In a week that the Blunsdon Blog launches its sister blog, The Edin Blog, about the trials and tribulations of track preparation at Edinburgh, it is ironic that we start by wishing the Edinburgh track record holder and new Swindon acquisition, Theo Pijper, all the best in his recovery from one of the worst crashes I've seen at Swindon.
Speedway is a hard sport for hard men but the sheer danger of it all was brought into clear focus for all of us when Theo and Adam Skornicki tangled entering turn 1 in last week's encounter with Poole. I am not about to make any comment about the why's and the wherefore's of the event but all of the track staff were very concerned about Theo as he lay on the shale, not moving.
The track doctor and the St Johns Ambulance people (and let's not miss this opportunity to praise and thank them for all the work they do up and down the country in support of our beloved sport) did an amazing job but it was very clear that Theo in particular was in a bad way. The instructions to track staff is that they stay on the centre green when an accident occurs (no more rushing out to try to help someone.) We have agreed here that Keith Johnson (who is i/c turns 1 and 2) and I (i/c 3 and 4) will nominate one other member of the staff to assist in removing a bike from the air fence if we believe that the bike is sufficiently away from any rider and if, in our opinion, the bike is further damaging the air fence (remember, hot exhaust pipes soon burn through the fabric of the panels).
Theo has only been with us for three or so weeks but already we've got to know a very quiet and polite young man. We've also had the chance to talk with his delightful family. It's not been the easiest start for Theo but we're all behind him and send our very best wishes for a swift recovery and a hasty return to the Swindon colours - get well soon, Theo!
Last Sunday the track was covered with half and inch of snow when I arrived at 8.30am in preparation for the Elite Shield match against Coventry. Just 4 days later and it is one of the most beautiful spring mornings that you could possibly imagine - brilliant blue skies and a refreshing breeze to "blow away all of the cobwebs".
Out on the track the effects of the very full tyre packing regime that we carried out after Coventry's match are clear. With the Elite League starting up this coming week it was important that this Craven Shield clash should go ahead. Given the very changeable nature of the weather, we packed the track down hard - in this way we can encourage rain to run off a hard surface rather than sink straight in and create a bog.
Bob Crowther arrives early to check on the state of our new air pumps and set them out ready for the inflation of the air bags. The bags get blown up at 9am when Mick Richards comes to pressure wash them clean. They actually stay inflated, although obviously not at full pressure, until the start of the meeting, when we turn them up full. They are not deflated because the catch fencing has to be in place before Mick can start cleaning, so shale is not blown off the top of the panels onto the greyhound track, and also to prevent the advertising banners from getting dirty when the fences deflates into the soggy shale.
We have a bit of a quandary - well, quite a large one really. The weather forecast suggest that we might well expect rain. Certainly it's forecast for later in the evening but there are threats of rain throughout the afternoon. But, the bright sun and the drying wind are drying out the surface of the track very quickly. A drying wind will take moisture out of a track faster than a hot sun and we are already concerned mid morning about the amount of moisture being drawn up. The snow of last week will have added a lot of moisture to throughout the whole depth of the shale (in some cases inches down) but it is the top half inch that is losing the moisture.
With the bags up and pegged I start on cleaning out the pits. Not only do we have to brush away the detritus of the previous meeting, we also have to sweep out wheel barrow loads of sand, blown in from the stadium. The pits entrance funnels the wind and a surprising amount of sand soon builds up.
Out on the track yet another tanker load of water is sprayed onto the top surface. We're not drowning or drenching the track, we're just putting on enough to keep the surface moist.
After lunch we find that we need yet more water. There is water in the base but the top is drying out quickly. Latest weather forecasts suggest that the chance of rain has receded but we still have to be very careful.
Buoyed up with youthful exuberance Punch comes hurtling out of the pit gate on Adam Laws' mountain bike. Eschewing the fact that he's in his late 60's he belts around the track but moans that he could have gone faster if the automatic gearing hadn't kept dropping down on the back straight - some people are never satisfied!
By 3.30 we get started on the starting gates. An analysis of the last meeting shows that gate 4 seems to have had a slight advantage so we set about trying to even that up. Gerald rips from 2 metres behind the gate to 5 in front and we then add some of the high clay content shale that we possess. As soon as the ripping is completed he waters thoroughly. While the rest of the track is drying quite quickly, this newly ripped surface will dry out amazingly fast and then we'll have a dust bowl so the area is drenched.
