Great news for everyone associated with Swindon Speedway - Alan Tarrant, aka Da Vinci Al, appeared at the track today to say hello. Those new to the Blog should know that Alan has been one of the stalwart members of the behind the scenes crew at The Abbey over the last couple of years and has recently been struck down with MS. A couple of weeks ago we were all really worried about Al so it came as a massive relief to the Thursday crew when he pitched up this morning. Walking with the aid of a stick, he had only just got out of hospital but couldn't wait to get up the Abbey to see us. It will be a long road to partial recovery but Alan is very upbeat and positive about coming to terms with illness and getting his life back on track again.
He was really amazed at the kindness showed by so many people when we first broadcast news about his illness - cards, messages, flowers, a book about Swindon riders of the past from a fan and a copy of one of Jeff Scott's books sent by Jeff from his home in Brighton. It's great that the speedway family is able to come together when someone is afflicted like this.
While on the subject of the speedway family, the blog and all the guys at Swindon would like to send best wishes to Ritchie Hawkins and his family. Ritchie was badly injured in a recent indoor meeting in Kiel, Germany, and initial reports suggested that he would be out for the entire season. Ritchie has been associated with Swindon for a number of years and is a very popular and pleasant young man who has had the most appalling bad luck with injuries over the recent few years. Good luck Ritchie.
Last Saturday and today we have been concerned with getting the fence up on turn 3. Although the number of bags involved is much smaller than the giant sweep of turns 1 and 2, it is a difficult bend because the bags have to be positioned exactly so that, when the pits gate bag is in place there are no gaps.
The new low loader trailer is a God send - we can move so many bags so quickly and reasonably effortlessly. Once the bags have been deposited in roughly the right places we had to fix the pit gate bag in place and then work our way back through the turn. Each bag has two air pipes that need to be inserted into the next bag along. Once we have five bags connected we inflate to make sure that we haven't got any major leaks. We are all aware that there are a number of punctured bags but we still haven't found them yet - the awful prospect of having them all together on turn 4 is a real possibility that we'll have to work around.
When the bags have been attached we (Mark, Dave Whiting, my son Dave and I) turn off the new pump and let the bags deflate. With the air gone we can get down to the task of buckling each bag in place. There are three buckles on the back of each panel and two more on the top. A further buckle at the bottom front by the kick boards will have to wait until later. When each panel has been buckled we then clip them to safety fence in at least 3 places per bag.
Uppermost in my mind at this stage is the ease with which we could get a panel changed during a meeting. Taking the darkest scenario - a Sky meeting, already running late after numerous re-runs, and a rider in the air bag in heat 14. The Sky director is doing his nut because it looks like we will over run on the meeting and b....er up his schedule. And we have to change a panel!
New air pump? Did I say new air pump! Yes, we have a new air pump. The unit is a Chinese clone of the old type of engines fitted into an old pump unit by Bob Crowther. Gerald and I have been arguing about the new pump. I say it's a massive improvement on the old engines - he claims it's just another engine although it is likely to be more reliable. Take it from me, this new little beauty inflates the panels a darn site faster that our old pumps, and it's quieter. All round, it feels as if Christmas has come. Now, if only we could replace the other four old pumps with new ones ....
Today we we are joined by Alan, Stan Potter (starting marshall extraordinaire), Rosco, Rex Woodruffe and Flo (our Karen, this time bringing with her some delicious chocolate biscuit pieces.) Everyone agrees that number 96 is a great improvement on the old staff room.
Back out on the track Roy and I engaged in adjusting all of the buckles so that the panels sit as tightly together as possible. On the end of each panel there is a double layer of velcro that needs to grip the next panel. With the panels abutting as closely as possible we can be sure that there are no weak spots.
Getting the fence right now is essential - we wont be able to do much during the season unless we have to replace a panel.
Inevitably we find some holes that need patching, and some patches that need patching. Rex Woodruffe joins Roy and I as we experiment with an Evostick glue that might be more effective than the very rigid Superglue that we have used in the past (and which tends to stick us to the air fence rather better than it does the patches!)
Satisfied that the fence is as we want it, we pack up. There is little else we can do so it's an early afternoon drive home via the local branch of B and Q to buy some more Evostick.
