Groundhog Day 1996 & 2026

[bradders85]

I found an old copy of the defunct magazine 'SPEEDWAY MAIL (oct 1996)' and upon reading it noticed that feels like it draws a lot of parallels with today!! First thing I read was about the BSPA putting out a questionnaire and has done recently to I believe, with the the headline 'Shooting the Other Foot' is apt for British Speedway too. It goes into about money and is just prior to the Lay-down engine being enforced in the sport and talk of having SKY TV maybe screening a meeting, while current day is trying to get speedway back on tv once again. There is also talk about Tyres as that is something being spoken about, and there is a questionnaire too with fans given multiple choice answers.

[Ray Stadia]

Closed season discussions have always been Groundhog Day, in my opinion. Such as:

Will a team run next year, yes or no

What will be the points limit

Tyre regulations

Which riders are available and who is moving to where

Tinkering with the rules

What has been discussed and agreed at the conferences 

[mikebv]

The Speedway Star has a page dedicated to "this week "x" decades ago", and it is truly incredible how the same things get mentioned...

With usually at least one promoter being quoted as "this needs to change", (to something that still hasn't changed), or "we need to work together to get more people into the stadiums", (still doing well that one!!!)..

The 2036 edition (if UK Speedway is still a thing), will no doubt have 2026 comments quoted which echo those quoted in 1996!!😁