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The five-page interview with Rob Godfrey in this week's Speedway Star certainly provides food for thought. Firstly, we can only take what we see quoted at face value and perhaps he said more which couldn't be included for space reasons. Benefit of the doubt. While I don't profess to know his background or what he does or doesn't do for the sport today, I've never spoken to the man, there are a number of points raised that I'd like to respond to and are worthy of further critical analysis (sorry to waffle on and hope you stay awake till the end!: SEMI-PRO OR AMATEUR? Rob alludes to, if not quite advocates, the idea of British speedway becoming semi-pro in the future, which (as I suggested in another recent BSF thread) it needs to do NOW in the short-term if it is to survive with any credibility left. He effectively spells it out just why this is the case when referring to the recent demise of Championship treble winners Workington. And the nail is well and truly smashed on the head in a separate, much smaller, item in the same issue of the Star in which Workington promoter Laura Morgan reveals that running the second tier club has cost her around £750,000 in total and that another injection of £75,000 would be required simply to run this year, when Comets would surely expect to incur at least the same loss, if not more given how hard it would be to repeat their 2018 triple. Later in the piece, Rob cites his own Josh Auty as one rider who "seems to make it pay" competing only in one league. If Auty can, who don't many others? As long as promoters keep paying them collectively more than what turnstiles and sponsorship income, they will continue to spend (waste?) money on expensive machinery, engine tuning, mechanics and fancy transport. Only the promoters can stop this happening. FULL-TIME PROMOTERS The question of professional promoters is a double-edged sword. Rob says that of the modern day regime, "not one of us needs to do it". Therein lies one problem: rightly or wrongly, they are not running their clubs on a full-time, 24/7 basis and don't depend on the sport for a living - unlike the likes of Fearman, Ochiltree, Silver, Dunton, Wilson, Thomas, Mawdsley, etc in days gone by. It was their livelihood - yes, of course, there were less counter-attractions competing for fans' money and - but they still had to work hard for it. For many (if not all) of today's ilk, speedway is a hobby they can indulge (for a while at least) to feed their egos. Unfortunately, the sport in Britain has been denigrated so much over the years that there is no turning back. COUNTING THE COST Rob reveals that winning the league (Div 2) in 2012 cost Scunthorpe 30 grand, suggesting Sheffield probably paid a similar price in their pursuit of honours. Later, he gives Glasgow as a prime example of a club that has the slickest PR machine in the country . . . yet still cannot attract sufficient crowds to meet their running costs. This, in itself, tells you all you need to know about promoters over-paying riders. The sums just don't add up. Yes, of course, riders deserve to be paid handsomely for the risks they take. But no business will survive, long-term, if it continues to ignore the basic rules of life: don't pay out more than you can afford. COMPARING THE PAST As for Rob's line about speedway today being "far, far better than it ever was", provocatively reproduced on the Star's front cover, I reckon thousands of our customers at Retro Speedway would vehemently disagree! To be fair, Rob is duty bound to promote his club and modern speedway in general, and in doing tries to discredit the past and (to paraphrase Harold Macmillan) convince his punters that "you've never had it so good". So we must assume that he never had the privilege of enjoying the likes of great entertainers such as Peter Collins, Chris Morton, the Morans, Bruce Penhall, Michael Lee, Ole Olsen, Jan O. Pedersen, Simon Cross, Malcolm Simmons, Mark Loram (started in 1987) . . . the list really is endless and I've not even mentioned the innumerable BL2/National League favourites who thrilled the crowds week in, week out. If he was talking about the Grand Prix, compared to the old and long-winded World Championship qualifying system, I'd be inclined to agree. The GPs routinely serve up tremendous entertainment and invariably top quality racing, where riders of equal ability are well matched. But comparing the GPs with the Elite League matches I've seen on telly is more often than not chalk and cheese. Riders strung out by half-a-lap isn't entertainment, nor any sort of advert for domestic speedway. From what we read, the point Rob doesn't seem to grasp here is that the days of a reserve or middle order man popping out of the gate and holding a world class rider at bay for all four laps are long gone and now rarer than a truthful MP. Speed, and the riders' unquenchable thirst for it, has helped kill the sport as a spectacle, although here the promoters of the mid-70s must shoulder a lot of blame for failing to nip the four-valve revolution in the bud before it sent costs spiralling out of control and that's where we are today. PROMOTING - HIGHLIGHTS PACKAGE I was encouraged to read of the BSPA's plans for a revamped website with hopes to include free-to-air matches. In the same issue I read that Poland will be airing a magazine-style show every Monday. So it begs the question: why haven't the BSPA done a deal with Go-Speed and all the individual DVD filming companies covering the tracks to put together, say, a weekly 30-minute show showcasing the past week's highlights, complemented by interviews with promoters and riders on current topics and burning issues? Would not a sufficient number of fans not be prepared