With just one week to go to Press and Practice Day at Swindon and the pressure is on. That sounds like a script line from one of those dreadful reality TV programmes where the tension is ramped up by an over zealous presenter to try and inject some excitement in an otherwise deadly dull and predictable situation.
But, it's not the case here. After the worst winter I can remember working at Blunsdon we really were in doubt as to whether the season could get the go ahead on time.
Months of snow, frost and rain had wreaked havoc with our winter plans and left the stadium looking a very sad and sorry affair.
An enlarged team met on 25th February, our numbers augmented by Dave Whiting, who used a day's holiday to come along in the rain and sleet to help us with our work.
The main element of the work was finishing the kick boarding on the main straight and trying to tidy up the place in readiness for a planned "Behind Closed Doors" practice session for the team on the 7th March. In the event, that session had to be cancelled because, at the time, we could see no way that we could get a track together and ready in time.
More heavy rain in the days before and a freezing cold wind made working conditions difficult.
An added problem that we soon discovered was that concrete footings for lighting stanchions, the start gate and various other building works on the other side of the safety fence had been allowed to drift over and into the speedway track. In order to put the new kickboards down we had to spend the most of the morning on hands and knees hammering out this concrete with a hammer and chisel - not the ideal way to work.
While Roy, Dave, Mark and I toiled away on the kickboards, Punch and Mick Hunt were putting up netting on the fence above turn 3. This will attempt to stop members of the public from edging backwards and falling over the wall into the pits' car park, whilst also shielding the stadium from some of the wind that blasts through from that quarter of the arena. It might also deflect some of the sound of racing motorbikes away from the houses that are two hundred yards or so away.
The fence has also been brought round to delineate the newly enlarged tractor and equipment area on turn 3 which is in use during meetings.
But the track still looks desperate. The rain has turned the surface into sludge and then has sunk down into the base. The frost then gets into the base and breaks it up, allowing more of it to turn to slime. Walking on the track is hazardous enough - you wouldn't want to ride a bike on it.
So bad is it that all equipment is kept off the surface. Our only hope is that we can have a week of fine weather and some frost free nights.
The afternoon is spent working on the surface of the pits' car park. Like everywhere else, it has been badly damaged by the winter weather. We've held off doing anything to it for so long but time is upon us and we resort to several lorry loads of motorway scalpings. It's old tarmac that has been ripped up in readiness for new surface material.
The lorries come and go and soon we have sufficient to allow us to spread it out, filling on the holes and providing a reasonable surface.
Ron takes the motorway blade while Punch and I ready the small blade behind one of the tractors.
After and hour or so of moving the scalpings around we have a reasonable surface, although it could do with a a good rolling before it is completely ready for use.
In the pits Mark Sealey has one of his young bricklayers building up some new block walls in bays we no longer use. The advent of the new away pit area last year meant that at least two bays in the old away pits were no longer in use. They have now been blocked in and will be used as much needed secure storage space for our equipment.
One week on and it's still bitterly cold but there's been no rain! 4th March and now just one week to Press and Practice.
Once again, our numbers have been increased by track staff taking days off work to come and help. This week, in addition to Ron, Punch, Mark, Arron and Roy we have Rex Woodruffe, Bob Cook, Dave Whiting and Paul Gibbs.
The first task is to prepare for the first of two loads of new shale. The shale bay is ready but the "cherry picker" van refuses to start. We have to jump it with a new battery and, at long last, it splutters into life amid a cloud of acrid grey smoke.4
Our first shale load has come all the way from Edinburgh.
With Punch's help, the lorry driver expertly manoeuvres the vast truck load into place on one side of the shale bay that we have improved over the winter.
This load weighs in at nearly 30 tons and we wait while the truck begins to lift to see what this magical material is really like.
The answer is that it is red, very red. Quite a throw back to my early days of speedway watching when all tracks were this colour.
