Robert Stanley Kilby : 556 appearances for the Robins, scoring 4192 points plus 234 bonus. 68 Maximums (59 full and 9 paid). Swindon born and bred, Bob was a legend at Blunsdon and a respected figure throughout the speedway world. Quiet and unassuming, he made his first appearance in a Robins race jacket on 16th May 1964. Bob retired in 1983, although he did ride again in a special challenge match in 1988. His sudden death in 2009 at the age of 68 shocked everyone. That he is to be remembered in a memorial meeting at the start of Swindon seasons is a great gesture.
So no pressure then! After the worst winter any of us can remember in terms of speedway track preparation, we open with arguably the biggest meeting of the year at Swindon, a 23 heat monster featuring some of the finest riders in the world (but no Rune!).
The weather forecast for Thursday 18th March was not propitious - clear and bright in the morning but with rain coming in from the south west and spreading across the whole region by the evening.
But we live in hope and have been caught out by erroneous weather forecasts in the past so we set to work early.
The first task is to inflate the air fences and that means getting the air pumps set up around the perimeter of the track. Mark Price and I load the Ford van and set off. But progress is painfully slow, in fact with his foot flat on the accelerator I can walk faster that Mark can drive. ob Cook and Paul Gibbs had fitted a limiter on the throttle a couple of weeks ago and it seems to have slipped. The engine now appears to run on tick over, so getting up the slope by turn 1 is a major problem.
Back in the pits Mark and I try to correct the problem. He looks as if he knows what he's doing (I just stand around and try make intelligent comments and responses). We find out that the limiter has indeed slipped. Enter the "humble cable tie". By pulling on the throttle cable and tieing it to the (whatever it's called) we can get back some of the mind numbing power that the Ford is capable of. Smug and satisfied with our handiwork, we set to inflating the air panels.
Punch is in fence making mood. So pleased is he by his fence work up on turn 3, he has decided to erect a new fence on turn 4 to create a permanent viewing area for riders, mechanics and team members (now that Health and Safety have decreed that no-one must stand at the entrance to the pits during racing).
The sky is starting to darken and the early morning sunshine has now disappeared.
With the main fence up and inflated, Mark and I take out the spare panels and inflate them on the centre green. After a good cleaning we carry out a careful inspection of the surfaces and locate a number of holes and cracks that will need repair.
We use patches of the material and a heavy duty contact adhesive to bring about the repairs. It is quite time consuming but nevertheless satisfying job - each hole patched means less air loss.
I am satisfied that we have three good spare panels and a spare gate panel that will do a job in an emergency.
We are caught on the horns of a dilemma - The clouds are building up from the west but the track is drying out quite quickly. If we don't water and it doesn't rain then we'll have a dust bowl and the surface will break up and ruin the racing for everyone, assuming that anyone could actually see through the brown dust clouds. But, if we water and it rains then we may hasten a postponement, and no one wants that.
Our hand is forced by a brisk breeze that is now drying the surface too much - we have to water.
Mark and I set out with the small Kubota tractor and the water truck to pressure wash the boards. All goes well until a lissome young lady runs across, asking if we could turn off the pressure washer for a few minutes so that Charlie Webster could complete a "piece de camera" for the preview programme for Sky Sports forthcoming coverage of the 2010 season.
It seems to take for ever (and I will be interested to view the programme to see how long the piece is) but eventually we are given the thumbs up to get started again. Sadly, while Mark and I are ready, the pressure washer isn't. A pathetic little stream of water emits from the end of the nozzle. Disgusted, we return to the pits.
We are greeted by a flood of almost biblical proportions. Someone's left a pump running in one of the water tanks and the overflow is fast filling up the parking area used by the grey hound people. Out on track the shale is wet and little sticky - if we don't get any rain from now on we should be OK.
Those of you who have read the blog over the closed season will know that the quality of food consumed in number 96 has risen exponentially. Ron's love of cooking has led us on a gastronomic journey around the world recently and has attracted a number of fans, including brother Terry and cousin Wayne, who joined us for a meal over the winter.
Obviously, with his new role as team manager taking up far more time, especially on a Thursday race day, Ron has had to curtail his culinary delights, and we were in danger of resorting to Punch's door stop sandwiches and Ginster's range of meat pies.
