Workington v Scunthorpe 18/04/26 3 pm. BSN Series.

[SteelShoe]

Entertaining meeting on a beautifully prepared track. The track changed constantly as the dirt moved out and the moisture evaporated quickly. It is a constant battle to retain enough moisture on such a wide track in full sun and breeze.

The two Comet 5-1's in heats 12 and 14 both involving Cooper Rushen who fully demonstrated his superb bike skills and advanced racing brain for someone only 16 sealed the meeting for the Comets after it was all square at the interval with a few  home fans getting a bit uneasy. The job was completed in heat 15 with classy win by Comets No1 Jonas Jeppesen from the impressive Josh Pickering with Cookie 3rd.  Young Niklas started really well but appeared to suffer bike problems in his 3rd ride which probably curtailed his scoring. It was great to see Tate win heat 14 this can only be good for his confidence. The skipper started really well but at the sharp end of the meeting was on the wrong end of Scunny heat advantages in heats 11 and 13. 

The Scorps battled away with every rider chipping in at times. Stand outs were Picko and young Ryan Ingram at no7 whose progress is impressive.

Good to see Captain Comet make a return, big well done to whoever it is 😉🤣

UTC.

Edited Sunday at 07:59 AM by SteelShoe

[Neila]

Apparently niklas was on a borrowed bike for his last ride . Regarding the point for batch/Cooper the ref asked for a video replay and awarded coops the point, myself and many others thought batch had won easily, maybe batch shut off at the last minute to let coops get the point 🤔

Edited Sunday at 09:01 AM by Neila

[Marksman]

22 minutes ago, Neila said:

Apparently niklas was on a borrowed bike for his last ride . Regarding the point for batch/Cooper the ref asked for a video replay and awarded coops the point, myself and many others thought batch had won easily, maybe batch shut off at the last minute to let coops get the point 🤔

He came out on Jamie Etherington’s bike yeah, which is a shame as he probably had a decent chance of doing something in that race

[Neila]

32 minutes ago, Neila said:

Apparently niklas was on a borrowed bike for his last ride . Regarding the point for batch/Cooper the ref asked for a video replay and awarded coops the point, myself and many others thought batch had won easily, maybe batch shut off at the last minute to let coops get the point 🤔

Sorry the refs video call was for HT 6 with Jonas and Lambert 

[Marksman]

Walked the track before the meeting yesterday and it has a new mix of Grano dirt in it, which hasn’t been used before.

Used to absorb the moisture in the track and avoid future rain offs.

Could see it working yesterday by how dry the track was in the end.

The imminent move away from afternoon racing will help massively by keeping the sun off it, as the track gets no shade.

[geoff100]

40 minutes ago, Neila said:

Apparently niklas was on a borrowed bike for his last ride . Regarding the point for batch/Cooper the ref asked for a video replay and awarded coops the point, myself and many others thought batch had won easily, maybe batch shut off at the last minute to let coops get the point 🤔

He used jamies bike for his last ride 

[Fromafar]

12 minutes ago, Neila said:

Sorry the refs video call was for HT 6 with Jonas and Lambert 

Think most people thought Lambert was 3rd.Surely the Ref doesn’t need Video if they have transponders though.

[Neila]

23 minutes ago, Fromafar said:

Think most people thought Lambert was 3rd.Surely the Ref doesn’t need Video if they have transponders though.

Read somewhere that the transponders called the result and ref wanted a 2nd opinion,  but also read a few times in the past, that the transponders don't always work 🤔  apparently Godfrey organised a supplier for them so that explains a lot 😜

[Woke23]

2 hours ago, Fromafar said:

Think most people thought Lambert was 3rd.Surely the Ref doesn’t need Video if they have transponders though.

Transponders arent always reliable.

Ive seen it many times where a the video footage contradicts the transponder. In fact, I believe it happened at Berwick last season between Troy and Hagon.

[Fromafar]

9 minutes ago, Woke23 said:

Transponders arent always reliable.

Ive seen it many times where a the video footage contradicts the transponder. In fact, I believe it happened at Berwick last season between Troy and Hagon.

Only in Speedway then.All the other forms of Motor Sport use them without any problems.

[SteelShoe]

3 hours ago, Marksman said:

Walked the track before the meeting yesterday and it has a new mix of Grano dirt in it, which hasn’t been used before.

Used to absorb the moisture in the track and avoid future rain offs.

Could see it working yesterday by how dry the track was in the end.

The imminent move away from afternoon racing will help massively by keeping the sun off it, as the track gets no shade.

I think granite dust mixed with shale on speedway tracks is aimed at binding the materials together with a view to improving structural integrity of the racing surface while still remaining free draining . I think the idea is that the angular granite particles slot between the shale particles increasing the structural integrity so helping resist the forces generated by speedway bikes.

The free draining properties are great if the track is really wet, we have seen many times just how quick even after a good soaking it dries out very quickly, just wish the centre green dried out as fast 😃.

The other side of the coin is getting enough moisture into the surface during dry weather in order to prevent a surface that looks wet but were the moisture does not go very deep and dust is created very quickly.

There is no easy way around this unless the resources exist to facilitate a proper good soak of the track in dry weather starting many hours before even the day of the meeting. This in order to properly ensure that the deeper surface layers get adequately watered.

