I need to put the record straight regarding the guys who were operating the Speedway - turns out that one of them belongs to the family that used to travel with this very ride, and he knows the machine inside-out. He's shown the others how to run the machine, so those operators are probably the best-trained in how to run the machine itself.
Having said that, my comment about encouraging the younger riders to wave their hands in the air doing a "hand jive" still stands, and I still don't think that their "everyone in a chariot" rides gave a particularly good impression.
I have been lucky enough to operate a similar ride myself, and I know just how big a difference in the ride experience comes about by moving the regulator one notch above the "recommended maximum" - which for that ride was only half-way around the regulator dial.