But no ... in a gesture much appreciated by the day time track staff, Terry and Wayne have agreed to order and then stop off and collect fish and chips on their way down to the track.
The first "Fish and Chip" session was on the Thursday of the original staging of the Kilby meeting and we used the new dining carriage to enjoy a hearty meal. Above, from left: Punch, Wayne Russelll (standing), Mark Price, Terry Russell, Ron and Mick Hunt.
But the weather is closing in. Mark and I try to clean the boards but are driven in by a combination of Charlie Webster and her Sky Preview and showers.
It's all action in the pits. Above left Nicki Pedersen's bikes are readied. Alongside him is the ever likeable Sebastian Ulamek (calm down, Flo). It's some time since he rode regularly for us, but Seba always stops for a chat although whether he made his regulation visit to see our Flo, the track physio, I don't know.
Further along we find Andy Smith in deep conversation with Phil Crump and one of Jason's mechanics while our new number 7, Swede Thomas H Jonasson poses proudly in his new Robins jacket.
Further up the home pits Leigh Adams, Jason Crump and Morten Risager exchange views on all matters speedway, occasionally stopping to peer out at the increasingly dismal scene of rain and dark clouds.
It really doesn't look good.
In one of the old Away pits Emil Sayfutdinov and Hans Andersen shelter in a bay alongside young Cory Gathercole.
Graham Reeve steps out onto the track but at 6.30 we all know that it just isn't going to happen. The corners are fine, the banking and hard surfacing not allowing any surface water to settle, but the straights are beginning to puddle and the rain falling will lead to limited visibility. Graham is more than happy with everything that he's seen of our work but postpones the meeting.
As fans, riders and mechanics make their way out of the stadium the track staff have to dismantle everything on it. The blue catch netting comes down first and then all the pins are removed that keep the air panels upright against the safety fence are removed.
Now we have to battle with the 42 large sized banners (the wrap over type that caused such problems last year). It took 6 of us over 2 frustrating hours to put them all up properly, and now they have to be taken down, folded and returned to the pits.
And still it rains.
With the banners off, we deflate the air panels and collect the 7 air pumps in the Ford van. Now the centre green advertising boards have to be removed and stored. The gate panel to the pits is dragged off to the pits and all the tools are stored away.
The last task is to drag the enormously heavy and cumbersome petrol generator from one end of the pits complex, where it has been used to prove light to the "Graveyard" car park and the pits lane, down to the lock up near the greyhound kennels.
It took us 6 hours to put it all up and a further 2 soaking hours to put it away, with enhanced numbers. We are wet and a little fed up that some members of the staff have slipped away in the belief, no doubt, that some magical force will tidy everything away.
And the rain off means that we're back again on Sunday for the re-staging.
Thursday's rain was followed by more torrential downpours on Friday and Saturday but Sunday dawns bright and the forecast is more positive.
We gather at 8.30am but have to spend the first frustrating two hours working in the pits because the track is simply too wet to take any vehicles - the tyre would rip away at the sodden shale.
I spend the time making repairs while others check the set ups on the tractors, making sure that blades and graders are correctly set.
When we do take the large tanker out onto the track it is still very marginal but we all agree that we need to get the air fence inflated as soon as possible to allow any sun there is to dry out the areas of shale close to the fence and, at the moment, hidden under the folds of the panels.
But before we can inflate we have to remove all of the rain water that has accumulated in the folds of the air panels. It takes over a minute per bag to suck off all the water with a giant hose attached to the pump in the tanker and it is back breaking work. Bob Cook drives the tanker slowly from bag to bag while Keith Johnson and I take it in turns to "hoover" up the rain water. If we simply inflated we would end up pouring in excess of 500 gallons of water across the track unevenly, and it is that unevenness that we must avoid at all costs. Uneven watering leads to potential break up of the surface of a track, differing track conditions for the riders to cope with and a commensurate loss of quality racing.
In the photograph above left you can see a shiny patch where water is seeping off the waterlogged dog track and out across the shale. We can't avoid this but we can avoid flooding the track with the rain water from the bags.