We'll give it 20 minutes or so to settle in and then tyre pack it. If you pack too soon all that happens is that the moisture is forced to the surface and the result is a sludge like surface on a dryish base - not good when a speedway bike's back wheel accelerates to 70mph in a second or two!
By 4.30 the bikes have started to arrive. Mads unloads his newly trimmed bikes from the back of his van while Seb Alden chats with Ernie Poole and Keith Johnson. Seb has never been the most outgoing of the Swedes and was a very retiring member of the team when he last rode for us. Two years on and his English is much better and already he seems much more at ease with himself and others around him. He makes a point of saying hello and chats away with track staff, a fact that we really appreciate. He's still a bit hard on himself. When we congratulate him on his opening three fixtures for the Robins, during which he has impressed everyone with his speed and tactical awareness, he still finds fault with his performances. In the Poole match he put in another excellent performance and we begin to believe what Rosco has been nagging on about over the winter - perhaps we have indeed got one of the best reserves in the country!
Michael Hunt, clerk of the course, indulges in a significant "flight of fantasy" as he poses alongside one of Seb's "Team Alden" bikes. Dream on Michael!
And so we wait. We know that the track was still wet from the snow, and we have put quite a lot of water on it already today but it's a case of watching it every five minutes to see how it's drying and if it is drying evenly. It;s at times like this that the expertise that Gerald Richter and Rod Ford have becomes evident. They can read a track with a quick look and a handful of shale. Over two years into the job and I'm still trying to figure it out.
It's certainly more difficult than reading a cricket wicket.
Leigh Adams and a couple of the others come out, kick up a few divots and then report back to Gerald and Punch.
Meanwhile I've been summoned to see the referee. Dark thoughts. Has he condemned the air fence? What have I done wrong. He glares at me and then points out, with a smile on his face, that there is a tear in one of the advertising hoardings and could I get it taped up. I sigh with relief - he laughs.
And so to the meeting.
It's a fraught and very tight affair. The riders take a very different line into turns 1 and 2, coming in tight on the curb and then drifting out to the fence. Poole reserve Suchecki sends me scuttling down from turn 3 when he over does it on turn 2 and slides into the air fence. He's unhurt and so is the fence, just!.
Suchecki has a strong affinity for that particular section of air fence - he visits it three times in all during the course of the evening, each time tearing more and more kickboards away. Keith Johnson and I end up flat on our fronts on the track desperately trying to reconnect the air pipes after his last foray into the air fence. The bike strikes the area where two panels join and knocks the air pipes out of place. With the fence sagging and a large build up of shale, the job of reconnecting without taking the entire fence down is not an easy one.
And then there's the crash with Theo, Adam Skornicki and Travis, who has to lay his bike down mighty fast to avoid his stricken compatriot. From then on it's a case of getting through the meeting - we are all thinking about Theo, who is now on his way to hospital.
Latest news is that his collar bone is broken and he is badly shaken up, but it could have been a whole lot worse!
At the end of the meeting a supporter asks why we had prepared the track as we did. In fact, it was prepared exactly to the brief given us by both promotion and team. Some Poole riders were complaining that it was too wet but we are talking about a fixture in March, on a windy and sunny day, just after the track had been covered with snow. Getting that balance of moisture into the track was well nigh impossible, but Gerald managed it.
The only other difference is that we are not raking between races on the corners. The reason for this is that the riders don't like the bumps that raking inevitably brings. You can only rake a relatively small area between races and that means that there will be sections covered with shale followed by non raked bare areas. Our team have asked that we avoid this so, when the tractors come out after heats 4, 7 and then a couple of times later in the meeting, the track staff work like frenzy to get as much shale away from the air fence as possible. We pull this shale down about 6 feet, sufficient for John Nobbs, who drives the tractor with the small blade behind it, to collect this excess and then begin pulling it down evenly.
In between races we confine ourselves to cleaning the top of the air panels (they can get weighed down by the sheer volume of shale that is kicked up) and by checking the racing surface to make sure that loose areas of top surface shale (it's called "caking" in the business) are cleared and rough edges smoothed. The consequence of the love affair that Mr Suchecki had with the air bags on turn 2 meant I spent more time down there than back on my base on turn 3.
The end of the evening was spent putting the track to bed and packing it down thoroughly so as to ward off the effects of the promised rainfall in the next few days.
Next week I'll be featuring a new member of the team, nicknamed Robin, a veritable "Rockin' Robin!"