As you rightly state evening meetings will help with evaporation but it may well not be the end of any watering issues. I believe two good bowsers wouldn't go amiss for pre meeting watering during dry weather.

I watched the stream after the meeting and was surprised at how dusty it became very quickly probably around heat 6/7. Fortunately I was upwind during the meeting  yesterday but on many occasions last season I wasn't and had to move in the early heats on many occasions. It is an issue that is worth exploring , certainly from a customer perspective.

[Bandit59]

2 hours ago, Fromafar said:

Only in Speedway then.All the other forms of Motor Sport use them without any problems.

Get VAR in never any problems with that 😂😂😂

[Neila]

5 hours ago, SteelShoe said:

I think granite dust mixed with shale on speedway tracks is aimed at binding the materials together with a view to improving structural integrity of the racing surface while still remaining free draining . I think the idea is that the angular granite particles slot between the shale particles increasing the structural integrity so helping resist the forces generated by speedway bikes.

The free draining properties are great if the track is really wet, we have seen many times just how quick even after a good soaking it dries out very quickly, just wish the centre green dried out as fast 😃.

The other side of the coin is getting enough moisture into the surface during dry weather in order to prevent a surface that looks wet but were the moisture does not go very deep and dust is created very quickly.

There is no easy way around this unless the resources exist to facilitate a proper good soak of the track in dry weather starting many hours before even the day of the meeting. This in order to properly ensure that the deeper surface layers get adequately watered.

As you rightly state evening meetings will help with evaporation but it may well not be the end of any watering issues. I believe two good bowsers wouldn't go amiss for pre meeting watering during dry weather.

I watched the stream after the meeting and was surprised at how dusty it became very quickly probably around heat 6/7. Fortunately I was upwind during the meeting  yesterday but on many occasions last season I wasn't and had to move in the early heats on many occasions. It is an issue that is worth exploring , certainly from a customer perspective.

@SteelShoe  the professor/ scientist of track preparation 😜🤣. Hope your gonna get your lawnmower out this week people are complaining from afar 😜🤣

[AndiCapp]

11 hours ago, Woke23 said:

Transponders arent always reliable.

Ive seen it many times where a the video footage contradicts the transponder. In fact, I believe it happened at Berwick last season between Troy and Hagon.

That was marking ya programme when they come off the last bend 🤣

[AndiCapp]

14 hours ago, Marksman said:

He came out on Jamie Etherington’s bike yeah, which is a shame as he probably had a decent chance of doing something in that race

Mechanics fault id say 🤣

[SteelShoe]

12 hours ago, Neila said:

@SteelShoe  the professor/ scientist of track preparation 😜🤣. Hope your gonna get your lawnmower out this week people are complaining from afar 😜🤣

 

As you well know there is scientific reasoning behind most things 😃

 Finally getting my early spuds and onions in this week, you doing owt? , thought not 🤣

Speaking about lawnmower's. I got the old faithful out yesterday for the first cut and it wouldn't keep running for more than a few seconds 😩. I usually drain the petrol out of it following the last cut but didn't this winter . I took the air filter out to give it a wash, it was just disintegrating and wet with petrol. The old Honda 425HRB  has been in the family a long time, I paid good money to get it serviced a couple of years ago, looks like they never changed the air filter though.  Going to service it myself if I can get the parts so you will have to cut the centre green, it will finally be dry enough sometime this week considering the dry forecast, I'll tell Andrew your booked in 🤣

Edited Monday at 07:47 AM by SteelShoe

[Neila]

7 minutes ago, SteelShoe said:

 

As you well know there is scientific reasoning behind most things 😃

 Finally getting my early spuds and onions in this week, you doing owt? , thought not 🤣

Speaking about lawnmower's. I got the old faithful out yesterday for the first cut and it wouldn't keep running for more than a few seconds 😩. I usually drain the petrol out of it following the last cut but didn't this winter . I took the air filter out to give it a wash, it was just disintegrating and wet with petrol. The old Honda 425HRB  has been in the family a long time, I paid good money to get it serviced a couple of years ago, looks like they never changed the air filter though.  Going to service it myself if I can get the parts so you will have to cut the centre green, it will finally be dry enough sometime this week considering the dry forecast, I'll tell Andrew your booked in 🤣

1st cut 😲 I'm on me 3rd one and have had the scarifier on it 😄. I could cut the grass using that mini tractor,mower does it work 🤔 

[SPEEDY69]

I thought this was an entertaining meeting, was impressed with Luke Harrison, Nathan Ablitt and Ryan Ingram.

[SteelShoe]

6 hours ago, SPEEDY69 said:

I thought this was an entertaining meeting, was impressed with Luke Harrison, Nathan Ablitt and Ryan Ingram.

Luke manages to make the inside work well for him at Worky. He won the U19 final against Jody Scott and Cooper Rushen with 4 laps round the inside, think it had slickened off which helped him though.

[SteelShoe]

6 hours ago, Neila said:

1st cut 😲 I'm on me 3rd one and have had the scarifier on it 😄. I could cut the grass using that mini tractor,mower does it work 🤔 

Just backs up the theory you've plenty of time on your hands. I'll ask if the sit on is fully operational 😃