Over an hour later we end the pumping and begin to inflate. The new red shale from Edinburgh looks good but the track is still very wet. Our challenge today is to keep the very top surface damp while not making the lower levels any wetter than they already are. We need that top material to bind in but we can't allow lower levels to turn to sludge.
But the old place looks good. The track is very smooth and hard - the smoothness somehow making the entrance and exit from turn 1 seem even larger than ever.
Clouds are high and a wan sun is showing, so, satisfied with our efforts, we make our way back to number 96 where we meet up with a guest.
Ashley Holloway, pictured above left with track staff stalwarts Bob Cook and Steve Bradford, is the son of Malcolm Holloway and now an esteemed engine tuner responsible for equipping riders such as Emil Sayfutdinov, Hans Andersen, Cory Gathercole and others with some of the fastest engines in speedway.
Based in Poland, he is over in the UK staying at his dad's pub, the Jovial Monk, just round the back of the stadium. The postponement has meant that he's stayed locally since Thursday and has popped up to the track to see about conditions and help to provide Emil, who has never ridden at Blunsdon, with a few hints and tips.
A very likeable and down to earth sort of guy, Ashley talks about his engine tuning business and keeps us informed of the progress of another of our favourite engine tuners, ex Robins star Brian Karger. In comparison to Karger's enormous output of speedway engines, Ashley's is rather more conservative. He is friends with Flemming Graverson, who does Rune's engines and it appears that the controversial twin cam that Rune has been experimenting with over the last three years has finally reached the end of its life.
We also get a fascinating insight into the life and background of young Emil, but more of that in a later blog.
The first part of the afternoon is taken up with the new banners. 42 in all! 20 of those are Pontins banners, displayed at the entry and exit of each turn. The old idea of holding down these enormous sail like banners with velcro has been consigned to the bin marked "nice idea but it doesn't work." We now have a series of eyelets along the top side and velcro on the bottom. We first velcro the bottom to the velcro on the rubber kickboard at the bottom of the fence and then roll the banner upwards before fixing it firmly to the safety fence behind the air panel with bungy clips./ These pull the banners tightly down and prevent wind from getting underneath them. It is a long and slow process but if we have to have them, we must make sure that they are secure and safe.
One factor that does become clear is that we will not have time to replace banners during meetings - we will have to devise a method of keeping them clean as the racing progresses - but more of our cunning plans in a later blog.
Late afternoon and all is ready. The weather has held off and our light misting of the surface shale has kept the track looking really good.
As the riders gather again, we spend time adjusting the arms that support blades and graders at the back of the tractors. We will be employing our new grading regime this evening and that depends upon the orange blade that we use being set in such a way that it can be left down throughout an entire lap of the track - no more lowering and lifting. Adjustable arms allow us to to set the height precisely but sadly one arm is locked in position and needs considerable work to prise it loose.
After a short briefing meeting for all the track staff about the new regime, we make our way out onto the track.
The new system is complex. It has been agreed that we will not pull back from the corners during the meeting except during the interval. During gradings after heats 4, 8, 12, 20 and 22, we will clear all the shale away from the kickboards on the straights, pulling it out so the blade can pick it up cleanly and re-distribute it around the track.
During the interval after heat 16 we all try to clear the boards around the air fence.
In actual fact the clearing of the kick boards works well but the build up of material on the air fence proves more problematical, as does trying to keep the banners clean. But we have some solutions to try out next week during a normal 15 heat meeting.
The track rides well, although Emil does get frighteningly close to the air fence whenever he rides around turns 3 and 4. Nicki P reckons it's a marvelous surface and that all tracks should be prepared like that while Jason says it's one of the smoothest he's ever come across.
A fill report on the meeting can be found via this link :
It's been a mixed bag for the track staff. We do have issues to address about the new track regime and we need to sort out a more even distribution of tasks, but it was an extraordinary meeting and we have learned. Now we can look forward to the visit of bookies' favourites Poole in a Challenge match before the the cut and thrust of Elite League racing begins.
To Ash and Emil - good to see you. To Jack Cox's dad, who asked when this edition would be published whilst we were at rugby yesterday, I hope this one is OK.
