Ever Decreasing Circles
By Ken Nicholson

"Speedway is getting faster - you can barely recognise the sport nowadays." I have heard this so many times. It is the kind of thing you believe must be true because it is said so often.

Many of us know of the old speedway bikes only thanks to the 'Men in Black' - those gentlemen who do a great job entertaining us and who are an obvious attraction at any speedway meeting. However, they would be the first to admit that they are not world champions at the peak of the game. Nor are their bikes factory-fresh; they are lovingly restored classics. So just how much faster is speedway now than it used to be?

Since the early days of speedway, we have seen many changes to the bikes. Indeed, it is fair to say the bikes look entirely different now to what they once did. Over time, we have become accustomed to these differences and think of them as being normal. Four-valve (and lay-down) engines, leading forks, magic boxes, wheel spoilers and high technology clutches, to name but a few, are all normal now and have been introduced to make the bikes faster. Perhaps other developments have caused a reduction in speed, such as of the introduction of dirt-deflectors and types of silencer. While other factors, such as the type of tyre and the amount of dirt on the track (or rather lack of it) could work either way.

If you look at track records, they can only be lowered over time. However, a couple stand out. The most notable is probably Hans Nielsen's record at Oxford, which has stood for 20 years. Not only has this time never been beaten, no one has come even close to it. So much so, that there has been speculation, that the time was written down incorrectly or the timekeeper forgot to start his stopwatch. At least we can hope that an opportunity to break Nielsen's record will be possible in the not too distant future at Oxford. Not far away, Reading's track record is a whisker older than Nielsen's and sadly that is set to remain. So, speedway did not necessarily get faster over the last 20 years, at these tracks at least. There are no prizes for guessing that Leigh Adams is the track record holder down at Swindon. Yet Leigh's time is only half a second faster than Gary Allen's track record set back in 1993. This is less than 1% faster and I defy anyone to be able to notice the difference.

Of course, comparing track records does not tell you how fast the riders are going, it only tells you how long it has taken them to ride around four laps. Riders that are 'bouncing around the boards' are covering a much greater distance than those hugging the white line. But since no one really knows the distances covered by a rider, a track record seems as good a measure of speed as any. So buoyed with this, I started checking some past track records.

Ivan Mauger was scorching around Brough Park in 71 seconds in 1966. At first, I was shocked that this was almost 9 seconds longer than Kenneth Bjerre's track record in 2003. But after checking the track length, I found that it had shrunk by about 10% over the years. The respective speeds by Ivan and Kenneth are 41.6 and 43.5mph. So speedway has got faster at Newcastle, but not so much that you would notice. Going back even further in time, Frank Hodgson was the track record holder there in 1951 with an average speed of 40.7 mph. This was far faster than I expected.

If you look at current track record speeds, they are mostly in the range from a little under 40 to a little over 50 mph. The larger the track, the faster the average speed. However, even back in 1974, Mitch Graham's average track record speed around Berwick was 49.2 mph (the value is 51.6 mph today and once again the track has shrunk over time). Going back to 1951, Bob Leverenz flew around the Firs in Norwich at an average speed of 48.8 mph, so high speeds are nothing new.

So how does this work out? Well the diagram below shows a mixture of track record speeds for different years. I have included a single point in this, which shows 'Wee Geordie' Newton's 1938 New Cross track record. It is a case of spot the difference (deliberately so) and it is in there amongst the 2008 ones (clue: it was a tiny track).

So, while the diagram shows that average speeds have increased (mostly) on tracks of comparable lengths over the years, most tracks are typically shorter today (and some have actually shrunk over the years). Consequently, the average speeds are pretty much the same. So, speedway is not necessarily 'getting faster' and this no doubt explains why it is and always has been exciting entertainment.

Where there probably has been a noticeable increase in speed however, is in the rush to the first bend. This is largely thanks to improved bike technology (especially clutches). But does it make speedway more exciting? Not in my mind. All it does as far as I am concerned is put more emphasis on gating and that is not the entertaining part.

I cannot think why tracks have been made smaller over the years. For those on the same site, this means the inside line has come in (but not necessarily the fence). However, who am I to question why the circles are ever decreasing. I just wonder if they carry on, where will they end up disappearing?

This article was first published on 30th April 2009