Wolverhampton Speedway Monday 18th July 2016

Having not been to any motorsport of any kind for 4 weeks, The Spectator's feet were itching so for the first time in nearly 2 years it was time to watch Speedway!
After an abysmal Summer so far weather wise, it was on a gloriously sunny and warm Monday evening in Wolverhampton that I chose to head to the Black Country.
August 2014 saw my last visit to Monmore Green Stadium, home of the Wolverhampton Wolves. After a couple of years of struggling in the Elite League, the Wolves are top of the table this season. Swindon Robins were the visitors and with Swindon lying 3rd in the table a tight match looked to be in prospect.
However this proved emphatically not to be the case as Wolves simply dominated the night's proceedings wining by 62pts-30pts. Such was their dominance that Swindon only provided 1 heat winner all evening, Nick Morris in Heat 4.
The tight confines of the Wolverhampton track (264 metres in length) obviously didn't suit the Swindon riders whose home track is a much larger circuit. Excellent gating from all Wolves riders saw them invariably head out the first turn melee in the lead. On the rare occasions when a Swindon rider did make the gate, poor choice of riding lines seemed to slow them down and Wolves riders found their way past.
As you can see from the racecard, all but one of the Wolves riders score double figured scores apart from Jacob Thorsell who suffered two exclusions for falls keeping his score to 4+1. Veteran Swede Peter Karlsson who is 47 scored a paid maximum of 12+3. In Speedway to help with team riding a rider scores a bonus point for finishing directly behind a team mate in either 2nd or 3rd place. Whilst not affecting the overall score it is a good way of preventing riders putting the team first rather than bank balance!
I used to go to an enormous amount of Speedway in the past but as the years rolled on, the sport started to lose its star riders from racing regularly in the UK. The Elite League nowadays is an uneasy blend of a few established star riders, Premier League riders doubling up between the leagues and young riders starting out in the sport. Indeed there are riders who ply their trade in all 3 leagues that operate in the UK, Elite, Premier & National.
With Poland, Sweden & Denmark seeing the sport's top riders regularly race in league racing, the UK needs to look at getting itself back to a country where the Elite riders race in the Elite league. A fixed race night each week could see this happen and it is believed that serious thought is being given to making this happen. At the moment it is Wolverhampton - Monday, Poole - Wednesday, Swindon & King's Lynn - Thursday, Lakeside,Coventry,Belle Vue - Friday plus Leicester - Saturday. Crazy really and hopefully a fixed race night will get the top riders back and improve the spectacle for fans.
It was good to go back to Wolverhampton. With the stadium used mainly for Greyhound racing, viewing is from one side of the stadium only but if you get there early enough a decent view can be had from the concrete terracing in front of the starting gate. Admission of £18 is a bit steep but Speedway is an expensive sport to run and with the good old British weather to contend with, I wouldn't like to be a Speedway promoter! The programme was £2.50 and apart from a design change would appear to be in exactly the same format as when I first went to Wolves Speedway in 2001...!
Speedway is often viewed to be a sport stuck in a glorious past. That it is old fashioned for the modern age. In this ever changing and uncertain world maybe that isn't a bad thing. It is a simple sport, 4 riders, 4 laps, that stems from almost gladiatorial times. Long may it continue....

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