Well What’s New At Your Track This Season ?

Well for Birmingham fans at any rate it’s all new and if my local track is anything to go by other subtle changes seem to have taken place! We may still be waiting for our first win here at Stoke but it must be said that the quality of racing has been good and the presentation has definitely improved. Meetings are starting on time and are all done and dusted by around 9.10pm. Gone this season - apart from the Kings Lynn match that is, where I think someone decided to prepare the track to suit the opposition and constant efforts were made to get rid of most of the dirt ! - are the constant grading and delays that made the meeting last over 2 hours. I wonder if this phenomenon is manifesting itself across the country at various other tracks who were to say the least a bit lax in keeping the action flowing !

May be someone somewhere read my last article hmm ! but it has to be said regularly running on beyond an agreed curfew does nobody any favours. Least of all for new tracks where their very “birth” may depend on such things, a “gung ho” attitude from established venues doesn’t really suggest the sport has a responsible or for that matter professional attitude !!

I know that these improvements aren’t in themselves good enough for the fans who like to see regular home wins but if the improvements seen at Stoke are repeated elsewhere where they need to be it can only be good for the sport as a whole.

Stoke recently raced at Birmingham in their first team meeting and it was good to see the level of support for the Brummies. The large crowd was consistent with what you would expect for a new club. Now hating to put a dampener on proceedings I have to wonder what it’ll be like towards the end of the season and for the next couple of seasons. I can’t help thinking about the level of support enjoyed by Newport and Workington during their first couple of seasons back in the sport following a lengthy gap. The honeymoon for them is definitely over and it seems that at Newport at least crowd levels are nowhere near they once were and considering the number of travelling fans Workington used to bring to Stoke it’s a far cry from the dozen or so fans that turned up to see them give Stoke a demonstration of how to ride Loomer Road.

We speedway fans can be very fickle, we allegedly want to see good racing but it seems that we are in the main quite content just to see our team win even if passing is at a premium. The fact that the visiting team gets a thumping on a regular basis also seems to go down quite well at some venues. There are “purists” amongst us who will go and watch a match even if we are not supporting a particular team. I know a lot of fans who do this; a lot of them were at Birmingham the other night just because it was new. This is a concept football fans particularly don’t understand ! But I think it’s fair to say that most teams have a home following who want to see their team win and will only venture to an away match when it looks like their team have a chance of winning.

So who does the promoter try to satisfy – that’s a difficult one and if I knew the answer well…….. I probably wouldn’t be sitting here musing on such things ! If Stoke is anything to go by good racing seems to attract “purists” from other tracks – its not uncommon to see supporters from Belle Vue, Coventry & Wolverhampton on the terraces but these don’t make up for the numbers who drift away when the going gets tough !! It has been said in the past and there is a lot of truth in it that a large percentage of supporters only follow the sport for 3 or 4 seasons then move on to something else – maybe even get married! – they may come back but speedway has to constantly promote itself to replace the lost fans – there will always be peaks and troughs, there will always be the die-hards but the sport cannot rely just on them.

So apart from the results then I think a pretty positive start – the super 7 thingy looks good and the GP’s look promising. On the down side there has been a spate of serious injuries that have dented hopes and aspirations of riders, clubs and supporters. It’s difficult to legislate for such things and in an extreme sport the danger is always close. We have to make sure that wherever possible lessons are learnt in safety fence and track design so that risks are reduced. Riders in this day and age should not be receiving injuries from fence posts and other supporting structures. And if air fences are part of the solution then all tracks must have one, after all the welfare of Conference and Premier League riders is just as important as those racing in the Elite League.

Talking of downside dare we mention the rules ?

Well I ‘ve learnt quite a bit about rules and rider eligibility during the close season and so it seems has Ricky Ashworth and Belle Vue.

The question has to be asked why was there was such a long delay between the Aces saying they had signed Ashworth and people remembering the rules didn't allow it. Was this due to :

a) The Aces being told weeks before they publicly announced it.

b) The powers that be (BSPA/SCB) knowing about it weeks before they publicly announced it.

c) The powers that be only realising after some time that Ashworth couldn't sign.

d) The powers that be making up the rules as they go along.

In view of this debacle wouldn't it be sensible to have a list of riders who have completed their 2 years doubling up to stop problems like this or is speedway being confused with a professional sport ?

Another one that cropped up was the fact that you cannot apparently bring a rider back into your team this season if he was in your finishing 1-7 last season but not declared in your 1 -7 at the start of this season - not sure what this rule is all about apart from forcing riders into early retirement !

SLIDER

“The Voice” Issue no.25 Summer 2007