Easter is always a busy time in the speedway calendar and, as has been documented in more lofty publications elsewhere, it does take its toll on riders. But it also takes its toll on those who have to battle to get three meetings on in just 7 days, especially when it is as hot and dry as this Easter.
And so I find myself driving to the Abbey Stadium Blunsdon at 6.30am on Saturday 7th April. The sun rise is beautiful but I most definitely am not.
Punch and I have agreed to get to the track early this morning (7am at the latest) so that we can inflate all of the air fences to allow Mick Richards the chance to wash down them down. Mick has a full schedule of work booked for the day, hence the early start.
With the prospect of the Easter Sunday double header against Reading, we want to get as much track preparation in as possible.
While Mick pressure washes off the muck from last Thursday's match against Poole, It take the opportunity to check out the ever changing environs of Blundson. It is well known that we will be moving from our beloved home in the not too distant future but we are not alone.
Standing on the banking on turns 1 and 2 the view across to the A419 Swindon Cirencester road has changed significantly for anyone who has not been to the Abbey this season. The Countrywide store and warehouse has been demolished and the roadworks for the new super highway linking the M4 and the M5 are fast clearing the countryside.
The new stadium, as far as I can ascertain, will be turned through 90 degrees and will be in the area where the market car park is at present. Talking of that car park, it is already filling with marketeers and it's still not 7.30am.
Out on the track, Punch and I take a look at the track surface. The regime this year has been to get as much track prep done at the end of the meeting as possible. All of the shale from the boards is graded back onto the track and while Gerald blades, Punch grades and I tyre pack.
The result is that if we have heavy rain the surface will not be turned to mush and we are in a position on race day to work the track into the type of condition that we want for good racing. It doesn't take too much water around the fences to turn our shale into a muddy slime. Mick's washing water produces a slime around the edge of the track but this will dry well before Sunday's meeting.
With the fences fully inflated it is a good time to check the condition of the kickboards. Thus far, thank God, no rider has ventured forth into the air fence, although Mads Korneliussen has developed a line around turn 2 that gets pretty close! However, quite a few of the cable ties that we attach the rubber kickboards to the actual fence have broken.
I often hear of the desire of the fans for more dirt on speedway tracks. At Swindon we have plenty! In fact, so much so that the weight of dirt thrown onto the fence during a meeting is the cause of so many of the cable tie breakages.
When asked "Why tyre pack?" I think I'll direct the questioner to the photograph above right. Here we have an area of the track which has been tyre packed alongside a groove that has not. The tyre packed area is hard and binding together nicely. It will resist a certain amount of rain and will provide a good, hard racing surface with plenty of grip. The loose area not tyre packed will, if not rectified, turn to slime with any rain and will not bind at all. If left at this stage it will end up as dust floating in the ether as soon as a wheel hits it!
There were times in mid summer last year when the old place was Sahara like in its lack of water. We have two massive water tanks and two holding tanks. On hot days like we are experiencing at the moment, the track needs all the water it can get.
Punch takes his life in his own hands and clambers up to inspect the water level in the largest tank. It's not good! We could have a difficult day tomorrow preparing a decent surface for the second leg of the Reading double header!
Easter Sunday and it is another scorching day at the track. The first priority is to work out how much water we can get on to the track and when the best time to put it on would be. Ideally we would like to water early so that we can get as much moisture down into the base as possible so that it will bind better with the upper surface.
Sadly, there just isn't the water available to do this. The water pressure up at the top of Blunsdon hill is poor at the best of times but when you get a hot weekend then the hose pipes come out in the surrounding houses and all we get left with is a dribble.
We delay watering until the afternoon. This means that it is unlikely that the base will get wet but at least we should be able to water regularly up until the start of the meeting and thus prevent the dreaded dust clouds from blotting out the sun.
The air fence is deflated, to save on fuel and also to prevent the already fragile and rather ancient air pumps from over heating prior to the match.
Gerald and Punch, the latter newly returned from Reading where the Robins had pulled off a rather victory, water every hour as the match gets ever closer.
It's the quiet before the storm as we wait for the returning riders. This gives me a chance to explore the nether regions of the Abbey Stadium.
For those not conversant with Swindon, there is a certain imbalance between the provision for the home and away teams. Above, on the left, is the Home pit area. The 7 riders are accommodated in 6 bays - at the far end Lee Richardson, Andrew Moore and Mads, Leigh Adams, Charlie Gjedde, Seba Ulamek and finally Tomasz Chrzanowski.
The away team have to squeeze in a much smaller area. rumour and legend has it that a certain John Davis designed the pits in this manner to afford the home team an advantage even before they took to the track.
The same can be said of the dressing rooms.