The driver edges forward to deposit the vast load evenly across one side of the bay. On first impression it's quite a gritty mix and doesn't bind in the hand. However, several "experts" assure us that it's a magical mix that works really well when rain is likely.
But my main work for the morning is with Gavin from Janair. Gavin is responsible for manufacturing and servicing many of the air fences in use in the UK. He's come down to take a look at our rather aging fence and to carry out some repairs to our present stock.
We inflate each turn and then walk along listening out for leaks ... and there are a number. We have to gauge the extent of the holes and whether they are in places where a repair is possible. In some cases seams have split where three of four layers of canvas meet and it is simply not possible to effect a repair without taking the whole bag apart and re-assembling it.
In the end we find four bags that need immediate repair work and I set about patching a further 3. We will still need three air pumps for the long stretch on turns 1 and 2 with two each on turns 3 and 4.
Fortunately, we have 6 fully functioning air pumps but the 7th is in a poor state and Paul Gibbs spends some time working on it. Our old friend Bob Crowther has decided to hang up his overalls after 47 years working at the track. Bob has been an invaluable member of the team and I will miss his cheery demeanor and his friendship. How he has kept the air pumps going as long as they have is beyond me. Cheers mate!
Gavin takes two air bags away with him to repair over the weekend and we have no option but to scrap one air bag that is in such bad state of repair that it cannot be salvaged.
While we work away with the air fence, Bob and Punch are clearing out the area that we unearthed in the depths of winter. It was a dumping ground of some years standing round the back of the greyhound kennels. Using the new tractor with a tipper and the old tractor and the small blade, they tidy up the surface and deposit all the excess material behind the walls that we put up. Bob's exuberance with the bucket is tempered when he misjudges the tip of the bucket as he lifts the arms and succeeds only in covering the tractor with soil and debris. After a clean down with the pressure washer he's soon back in action.
While we haul air bags in and out of the repair shop that we've set up in the pits, Steve Masters delivers Ron's van back to him. Gone is the orange, replaced now by a magnificent paint and art work job in red and Robins colours, advertising the Robins for all to see.
Early afternoon is dominated by a second delivery of material for the track. The delivery note describes this material as "speedway dirt" and it is very different from the red shale that arrived earlier. This is a "browny grey" colour and appears to have a much heavier clay content - it binds in the fist and retains its shape.
We had some of this material towards the end of last season and were surprised at how hard a surface it gave and how smooth it was. Sadly, this load is very wet and telephone calls ensue about how much water we have paid for! Fortunately the situation is resolved amicably and we complete the work by covering over the shale with tarpaulins.
Out on the banking near the end of the back straight yet another lighting pole is being prepared. We've been joined by Richie, our electrician. He works with Paul Gibbs to attach two vast lights that we hope will illuminate a significant area of the terracing that has hitherto been distinctly dark at night.
But one of the party is missing! We haven't seen Roy Hicks for some time. I track him down in the home changing room where he has spent all day priming new kickboards in a delicate shade of grey.
Thank goodness neither of us smokes - the fumes are simply stunning! Come to think of it, I'm sure his speech was slurred when I chatted with him later on.
But as the sun sets and we begin to meander off home, the whole project seems to be coming together. The fence stands reasonably well and the track has been transformed by good, drying weather and an awful lot of grading.
Paul, Richie and I stay on to try and breathe some life into the new lights on the back straight. I can't work out why we can't power these lights from the stadium supply but apparently that's not possible so we look at using a generator.
Darkness falls, as does the temperature. The first generator fails to elicit more than a flicker. The second one, a great beast of a generator that is a real back breaker, lights up the twin lamps and soon half of the back straight is bathed in a gentle light easily sufficient to read a programme with.
7.00pm and time to head home. A hard day's work but a satisfying one.
The Saturday working parties have been extended to take in this coming Saturday. Hopefully we'll have a fine morning and be ready for next week when the bikes return to the Abbey.