to pay a nominal 50p or £1 per week throughout the season to cover production costs? The show could be offered as a download from the BSPA site with the same show being uploaded to YouTube a week later (if it hit YT at the same time, there would obviously be no point in paying the small sub). For obvious reasons, these edited highlights would not include any from 'live' BT Sport matches. British speedway desperately needs to harness its relationship with BT Sport if it is to have any hope of attracting a national sponsor, or backers for each of the three divisions (alas, Rob did not mention this failure on the BSPA's part). The BSPA already has the ideal experienced and knowledgeable anchor man/presenter on its pay roll in Nigel Pearson, while two or three of the best people producing DVDs could be tasked to edit the best action clips and interviews. Reality is, though, a weekly highlights download via the BSPA site or uploaded to YouTube probably won't attract one new supporters, especially a youngster who can't take his or her eyes off their smart phone for more than a few seconds. This will sound crazy to some, but promoters' priority should be to do all they can to KEEP their existing supporter base and TRY to win back those who have been disenfranchised over the part 10 years. Forget chasing new, young fans . . . speedway just doesn't cut it with them and very probably never will again. So forget them for now and focus all energies on keeping what you have and winning back the old faithful with fresh ideas, well prepared tracks and a professionally run sport. Only last week we at Retro Speedway were delighted to take on five new subscribers to our bi-monthly Backtrack magazine. OK, five in a matter of days is really nothing. But not in the context of where British speedway is now it isn't. They are five people who enjoyed reliving past memories but are now engaging with the sport again. Facebook is the biggest factor in this: whether you personally log on to FB or not and regardless of your personal preferences (FB, forum or Twitter), more and more of the older generation are signing up to Facebook's social media platform to 'chat' to kindred spirits - and that is where the BSPA should be looking to re-recruit former fans who might be tempted back into stadiums. This is where they will find their target audience. SOCIAL MEDIA Rob again uses Glasgow as his best example of a club that does social media very well. But he is wrong to excuse others clubs for not emulating them, or even going close to doing so, by using costs as an excuse. Having a good mate who runs a successful non-league football club, I can confirm that a good promo video was produced for them for as little as £750 . . . or, to put it another way, the equivalent of what some riders in UK speedway earn in one night. Running good Twitter and Facebook platforms is very inexpensive - all that's needed are the right people to manage and execute it to an acceptably professional standard and who have the imagination to offer what supporters should expect from these services. DOUBLING-UP, GUESTS AND RACE FORMAT While Rob was of course asked about how the rampant use of guests and doubling-up does untold harm to the sport's image, he dismisses very lightly the suggestion that the problems would be eased by cutting team numbers from seven to six and adopting a new heat formula (six-man teams have been used in the past). Am I missing something here? British speedway doesn't have enough riders of a certain minimum standard to staff its three leagues, and yet the hierarchy blindly sticks with seven-man teams even though virtually every club in the land is inevitably soon forced into calling up guests and doubling-up riders. Rob admits: "We don't have a big enough crop of riders without doubling-up, which is what causes all the problems". We know what the problems are, Rob. What we desperately need from people like you who govern and run the sport are solutions and ideas. Six-man teams (even in the short-term, until the young Brits coming up are up to scratch in a few years' time) won't eradicate the needs for guests, R/R and doubling-up but surely it's a no-brainer as at least a starting point . . . or please tell me why it isn't? What disillusions me more than anything when I read comments from promoters in the wake of another BSPA AGM is the chronic lack of ideas and innovation. I mean, why aren't one or two competitions run on slightly different formats and rules? Where's the variety - if not in terms of team numbers, then at least in competition formats? Even the rightly much-maligned England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) had the gumption to realise that fans needed more than a staple diet of four-day Championship games and the sport has generally reaped the benefit of introducing two DIFFERENT limited-overs formats, the 50-over one-day league and T20 knockout comp, which are replicated in all major cricketing countries. I'd like to see a promoter come up with something a bit radical and off the wall. Put on a 16 or 20-heat meeting that embraces different sections: team racing and individual events; perhaps throw in a couple of match-races (Golden Helmet & Silver Helmet - remember them?); a few handicap races where the top riders start off the back grid; a 4-heat 250cc juniors event; maybe even a ladies' race (look how much national publicity is afforded to women's football and cricket at domestic and international level ). Indeed, why not run the KO Cup along these lines for a season on an experimental basis? Supporters might actually look forward to attending, because it's DIFFERENT. But with British speedway, it's the tired, predictable same old, same old. Lots of ongoing, familiar problems, very few solutions.

