Post by Graeme Mead on Feb 6, 2012 7:44:58 GMT 12
During the drive home last night I spent some time thinking about the last two nights on the infield at the Enzed Palmy Teams champs and here are some of my thoughts.
I was excited to get the invitation from Bruce as David Poppelwell has a crook leg ( get it better soon Dave) and never having worked or even met Russell before and it being our biggest speedway event there was now way of knowing how it would go.
The FM was back in and the role was to bring the infield to the fans if I was able.
The good bits: the drivers, managers and crews, who as always just let me into their trailers, their accidents, their crashes and their emotions of teams racing. They just give me information and then I can relay it. The infield crash crews and officials who tolerated me being in and around the bent cars too, i wasn't bringing much help to the drivers to them.
Russell and the fun we had and synergy we developed and Jamie on the last night, if was great fun and yes Russell is strong on his Palmy support as I am on Waikato and we had agreed to play on this too. We do really get on.......
The majority of the fans, you bring a passion that doesn't arrive at any other event and Palmy Teams is a must do for many ardent supporters. You come from all over the country and many of you I have met and know.
The organisation was slick and I had all the information I needed at any time and of course I got the share and gather anything I didn't have from Barry Brown who was in the middle for speed box.
The racing gave us everything you could want from a meeting, highs, lows, despair, controversy, disappointment and elation. Just what you need from a race meeting. All in all just a blinder of a meeting to be invited to, thanks Bruce and Puk and especially Russel for letting me play in his sand pit, and to all the people I ran into and didn't have time to really talk too sorry, but I was on a mission.
Now the sad bit, with teams support comes passion and I saw probably the worst of this when Peter Bengston was rolled and this man was at the fence yelling profanities with a hate that I haven't seen before and then he threw a can at Peter as he got out of the car and started the language again, all I could do was get to the fence and tell him to stuff off, he was in a light brown hoodie/jacket with two white stripes going around it, had short hair and was angry. I think he got photographed and I hope it get released to the public.......if you know who he is, i hope he gets stopped from coming to speedway, he was a mongrel.
Yes the Panthers coped it like that all weekend ( as did many other teams), and they took it pretty well, but support your team with a passion, be vocal and noisy but there are lines you don't cross and many were by many supporters and it became personal and wrong. You can blame it on any things and many will but we don't need idiots spoiling our speedway shows. I dont want this to also turn into a whole post on who was the badest, drunkest and who did what, the positive was the meeting and this I felt was something I saw that I hadnt seen before like this.
The record shows the Panthers won again and they won because they were the best on the track on the night. I cannot see a decision changing anything from that result. there is lots of conjecture and questions to be asked about on track stuff, but the result is the result is the result. The Panthers are a great team and will take a fearful amount of beating, when the big races are on the line. The Tigers, The Lions and the Rebels, great stuff. I really thought the Rebels year was here after qualifying but it wasn't to be.
Next year it will get done all over again and the passion, the teams and the people will invade Palmy. For me it was so much fun and something new to be a part of.
Thanks for the chance to be there and to the Waikato Wanderers, thanks guys you made me proud...........and loud
I was excited to get the invitation from Bruce as David Poppelwell has a crook leg ( get it better soon Dave) and never having worked or even met Russell before and it being our biggest speedway event there was now way of knowing how it would go.
The FM was back in and the role was to bring the infield to the fans if I was able.
The good bits: the drivers, managers and crews, who as always just let me into their trailers, their accidents, their crashes and their emotions of teams racing. They just give me information and then I can relay it. The infield crash crews and officials who tolerated me being in and around the bent cars too, i wasn't bringing much help to the drivers to them.
Russell and the fun we had and synergy we developed and Jamie on the last night, if was great fun and yes Russell is strong on his Palmy support as I am on Waikato and we had agreed to play on this too. We do really get on.......
The majority of the fans, you bring a passion that doesn't arrive at any other event and Palmy Teams is a must do for many ardent supporters. You come from all over the country and many of you I have met and know.
The organisation was slick and I had all the information I needed at any time and of course I got the share and gather anything I didn't have from Barry Brown who was in the middle for speed box.
The racing gave us everything you could want from a meeting, highs, lows, despair, controversy, disappointment and elation. Just what you need from a race meeting. All in all just a blinder of a meeting to be invited to, thanks Bruce and Puk and especially Russel for letting me play in his sand pit, and to all the people I ran into and didn't have time to really talk too sorry, but I was on a mission.
Now the sad bit, with teams support comes passion and I saw probably the worst of this when Peter Bengston was rolled and this man was at the fence yelling profanities with a hate that I haven't seen before and then he threw a can at Peter as he got out of the car and started the language again, all I could do was get to the fence and tell him to stuff off, he was in a light brown hoodie/jacket with two white stripes going around it, had short hair and was angry. I think he got photographed and I hope it get released to the public.......if you know who he is, i hope he gets stopped from coming to speedway, he was a mongrel.
Yes the Panthers coped it like that all weekend ( as did many other teams), and they took it pretty well, but support your team with a passion, be vocal and noisy but there are lines you don't cross and many were by many supporters and it became personal and wrong. You can blame it on any things and many will but we don't need idiots spoiling our speedway shows. I dont want this to also turn into a whole post on who was the badest, drunkest and who did what, the positive was the meeting and this I felt was something I saw that I hadnt seen before like this.
The record shows the Panthers won again and they won because they were the best on the track on the night. I cannot see a decision changing anything from that result. there is lots of conjecture and questions to be asked about on track stuff, but the result is the result is the result. The Panthers are a great team and will take a fearful amount of beating, when the big races are on the line. The Tigers, The Lions and the Rebels, great stuff. I really thought the Rebels year was here after qualifying but it wasn't to be.
Next year it will get done all over again and the passion, the teams and the people will invade Palmy. For me it was so much fun and something new to be a part of.
Thanks for the chance to be there and to the Waikato Wanderers, thanks guys you made me proud...........and loud
Cheers Jordon Smith
