This ended up going off topic a little and a bit of a ramble,sorry.
Another thing about speedway is that it is a little like football in so much as the teams represent a home track,Rye ,Reading, Coventry,Ipswich where ever. But the fans follow the Team as opposed to the individual rider,except when it come to Grand Prix or Individual Championships and such like.
Consider the location of the tracks,Rye is an exception when I say this for obvious reasons,most Karting tracks are a little way out of town whereas "most" Speedway tracks are within reasonably built up areas and generally on a bus route and even interested teens can get there under their own steam.
Look at the short tracks /ovals ( "speedway tracks") in the USA,like Costa Mesa, they are again close to town and in many cases double up for running midget racer cars or KART races with up to 8 karts. Both types of racing are well attended and some of these guys go NATIONAL.
Maybe if we could turn back the clock to the early days of karting and establish tracks within towns it may be acceptable but to try and do it now would be an impossibility sadly. Dunkeswells recent court case is proof of that.
Speedway has historically been the second highest attendance for a spectator sport since the 1930s because it grabbed peoples attention,was exciting and probably because it was a little dangerous.
It's image today is a bit more glamorous and people will travel half way round the globe to ride for a "good" club, when I was a teenager I was coached by Ivan Mauger a Kiwi and Ole Olsen a Dane, and that was before the influx of the short trackers from the states and the eastern European guys. Belle Vue ( Manchester ) was purpose built with a 40,000 capacity,which on some nights was AT capacity. The Millenium Stadium in Cardiff has a capacity 74,000+ and drew a crowd of 41,250 (ish) for it's first ever Grand Prix I forget the number for the second one they ran but i know it was higher.
When spectators stand up close to the fence ,smell the Methanol ,get a gob full of shale, feel the pulse of the exhaust note in their ears and close enough to almost touch the bikes then they know why it's got the edge on some other motorsports.
Unfortunately I think it is too late for bringing karting to the masses except through TV. But that hasn't got the same "feel"
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