The Swindon changing room, whilst not exactly spacious or luxurious, is significantly larger than that allocated to visiting and junior riders. The walls of the home dressing room display signs extolling the home riders to drink lots of water and to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Air conditioning is by way of a fan on the wall but plenty of fresh fruit is always available prior to the meeting for the home riders.
The Visiting riders and Juniors changing room is smaller and features a water tank mounted high up in one corner to provide a header for the shower unit next door.
The showers and accompanying toilet facilities, not photographed for obvious reasons of good taste, are more than adequate and nicely equipped.
Moving round the corner from the pits we find the room with the electrics and then the double red doors that open up the medical room where many a speedway rider has been patched up before being dispatched either to the local hospital or back to the track.
Squatting alongside this building is the hut that divides, on the left, into the Riders / Mechanics / Track Staff tea room and on the right into the workshop / restroom for the track maintenance staff.
I cannot resist the temptation to take a look at the somewhat macabre fenced off area behind the pits. This is not the new stadium but the site of some sort of ancient burial ground. Apparently the bodies, which may be of Roman nature or older, will be dug up and then re-buried to allow the developments of houses and industrial units on the site which necessitate the moving of our beloved track.
Last week the area was used as an overflow car park - manned by a skeleton crew no doubt! Now, it is rather a creepy adjunct to the stadium.
Back from the dead I find the rest of the track staff inspecting the ever diminishing water supply in the holding tanks. It is now 5.30pm and there is a desperate need for another watering to prevent the track from drying right through.
With the last vestiges of water drawn from the tanks we water for a final time. Large cracks are already meandering across the surface, although it is the moisture content below the surface that we are most concerned about.
The Robins like plenty of grip at the start and so Gerald uses the ripper to rip up the shale there. This has to be done when the track is wet, or else the whole lot becomes just a powder. As soon as the ripping is complete we check the water content of the ripped area and then tyre pack it. This keeps in the moisture but will still give extra grip from the tapes.
And so we wait. This is the worst time of the day - the riders are on their walk round, the ref is inspecting everything and we can just stand there and hope that the sun wont burn all of the water out of the track.
A final watering and then a bit of fluffing of the track using the wonder wheel, to provide extra grip on the insides of turns 2 and 4 and the track is ready.
Overall, we were happy with the way the track rode on Easter Sunday. The Robins completed a comprehensive double over Reading and the riding was good. At the end of the meeting the dust was rising and the base of the track was showing through, mostly because we had been unable to get sufficient water into it earlier in the day.
We spent an hour or so with the big blade on the track before going through our ritual of blading, grading and tyre packing. An early evening - just after 10pm - and we can get away. It's been a long and hot weekend.
And so to Thursday and the meeting against Belle Vue. No rain in the intervening period but at least all of our water facilities were topped up so we could get some early watering into the base.
One area of a speedway track not usually available to the public is the referee's box - so I thought I'd use the odd 5 minutes to take a look.
Climbing up the stairs above the main bars on the main straight brings you to the referee's box at Swindon. Keep your head down low - the clearance on the stairs is not great! I have the scar to prove it!!
The Judges' box is surprisingly large, filled mostly with equipment used by the greyhound operation.
But over by the main window is the speedway referee's kit. Above the telephone is to button that releases the tapes. Alongside it are the various warning and exclusion light switches. Above the referee's head are a set of lights that show clearly which button he's pressed. It's pretty straightforward sort of equipment.
The most important piece of equipment for the referee is a good view of the entire track, and at Swindon the view is pretty impressive all round.
But wait - is there a possible infringement of SCB's regulations. I am almost certain that one regulation speaks of the necessity for there to be a lock on the door of the ref's box - presumably to stop irate riders, promoters and fans from invading said box and venting their feelings on an unfortunate ref. Most of the lock is there but the important element is missing - you can't lock it!
Down at the starting gates we find the double gates developed by Bob and the effervescent Steve Gobey (see, I have mentioned you!) our track electrician and all round good guy. Powerful magnets, strong bungy cable and ultra smooth pipes ensure that the gates rise with remarkable speed. And the double gate means that there are seldom delays after a set of tapes have been broken - the second set is simply pulled down and off we go.
And so we go about our business. We water, grade, tyre pack, water, grade, tyre pack, wash boards, clean pits / white line, inflate and check air bags, clean air bags, deflate air bags, check fuel for generators / tractors / air pumps, water, grade, tyre pack, rip, water etc . etc. for the rest of a long and very hot day.
Stan Potter, our Chief Start Marshall, wheels out his cart with the various flags, chalk, spare tapes etc. and sets up the gates and we sit and wait.
The meeting with Belle Vue is a little one sided but we get positive feedback from both sets of riders on the state of the track.
We go through our final ritual and get away at 11.20pm
