd level cover it today?

Was it that good though? I remember Michael Lee failing to turn up at Eastbourne to face Gordon Kennett and rode in another fixture, possibly abroad, can't remember now.

[YeOldPitGate]

6 hours ago, M.D said:

Was it that good though? I remember Michael Lee failing to turn up at Eastbourne to face Gordon Kennett and rode in another fixture, possibly abroad, can't remember now.

To be fair M.D, Mike after he won the world championship was about as reliable as the british summer at that point moving forward.

I remember his comeback meeting at Lynn after his ban a year out and he beat Erik Gunderson the then world champion on his first race back but from that point he just started to lose interest and missed loads of meetings he didn't fancy.

It was a real shame in his final comeback early 90's as to how far he had fallen Andy Meredith who at this point was a wobbler was ahead of him and Mike was lining him up perfectly to pass on every single corner but he just didn't have the bottle anymore to pull the move off.

[bellevueace]

On 12/17/2025 at 9:10 PM, Rich said:

No doubt the fee/pay rate for the meeting would have made it worthwhile doing, and the increased crowd level covered the extra expense to the promoter. I can well imagine today's riders doing it if the money was right, but would the crowd level cover it today?

Thats possibly correct but i can remember no increase in admission and during those years the crowds were consistently into 5 figures, so there was no dependency on trying to bring in extra fans to cover for four races, the crowd levels today would not cover it i also dont think todays riders would travel from say Eastbourne to Manchester for 4 rides.

[Rich]

On 12/17/2025 at 9:10 PM, Rich said:

No doubt the fee/pay rate for the meeting would have made it worthwhile doing, and the increased crowd level covered the extra expense to the promoter. I can well imagine today's riders doing it if the money was right, but would the crowd level cover it today?

 

13 hours ago, bellevueace said:

Thats possibly correct but i can remember no increase in admission and during those years the crowds were consistently into 5 figures, so there was no dependency on trying to bring in extra fans to cover for four races, the crowd levels today would not cover it i also dont think todays riders would travel from say Eastbourne to Manchester for 4 rides.

I didn't say admission prices increased, but I know for a fact my dad, taking me as a kid, and some of his friends went to to watch riders they followed or knew in the Golden Helmet match races. Probably others did too, fixtures were always well advertised, maybe to bring in a bigger crowd?  Riders go to Poland for 4 rides, I'm sure if the money was right they'd even go to Manchester😂

[singy13]

7 hours ago, Rich said:

 

I didn't say admission prices increased, but I know for a fact my dad, taking me as a kid, and some of his friends went to to watch riders they followed or knew in the Golden Helmet match races. Probably others did too, fixtures were always well advertised, maybe to bring in a bigger crowd?  Riders go to Poland for 4 rides, I'm sure if the money was right they'd even go to Manchester😂

My first season as a Comets fan was 1970 (Ian Thomas/ Geoff Brownhutt brought speedway to Derwent Park)and you didn't know when attending a Friday night meeting that there would be 'Silver helmet' match races - not until you saw the trophy sitting on the table next to the starting gate. But it was good to have that extra treat for your speedway fix.

One night stands out for me about the silver helmet in 1973. Comets had heavily outscored Rayleigh, the visiting rider Moore(?) had custody of helmet so top scoring Comet would challenge the Rocket. However 4 Comets were points-wise able to take this challenge on i.e. Lou Sansom, Taffy Owen, Mal McKay and Mitch Graham - so to decide who would be the Rockets opponent the shortest straw drawn (in pits)would do the business. The announcer told the crowd that Mitch Graham will be Comets rider - at which point many of the crowd booed loudly - I recall being very very annoyed with these so called Comets fans. However the boos soon changed to cheers as Mitch won the helmet....but he lost it the next week boo hooo.

Edited December 19, 2025 by singy13
updated