Gladiators forced to call off first two meets
PLYMOUTH Gladiators have had to concede defeat in their efforts to start the new speedway season this weekend with the unrelenting rain forcing them to postpone the first two meetings of the 2024 campaign.
Poole Pirates were due in town for the curtain raiser at the Coliseum on Easter Saturday, with Oxford following a week later, but with so much rain this winter, the track is not yet ready after an extensive extension. That said, with the forecast as it is, it is highly unlikely the track would have survived anyway with more rain set to fall between now and Saturday.
Bends three and four have been widened with the hope a slightly bigger track will present riders with more passing opportunities and better, faster racing. But while the work has been done, the clay in the track surface has not had a chance to bake and set.
The club are hoping for three days of sunshine for that to happen but, as we all know, the wet weather has been unprecedented and unrelenting this winter.
“We have put extensive work in place but unfortunately, we have had three times the expected rainfall this winter and it has left the track soft,” promoter Mark Phillips said. “The clay, which is in the shale surface, hasn’t had a chance to bake and is making it spongy, so we have cancelled the first two meetings.
“We are now ripping that out again and putting in a new base with clean stone to hopefully get a better bottom to it which will hopefully make things better.”
Phillips has overseen the extensive work done at the Coliseum this winter and he has not been helped at all by the weather conditions. He has been helped by a hardy band of volunteers, though, who have all chipped in and helped improve one of the smallest tracks on the British Speedway circuit.
“The passing has been quite superb in the last couple of seasons,” Phillips said when asked what he hoped the new lay out would provide. “However, we have widened it by a bike’s width going into the corners down the straights and with the added bonus of a high banking around the bend, it enables riders to keep their speed up, so it will be a lot faster circuit to race.
“I am sure that the racing will again be spectacular. Spectators are still close to the racetrack – it is a two metre distance between the rider and the supporters, so it is a great experience for all the followers.
“We have had some volunteers in, which has been great. I am used to driving machinery, I used to do it for a living, so it’s been quite successful given this torrential weather we have had and are continuing to have. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without them and all their effort has been greatly appreciated. Without their help, we would have been severely stuck in the mud, shall we say!”
There has been some good news as well with the Speedway Control Board granting Plymouth permission to use a guest facility once their season is up and running, in place of injured number one Nico Covatti.
Covatti is expected to be sidelined until the start of May after suffering a broken arm and broken leg when riding in Argentina, which left the Gladiators needing to find a replacement ahead of the season starting.
All manner of riders were approached, but they all rejected the move for various reasons and the Gladiators did not want to go down the route of getting a four=point average rider coming in for someone with a much higher average.
“Unfortunately we haven’t been able to get a heat leader, but the Speedway Control Board have seen the efforts that we went to, to try and fill the void, and as they assisted in getting Nico’s VISA, they knew he was scheduled to ride for Plymouth, so they have given us a 28 day facility for the injured rider,” Phillips said.
“That will allow us to bring guests in. It is only a 28-day rule, so from the first meeting which will likely be (a BSN Series clash) at Poole on April 10, that gives us then until May 5 or 6 by which time we hope to have Nico back. He is hoping to have a spin the week before over in Italy, so all things are looking promising.
“I think it’s the right thing and we thank the Speedway Control Board. We all need a full team and we would have been on the back foot completely if we had to fill in with a four point rider in an eight point rider position.”