STARTING CLAMPDOWN

[Bubbasdad]

This is a good step forward as riders going back to the pits after an unsatisfactory start was very annoying.
Now things should run far more smoothly.

[doughnut]

Bring back concrete starting grids so that nobody gets a bad area of track to start on

[Terry E]

I've been told about the old starting gates before. Why were they done away with? I think we all knew that gate gardening was going to curtailed at some point. Not sure that concrete gate would be safe now though? It'll be a big lump left towards the end of a meeting and might be considered dangerous?

[David]

Saturday 7th February 2015, 11:01

Danish champ Niels-Kristian Iversen branded British speedway’s heavy crackdown on start-line gardening “a joke”.

The Speedway Control Bureau has introduced new rules, banning riders from getting off their bikes to prepare their starting area. They must also make their preparations with the bike facing the tapes.

While the moves have been introduced to prevent time wasting at meetings, Iversen believes enforcing the two-minute rule more consistently would solve the problem.

"It doesn’t matter if you’re on or off the bike or standing next to the burger van during the two minutes, as long as you’re ready to go when they are up."
- Niels-Kristian Iversen
He said: “What a joke of a rule! Why should anyone decide what you can do at the start line? If you want to kick it with your left boot or your right boot or face the crowd or stand on your head, you should be allowed to do that.

“They should invest in a two-minute clock and then everyone knows that when the clock hits zero, you’ve got to be ready, otherwise you’re out.

"If you want to spend the time in the pits drinking a coffee, as long as you’re ready when it runs out, you should be able to do that.

“I don’t know if they were drunk when they made this rule. I don’t get why they have to make such a big deal out of what you do at the start. I think it’s completely ridiculous.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re on or off the bike or standing next to the burger van during the two minutes, as long as you’re ready to go when they are up. They just need to introduce a clock like they have everywhere else. Then there is nothing to discuss.”

It’s feared the new rule could penalise shorter riders unable to properly prepare a rut while on the bike.

NKI is one of the sport’s taller stars and he admits there are occasions when even he has to get off the machine to complete his gardening.

He said: “Sometimes I get off my bike. It all depends on how the track is. Sometimes, especially when you have one-off tracks in the GP, you have quite deep ruts and you need to prepare them, otherwise your bike is stuck in that big hole.

“I can understand they don’t want to drag the meeting out for hours. But if you use the two-minute clock, it will solve that problem quite easily.”

[Deleted]

And NKI is right. All it takes is for the Referee to enforce the rules that already exist. It's not difficult, why add additional and useless rules?