15/01/2024
Apologies, this is a lengthy read…………..
Hi everyone, and a very happy new year to you all.
Mid November last year saw us bring the curtain down on the 2023 season for Ride n Slide Dayz with a fabulous, pretty much perfect day at Iwade, home of the Kent Royals. The track, the weather & the group were simply awesome and with the amazing RnS team on absolutely top form it was a great way to close the season. As always it was great to see some returning faces as well as meeting and working with some for the very first time. The level of effort put in by everyone was just off the scale and a personal highlight for me was seeing the massive progress made by British Youth Championship rider Ellis Newell since he was last with us, the time spent out in Poland clearly paying huge dividends.
The day also gave the chance for the team to take to the track and put in some well deserved laps, I also got to fulfil a lifelong ambition in the process so it was win-win-win all round. It was also really special to take to the track with Graham Wilson, my team mate in the Arena Essex Junior Hammers, Southern Junior League Champions side of 1987, truly rolling back the years !
2023 as a whole was a disappointing one, some of it you couldn’t have made up ! We lost two of our three July events to waterlogged tracks only to have one, rearranged for August lost to the rain too !! Maybe this global warming is a ‘thing’ after all.
Sadly, this was a major factor in us taking the decision to call time on Ride n Slide Dayz. We went into 2023 with lots of positivity and enthusiasm only to be hit by a triple whammy within the first few months. Firstly, Oxford, despite early signs of interest expressed no interest of hosting us at all, secondly, Mildenhall, one of our regular venues for over ten years wanted to increase the track hire cost by 50% making it our most expensive track cost ever, higher than Coventry, King’s Lynn, Peterborough and Wolverhampton, so that wasn’t happening and then the icing on the cake was the news that Wolverhampton were to be ousted from Monmore Green, just one year after our first ever events there !! Coupling this with no imminent sign of speedway returning to either Eastbourne or Rye House, and Belle Vue continuing to care more about any Tom, Dick or Harry who happens to own a speedway bike than their own fans that keep the club running, turning up week in, week out, we have simply run out of tracks to make up a varied and viable schedule, so after thirteen fabulous years, over 150 events across 12 tracks and over 2500 customers our journey has reached its conclusion.
I must say the biggest of thanks to everyone that has hosted us over the years, Gerry and the late Michael Facenna at Glasgow, Chris Van Straaten at Wolverhampton, Mark Phillips at Plymouth, Graham Arnold at Iwade and Stewart Dickson at Leicester for all hosting us last season. For previous seasons our eternal thanks to Mick Horton @ Coventry, Buster Chapman @ King’s Lynn, Torben & Ole Olsen @ Cardiff, Ged Rathbone/Laurence Rogers @ Peterborough, Len Silver/Ricky Musk @ Rye House, the late Jon Cook @ Lakeside, Ashley Taylor, previous owner @ Plymouth, Kevin Jolly, Michael Lee and Chris Louis our original hosts @ Mildenhall, Trevor Geer @ Eastbourne and all of their awesome staff who looked after us at our events, to name just a few who went over and above anything we could have wished for, Andy Hill (Leicester), Chris Adamson & Neil Carmichael (Glasgow), Gerald Richter (Lakeside & Rye House) Ken Driscoll (Rye House) and of course Terry the Track at Coventry. I must also thank Alun Rossiter & Lee Kilby for all their efforts in trying to secure dates for us at Swindon, then they went and closed the stadium and to Neil Middleditch & Matt Ford for their efforts in trying to secure dates for us at Poole, unfortunately the stadium owners just didn’t want to play ball, but just the fact that you tried on our behalf means a great deal.
Their simply are no words to say how much we have appreciated everyone’s support over the years, from the fabulous Ride n Slide team members, every single one an absolute hero, all of those who have taken to the track with us and especially those who have entrusted their loved ones to us, riding a motorcycle with no brakes in a confined space !! Often the first time ever on a motorcycle of any kind !! (I’m really not sure quite how I could have sold it to those on Dragon’s Den !!)
We are also beyond proud to have played a small part in creating five professional speedway riders, Alex Spooner, William Richardson, Kai Ward, Alec Wright and the late & very much great Danny Ayres. We very much hope that in the next few years we can add young Ellis to that list too, he definitely has the potential to go all the way.
Well the large lady is now singing so that’s me done, thank you all for your continued interest over the years, it’s been an absolute blast !!
All the very best and Take care
