A damp but deeply satisfying day's work at the track today. Under the leaden skies we had been told to expect, but without the monsoon rains predicted, the four of us set to clearing the sand and sand laden shale from the edges of turns 1 and 2. As Roy and I shoveled the wet and slimy mass into the JCB's bucket, and we filled 16 bucket loads at approximately a ton a go I was reminded of Merle Travis' classic song, brought back to life so brilliantly by the excellent Alexis Korner and his band, CCS, in the 1970's.

Unable to resist, here is what we sang as we dug ..

Some people say a track is made out of mud
And a track man's made out of muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bone
A brain that's sharp and a back that's blown,

You haul Sixteen Tons of sand laden shale
And the track gets better, there's no place to fail,
So Terry don't you call me cause I can't go
The back's in spasm and I need you, Flo.

I was diggin' one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
Picked up a shovel and I walked to the line
I hauled Sixteen Tons, of sand laden shale
And the track boss said, "Oh God, don't wail "

You haul Sixteen Tons of sand laden shale
And the track gets better, there's no place to fail,
So Terry don't you call me cause I can't go
The back's in spasm and I need you, Flo.

Mr Punch is comin', so step aside
A lot of men didn't and a lot of men fried,
He's got one fist of iron; the other of steel
And if the right don't get ya, then the left one will

You haul Sixteen Tons of sand laden shale
And the track gets better, there's no place to fail,
So Terry don't you call me, cause I can't go
The back's in spasm and I need you, Flo.

I was diggin' one mornin' and the sun didn't shine
Picked up a shovel and I walked to the line
I hauled Sixteen Tons of sand laden shale
And the track boss said, "Oh God don't wail "

You haul Sixteen Tons of sand laden shale
And the track gets better, there's no place to fail,
So Terry don't you call me cause I can't go
The back's in spasm and I need you, Flo.

For the uninitiated, "Terry" is Mr Russell whilst "Flo" is Karen, our sports therapist and the soother of all back pains. The track boss is Gerald Richter!

For those wanting to hear the CCS version of the classic, click on the Play button below and wait - hopefully it will load and play. If it doesn't, sorry!

The recent rain of the last week has had its effects upon the track - great chasms (OK, just little bit of hyperbole there) through the shale and now we have our own version of the Grand Canyon on turn 2.

So destructive is the flow of water across the track that that layers of shale are clearly visible and the black at the bottom of the ruts is actually the original cinders put down in 1949.

Our task for today is to shift all of the sand laden shale that has been dug out from over the safety fence and deposited on the track. Gerald operates the tractor with a small blade, Punch is in his element aboard his JCB while Roy and I handle long handled shovels.

The material is slimy and very heavy, and there is an amazing amount of it. In all, we load around 16 JCB bucket fulls of this sloppy material. Half of it is scooped up as Punch drives the JCB through it, the rest has to be shoveled by hand. But it is a supremely satisfying job because you can see exactly what you have done, and the results are pretty astounding. By lunch time we have a beautifully flat and relatively firm base for the air fence all around the track.

We can't use the excess shale - there's just too much sand mixed with it so Punch disposes of it around the back of the pits. While he dumps the sludge, Gerald uses a very handy small blade to drag the material into workable amounts and pull the excess from the fence.

Punch drives through the material with the bucket down and then Roy and I fill it up. We are expecting heavy rain in the next 48 hours but now at least it will run evenly off the greyhound track and soak the track in an even manner - no more Grand Canyons to surprise track staff and riders alike.

By 1pm the fence marks out a clear delineation between the sand of the greyhound track and the shale of the speedway track. Job done.

Terry Russell has kindly given us a new TV and a music centre for Number 96 and while Roy makes coffee and Punch holds the aerial, I actually manage to tune the picture so we can watch some day time TV with our coffee - it's the height of luxury.

We will be back on Saturday. If it hasn't rained too much we might be able to get the big blade out and really start to attack the camber of the surface - if not, there's still a 1000 and 1 things to be done, so if you're in the area and up for a bit of fun, come along.

The day has ended well. When I got home I checked the usual suspects of speedway related web sites (SpeedwayPlus (great site), BSPA, the Robins site) and find that Andrew Moore has been signed by his local side, Scunthorpe.

I admit that it was a little difficult to communicate with some of the Robins 2007 side, given that their mother tongue wasn't English, but Andy was a real delight to work with. He always acknowledged our efforts, was keen to talk about his views on the sport and was a perfect gentleman. We are all delighted that he has got a permanent place for 2008; we would have loved to have had him back at Swindon but that was not possible.

Good luck to Andrew Moore in 2008 and in years to come. He is a great little rider and a true gent. He will always be welcome at number 96!