The Blog has been harping on for some time about the need for rain, and we got it in good measure on Thursday when the wet stuff prevented us from running a meeting against our old foes from down the M4, Oxford. It's our first rain off of the season. So that you don't get too down through the lack of action, or the massive inaction, that was Blunsdon on 10th May, the blog is bringing you exclusive pictures and text from our first "Blunsdon Blog Boys" trip of 2007 - to Perry Bar, home of the newly fledged Birmingham Brummies.
But more of that later.
It had been raining throughout the night and the weather forecast was dire. Punch and Gerald were ensconced in the portals of our luxurious staff room discussing the recent televised match from Blunsdon when I arrived. After an uplifting cup of coffee we ventured forth to inspect the track.
Apart from some puddling of water on turn three and a little surface water just prior to the start line we were pleasantly surprised by the state of the track. Certainly we could get a meeting under way if there weren't substantial amounts of rain on the horizon. While they graded and packed the surface I inflated the air fences, hitched them up to the safety fence, hooked up the green netting and spent a little time checking fuel and oil in each air pump.
By 11 o'clock we were beginning to feel the first signs of rain in the air. The track looked good, the fences were all up and were being cleaned by Mick and Roy, while Brian Cox had erected (he'll love that choice of word!) his advertising hoardings.
Recent high winds had displaced a small section of the new fascias in the pits so Steve Masters was soon on hand to repair and replace. Rosco arrived. Together we prepared a new harrow for the track - a very useful piece of steel reinforcing sheet which can dry out and smooth a wet track quite efficiently.
The clouds were looming by the time that Stan Potter arrived to sort out the starting tapes and soon we were rushing for cover as the serious rain arrived.
It rained and it rained (it got "floodier and floodier" as Piglet has it in "Winnie the Pooh and a rainy day".
Rumour had it that Ceefax already had the fixture down as cancelled at lunchtime. We knew it would be off but we had to wait for Terry Russell, Rosco and the Oxford promotion to agree to call it off before we could do anything else.
While Gerald and Punch took the opportunity for a little light blading and some heavy grading and harrowing, Adam (he'd just arrived straight from work), Roy and I began to dismantle the air fence.
By four o'clock the sun was beginning to come out but the damage had been done. By 5 it was pouring down - the right decision had been reached.
In fact, the constant rain should do us good - the water will penetrate deep down into the base and should bind the whole surface together. The light blading (we didn't want to risk the heavy blade incase we were caught out by really heavy rain and the entire track ruined) and grading should have evened out some of the bumps that were appearing in the track when it was bone dry.
Why wait to blade until the track is wet? One, the dry surface is so hard the blade would probably break before any good could be done. Two, blading a dry track turns the surface to useless dust and pulls great chunks out of the surface, thus rendering it rougher than before. Three, the wet shale cuts much better (like soft scoop butter as opposed to the hard stuff). Four, the moisture in the track binds the bladed material together really well.
And so to Birmingham, and the new Perry Bar Stadium!
Each year a group of us try to catch some away meetings. Usually our party is augmented by my son, David, Clive (who runs the Pottery where I spend most of my time), a local solicitor (David Lewis) and anyone else that we can cajole / bully into joining us. Phil (left, above) is the Deputy Town Clerk of Malmesbury in Wiltshire and is a very keen speedway fan (the new track at Perry Bar was the 105th track he has visited!) while Neil (whose father, Roger, rode for Bristol Bulldogs and who latterly managed Swindon Robins) is a partner in Tattinger Marsh, who kindly sponsor this web site.
First impressions are that the stadium is much smaller than we had anticipated, having seen the spreads in Speedway Star when the news of the reemergence of speedway in the 2nd city was announced.
The new grandstand is quite plush and shiny although it does appear to squat quite malevolently over the rest of the ground.
It is the car park, or rather vehicles in the car park that attract our attention under the leaden Birmingham skies. An old army style green lorry proclaims that the way to get the water supply that you want is to dig a bore hole into the ground and create your own water supply. Indeed, alongside the lorry is a drilling machine - good thinking by the stadium owners. If only we had that sort of scheme at Swindon.
The match is a cup tie versus Kings Lynn, but reports of the meeting will appear elsewhere so we'll try and limit our comments to the track and its impact upon the meeting. Initial impressions of the track is that it is not dissimilar in size to our own favourite venue, Somerset, but the straights are longer and the corners tighter here. There is no banking whatsoever as far as we can tell.
Spectators can watch the meeting from the warmth and comfort of the plush grandstand (but that means watching speedway through glass and we can't bring ourselves to do that), from two rather basic scaffolding based stands on turn 1 or track side along the main straight and around to the end of turn 2.
A solitary tractor carries out pre meeting grading on the track, which looks as if could do with more water (but in the desert like conditions we've experienced recently, what track doesn't look dry).
A home fan encourages the track staff not to put any more water down. He obviously knows something we don't!
Some ripping of the surface has been carried out near the fences but the width of the track is such at the corners that I doubt if anyone getting that far out will derive much benefit from the extra grip.
The pits are hidden from view behind the back straight - a shame because good viewing of pits' action is so much of the enjoyment of speedway. It's sad that at Swindon so little of the pits can be seen by spectators and the same is true at Perry Bar.
The riders exit onto the back straight and congregate there while Pete York introduces the action. They then complete a parade laps, sans helmets. You can actually see who they are. I'm not sure what Health and Safety at Swindon would say about riders riding around without helmets but it's a pleasing reminder of the past.
Kings Lynn dominate the first half of the meeting with their superior gating. There is a precious lack of passing and few opportunities. Anyone moving more than three feet from the white line on turns 1 and 2 drifts hopelessly wide and is left at the back. Turns 3 and 4 look more promising with the prospect of a racing line mid track but even those brave enough to try it early on are left disappointed.
There are no graders on the track between races and little attempt to pull shale back to the racing line on the inside. Consequently, a blue line appears as early as heat 6.
During the interval a water cart comes out and waters the mid and outside lines of the track while another tractor pulls a light ripper around presumably to fluff up the surface and produce some more dirt.
The result of this work is remarkable. Suddenly there is racing and overtaking. Little is achieved on turns 1 and 2 but the Birmingham boys soon find that the mid track line on 3 and 4 gives grip. Whilst Lynn either stay close to the white line or stray far out to the fences, so Birmingham claw back the points lost in the first half and the result is in doubt right up to a last heat decider. 45 - 45 and the point each is enough to take both clubs through to the semi finals of the competition.
We decide to venture up into the Grandstand while the 4 remaining members of the American Dream Team put on a series of demonstration races in the second half.
The blue groove stretches from the entrance of turn 1 to the end of turn 2 and then picks up again right through turns 3 and 4.
But the racing was entertaining.
The entrance for the track equipment is on the exit to turn 4, rather like the one to be seen at Wolverhampton. It is wide and there is plenty of parking space for the track equipment during the meeting, something we desperately need at Swindon where access to the track is shared with the pits and is very narrow indeed.
We'll be off on our travels to other tracks during the season, certainly to Somerset and then probably Oxford, Newport, Coventry, Lakeside, Poole, Weymouth and Esatbourne. In August the party is bound for Sweden and the Scandinavian GP plus a number of Swedish meetings in the week leading up to the GP.
But for now, all attention turns to the weather forecasts and the state of the Blunsdon track next Thursday.
