Poole Pirates Vs Edinburgh Monarchs Championship 5th August

[SteveLyric2]

5 minutes ago, simonc said:

Agreed, i had a friend with me last night who hasn't been in years and although enjoyed it thought the racing wasn't very good. The blue groove on both bends was awful as well, haven't seen it like that for a few years. Also noticed that several of the track lights were out on the first and second bend that made it a bit dark, not ideal for rider safety

I wouldn't agree it was the worst meeting! It did become increasingly difficult to see clearly due to the increasing breeze and dust on bends 1-2 especially.

[Arthur54]

28 minutes ago, simonc said:

Agreed, i had a friend with me last night who hasn't been in years and although enjoyed it thought the racing wasn't very good. The blue groove on both bends was awful as well, haven't seen it like that for a few years. Also noticed that several of the track lights were out on the first and second bend that made it a bit dark, not ideal for rider safety

Counted about 8 lights out around the track last night, with bend 1 and 2 looking especially dark, where most of the crashes were last night 

[foreverblue]

1 hour ago, LisaColette said:

Not sure about tongue in cheek, more like posting before thinking type of comment. See he is back tracking now, so obviously realises it was not a good thing to be saying. 

Either way I can't imagine the Hagon household will be bothered especially not Sam.

[gmuncie]

37 minutes ago, SteveLyric2 said:

I wouldn't agree it was the worst meeting! It did become increasingly difficult to see clearly due to the increasing breeze and dust on bends 1-2 especially.

If that wasn’t the worst meeting recently at Poole I’d hate to have seen the ones that were deemed worse.

One pass of note all night (Cook on Sedgmen in heat 7), massive blue grooves meaning that if you moved an inch of the inside line you went backwards and an embarrassing amount of dust for an evening meeting in low 20s temperatures. 

A real shame as the track can produce excellent racing and Poole have a team that can win just as well on any surface so quite why track prep is as it is baffles me 

[LisaColette]

46 minutes ago, gmuncie said:

If that wasn’t the worst meeting recently at Poole I’d hate to have seen the ones that were deemed worse.

One pass of note all night (Cook on Sedgmen in heat 7), massive blue grooves meaning that if you moved an inch of the inside line you went backwards and an embarrassing amount of dust for an evening meeting in low 20s temperatures. 

A real shame as the track can produce excellent racing and Poole have a team that can win just as well on any surface so quite why track prep is as it is baffles me 

Not sure it was done on purpose as last week both Poole and Berwick riders praised it last week along with both TMs. Shame it wasnt the same last night. 

[Sadman]

Not sure if the problem with bend 1 was the same as a couple of weeks ago, when the meeting was held up and work was done to  sort it out. The two crashes where in the same spot.

[foreverblue]

41 minutes ago, LisaColette said:

Not sure it was done on purpose as last week both Poole and Berwick riders praised it last week along with both TMs. Shame it wasnt the same last night. 

No awful last night, one of the worst ever.  Not sure what the issue was. On the subject of racing isn't as good as it was, Rory Schlein said the other night that they can't get the material they used to get anymore but last night wasnt about the material used!! 

[marko]

Didn’t see the meeting but it’s just another classic story of not enough shale down or water, if a blue groove is evident it’s not because of a lack of water, it’s a lack of shale.

If you water slick surface it can become dangerous, so dirt has to be down to soak up the water and most tracks have dirt out wide but it’s dry so you might as well be racing on talc powder, it won’t give you any grip let alone enough to make up for going to longer way around.

I don’t think the riders are exempt from blame as Steve Lawson said on BSN most riders cry when he suggests putting water down.

When this dry spell ends, I predict weeks and weeks off rain offs because riders just won’t want to race after becoming so used to riding on bone dry tracks.

 

[Neila]

3 hours ago, simonc said:

Agreed, i had a friend with me last night who hasn't been in years and although enjoyed it thought the racing wasn't very good. The blue groove on both bends was awful as well, haven't seen it like that for a few years. Also noticed that several of the track lights were out on the first and second bend that made it a bit dark, not ideal for rider safety

Hope the lights are fixed before the eclipse next week, if not best take a torch 😜

wot a blue groove at Poole wow 🤣

[marko]

To the tune of 10cc's Wall Street

Do the blue groove shuffle da da da

Let your throttle hand hustle da da da

You better make the start brother da da da

You'll never pass another

[Dickie Head]

What surprises me is that whenever I go, Terry the Track is involved with the preparation alongside Russell Foot. Not so long ago Terry was seen as the best in the business. I wonder what’s stopping him from weaving his magic?

[SteveLyric2]

2 hours ago, Dickie Head said:

What surprises me is that whenever I go, Terry the Track is involved with the preparation alongside Russell Foot. Not so long ago Terry was seen as the best in the business. I wonder what’s stopping him from weaving his magic?

Terry was on duty last night. I think a lot of the issues are down to what the riders prefer nowadays with their highly tuned engines- and generally that means slick, and once they are dialled in, no excessive grading or watering.

Terry said there is plenty of fresh shale up in the Edinburgh area, but a key issue for southern tracks in particular is the cost of transporting it.

[Pinny]

I think Stevelyric is correct on this one. It was often the case years ago that riders would prefer a slick dustbowl to a nice grippy track.

Tim Stone often got quizzed on why the track was always so slick every Sunday at Newport and he would always reply that riders wanted it like that. I remember one year Stonehewer nearly having a seizure when he seen the water bowser going out with the tractors. 

I guess its safer for riders rather than a deep, grippy track. Who knows. 

[Catalan]

No rider complained about the track.

Actually had praise from some

[Trackrat]

On 8/6/2026 at 10:51 AM, Arthur54 said:

Counted about 8 lights out around the track last night, with bend 1 and 2 looking especially dark, where most of the crashes were last night 

Had to stop because you ran out of fingers 💦💦

[Arthur54]

7 minutes ago, Trackrat said:

Had to stop because you ran out of fingers 💦💦

Didn't need anymore