Tales from the Shale with Swindon’s Writer in Residence, Graham Cooke.
19th May 2008
Top of the table, great team spirit, good crowds and the prospect of a brand new stadium – life doesn’t get much better than that.
As a fan of the Robins since 1983 I have known more darkness than light – the days of Phil Crump and six others propping up the table in 1983 through to the first real relegation from the upper echelon’s of the sport here in Britain at the end of the 1992 season. The subsequent years of Premier League racing afforded us all excellent entertainment but Swindon’s real love affair has always been with the top division and our return to that level in 2004 as an Elite League Team helped to regenerate the sport in this area.
It’s not all been plain sailing in the past four seasons – high hopes dashed, as they were last season, have left the fans frustrated but this year so much of that has changed. While the experts predicted that they would struggle at the bottom of the table, the 2008 Robins have set about proving them wrong. There’s a buzz about the place that’s not only to be found on the track but also in the pits, where the much derided concept of “team spirit”, is evident in the way that the 8 (I’ll include Cory here, because he’s been a constant presence in the pits even when not riding) encourage and help each other.
But the buzz is also obvious on the terraces. When Mads blasted around Lee Richardson and Cameron Woodward in heat 7 of the recent encounter against Eastbourne I heard a roar from the Grandstand quite unlike any I’ve ever heard at Swindon. That was surpassed in heat 12 when Troy Batchelor repeated the feat over Richardson. The sheer volume of noise at the end of meeting parades and interviews reflects this feeling of regeneration and enthusiasm.
With such success on the track it’s been quite easy to over look the enormity of what is happening off track as Swindon Speedway prepares for the next stage of its life – the move to the new stadium.
I can remember hearing the news that the old Abbey would be demolished whilst actually working on the track. Track Curator, Gerald Richter, and I had been discussing installing a new drainage system around the white line and sinking a huge tank in the centre green to act as a storage for excess water. Back in the track staff work room we were a sad bunch … at that stage the horror of losing the old place was almost too much. When we then heard that perhaps speedway might not be included in a new stadium the effect was devastating.
But thanks to an enormous groundswell of support from the local community, supported admirably by the media and town councillors, speedway was reintroduced to the plans and all looked set for a 2008 start in a brand new, if somewhat smaller stadium. And then planning problems cropped up. My plans for a book cataloguing the last year of the old Abbey Stadium were shelved. When I heard that the details may have had to go to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister my heart sank. Brighton and Hove Albion’s new stadium had stalled at the desk of the then incumbent, John Prescott, and they ended up playing a number of seasons at a local athletic track (at least that’s what it looked like) while the matter of the new stadium was resolved. How much of a fan of speedway is Harriet Harman, the present incumbent?
Fortunately, we have received notification that the designs for the new stadium do not need to be scrutinised by the mandarins of Whitehall and we can begin to enjoy the prospect of a new home.
Of course, we will all miss the old place. It has so much history and whilst it might be a little ragged around the edges (the back straight stand etc.) there really is something almost unique about the long straights and those banked curves that make Blunsdon such a great place to watch speedway. But maybe the old track harkens too much to the past. With modern speedway bikes producing such enormous power maybe it is time to look at a track that will give us great racing not just now, but 20 years into the future.
So what would I like to see? Well, we know that the stadium will have a significantly smaller footprint than the present one so it is safe to assume that the speedway track will be commensurately smaller. But smaller tracks don’t lessen the excitement, although they do lessen the speed. Of all the tracks that I have visited two stand out above the rest, one in this country and one in Sweden.
On a balmy summer evening, with a pint of lager and in the company of friends, I can think of no better place in the UK to watch speedway than at the Oak Tree Arena, home of the Somerset Rebels. I know that it is not the most advanced stadium in the world, in fact its very rusticity is a major part of its appeal, but the track is great. 300 metres in size, it features long, wide, sweeping corners and just enough length in the straights to ensure that riders have to straighten their bikes before entering the next corner.
My other favourite is the Vetlanda track in Sweden. Longer than Somerset, it again features great wide corners and straights that cannot be taken on a curve. Where it really comes into its own is in the drainage system for the track, the very gentle camber, a limitless supply of water (there’s a river behind the main stand) and the fact that it conforms to the latest FIM track standards.
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Krister Bergstrom, the FIM Track Inspector. He explained that nearly all of the new tracks being built on the continent conform to the latest standards for international meetings. Let’s hope that the new track is built with this in mind.
Ideally I would like : good width in the corners; a small camber; straights long enough to ensure that riders have to straighten their bikes; lighting standards far enough from the race track to enable the use of lower safety fencing; drainage systems between the speedway and greyhound tracks and also around the white line; an easy access route onto the track for both riders and maintenance vehicles; a bore hole to ensure a ready supply of water; well equipped pits and track maintenance areas; but most of all, a racing track, not a trick track with uneven shaped corners, reverse cambers and no shale!.
But that’s for the future. In the meantime, I’m more than happy watching the 2008 Robins at the old Abbey.
I’ll try to keep my diary in the Blunsdon Blog as separate from this work as possible. It’s back to the track on Thursday to prepare for the visit of Poole in what is a top of the table clash and one sure to bring the best out of the old stadium.
