A shorter blog this time - after the Lakeside meeting and subsequent Lakeside Log it feels as if I've already written enough this week.
It's the visit of table topping Wolves this week at Blunsdon and under a bright sky with high clouds it looks as if we are about to escape the dreaded rain that has blighted much of our work over the past few weeks.
I'm really pleased to be writing this blog - the speedway press will no doubt trumpet his performance, but our Cory Gathercole was simply sensational on Thursday night. It was Cory who inadvertently gave Jeff Scott the title to his best selling speedway book, "Concrete for Breakfast." When Jeff asked him what speedway riders ate for breakfast after witnessing a truly shocking accident, Cory turned around and said, "Concrete!" Well the way that our young Aussie went on Thursday night he certainly had not been eating concrete - he was much too fast for that as Freddie Lindgren, Peter K and Adam Skornicki will all testify. When he first arrived on these shores some years ago he looked just like a mini Leigh Adams and seemed destined for the stars. Perhaps pitched in a little too soon, he seemed to lose some of that silky smooth style in the intervening years, often appearing to be trying too hard and falling as a consequence. This year his confidence is right up and the style, while a little wilder than his fellow countryman and relative, his riding is bristling with enthusiasm and drive. Going into his final ride he was on 14 +2 from 6 rides. As the race progressed he was holding a comfortable lead when his fuel cap worked loose, spraying methanol into his face. Unable to see where he was he soon found himself in deep trouble in turn 1 and had to bale out.
But it says much for the young man that, on his return to the pits after that freak accident had deprived him of an amazing 17+2, he was still able to acknowledge the plaudits of the track staff with a smile and a very polite "Thank you." No helmet throwing or major strops here. Well done Cory!
The awning is complete on the new Away pits area. Now each member of the away team has a bay wide enough for 2 bikes and plenty of covered space for all of their needs. One aspect of the new arrangement is to make the main pits area a much quieter and less congested area, but more of that later.
Out on track Punch is driving the Water tanker while Roy is pumping off the large amounts of water that lay in the deflated air fence panels. Having been though the trauma of putting up and then taking down the Lakeside fence on Monday I can appreciate the tangible advantages that we enjoy at Blunsdon in being able to leave out the air bags, but the task of pumping the water out is still a long and tiring on. So why do it? Simply, when the bags used to be inflated these mini paddling pools of water would discharge across the track in an uneven manner leaving a striped effect of dry and wet shale. Amazingly, except in exceptionally hot or wet conditions, this effect could be appreciated well into the afternoon and may have contributed to some difficult riding conditions.
Once the water has been removed we inflate the fences quickly - a light shower is threatening. While I make my way up the main straight back towards the pits I tune into Radio 4 in expectation of a One Day cricket match from Headingly only to hear that it is absolutely hosing down there - and long may it stay up there!
Steve Masters as arrived to put up new fascias on the new pots an also to start putting up the new Sponsors' logos.
Out on the track, with the threatening weather passed, Ronnie rips the insides of turns 2 and 4 with the wonder wheel. Punch has trailer load on a clay based shale that we will add to the ripped material. Wetted down and then lightly packed, this will provide real drive for those willing to keep to the inside line. We've really been concentrating on the inside line at Swindon this year but simply ripping it and then packing it again is not enough. We've found that the grip lasts no longer than four heats before it disappears and riders resort to the mid and wide lines. The addition of this heavily clayed material should help the whole area bind better and stay useful for longer. Well, that's the theory anyway.
While Roy, Adam and Arron and Mick Richards clean the tops and backs of the air fence, Mark Price and I set to putting back the rubber kickboards that protect the bottom of the air fence, prevent riders from sliding under the fence and also prevent shale from building up under the bags. Down on turn 1 an old problem rears its ugly head - despite the boards that we put up to hold back the sand from the dog track, it has started overflowing again. A large bloom of sand spreads out from beneath the bags. Ugly and unnecessary, it will get into the shale and prevent it from binding in addition to making this whole area very boggy.
Punch has ripped the start gates and added some more of the clay based shale. While Roy clears excess material from the white line, Punch packs the starts.
It's still morning so we are well ahead of the game and there now seems no likelihood of rainfall.
The track is looking smooth and we could run a lunchtime meet if necessary. Steve has done his work on the visitors' pit area and bays 1 and 2 look really excellent.
After lunch the banner go back up while Adam takes to the tractor with the very ancient mowing attachment. It doesn't collect up the grass and is prone to breaking down just when we don't want it to - I think that it has a built in "Frustration Co-efficient" device - the more anxious we are the worse it behaves. The other mower, which does collect grass, is broken - C'est la vie!
Mark and I finish the banners and then inspect the new kickboards that we put in place last week. They have all warped badly and look a mess. We remove them again and screw them back in place in a neat line. Trouble is, while they look fine, the rest of the old boards leading into the first bend air fence now look too high. Having shaved back much of the banking the boards now stand high and uneven. In a moment of madness Mark and I decide to remove them all, drop them down, clear the material that has built up behind them and even them out. It takes an hour and I manage to miss my thumb this week - no Anglo Saxon oaths just yet.
We stand back to admire our work. It looks much better. Uplifted, we wander back to the pits area and spy a series of boards that probably should be repaired or replaced on the back straight. Somehow, they appear so much more obvious now ... so we set about repairing them
The time advantage that we had built up in the morning is now lost to us.
Back at the pits the Wolves riders have taken up residence and the place looks good. The containers for the old oil now stand in their sand tray and all is well with the world.
There is always a fascination in looking at a well turned out speedway bike - so minimalist and almost fragile yet capable of such violence all bound up in a small bundle.
But they're heavy. When Freddie Lindgren blows a tyre and it wedges against the frame his two mechanics have to lift it back to the pits from the bottom of turn 1. I give them a helping hand over the last 50 or so metres and even with three, it's still a weight.
But back to prep and we carry on watering the track, a little at a time, to keep the moisture in the surface and base.
The racing is not without its excitement. A Wolves reserve falls on turn 2 and his exhaust burns a hole in the bottom of a panel. This has to be changed and the clips that we were asked to use earlier in the season once again prove to be really difficult to undo. Fortunately, I am able to make a repair to the panel on he centre green so we wont be one down for next week. We do lose a rubber kickboard when Simon Stead thunders into the air fence on turn 3 but, despite tearing the kickboard the air panel itself is undamaged.
By the end of the night 4 riders have tasted the air fence - two on turns 1 and 2 and 2 on turns 3 and 4. The Robins win and we start to pack away. By 11pm its all tidied and I'm on my way home. No more writing until next week. Bliss!