NOT saying whether I agree or disagree with Rob's comments and am certainly not generally a fan of decisions made by the BSPA, but ... without people like Rob, funding speedway tracks that for the most part are not even profitable, there would be no speedway. And with regards to Scunthorpe... he created one of the best tracks in the country and if racing was good elsewhere the sport might not have some of the problems it does today. Just saying ...

Bournemouth echo??

Then let's agree to disagree. Forget atmosphere, crowd levels, publicity, sponsors, national media coverage, relative lack of counter-attractions, and all the other things that the 70s and 80s had going for them, I will never accept that the GENERAL standard of racing in British speedway today is superior, or even close to being on a par with, what it was in the 70s and 80s. They really are planets apart. It's not even an argument. You could argue that the wider availability of good quality shale very much helped contribute to the entertainment value back in the day. But whatever it was, BL and NL racing, the actual excitement factor, was far superior - IN GENERAL - than what the Elite & Championship leagues produce today. End of.

I'll have to read the piece in full later today before commenting but his throwaway line (used as a pull quote) along the lines of today's racing being much better than it was in the 60s, 70s & 80s certainly raised an eyebrow here. He obviously never saw PC - to name just one - in his prime.

I agree. But the SS should be more objective and seriously question Godfrey on what he was saying. For what it’s worth my opinion is the sooner Godfrey and his mate Chapman get out of speedway the better. The sport will not improve under their pathetic ‘leadership’, they have presided over the worse period for sport in decades and are running the sport into the ground. I’ve been to Scunthorpe to watch the Tigers on many occasions and can not get over what dump the ‘stadium’ and ‘track’ are a disgrace to speedway. Most fans I speak and listen to say Godfrey is self serving and full of his own importance. I can not understand why the other promoters put up with them. For the good and future of speedway they should be booted out and quick. We’ve had enough.

Dead easy to cut down the number of guests. Each team to have a NL (2.00) no. 8. Guest for your number 1 only. R/R for nos. 2 to 5. If both teams are using R/R then your highest reserve is promoted into the team and your no. 8 takes his reserve spot.

Hopefully the majority of fans who go to support their team, don't visit this forum. All this negativity is no good for our sport. The simple answer is. Back Speedway or lose it.

The racing then was different most sides had a In/out no1 some often had three good heat leaders and then the BL was the best.Also the tracks were more varied and they were all a different kind of test. You could do Wimbledon, on a Thursday, Hackney on a Friday and then the pacy Hyde Rd Belle Vue on a Saturday all different tests for a rider.Dont get me wrong i still love my speedway but not to the degree i used to.

Where did you watch speedway? Fans, at Belle Vue in particular, would no doubt disagree. To see PC and Mort in full flow, using all the mutliple lines Hyde Road offered to a genuine thinking racer, was a sight to behold. Ditto Hackney (my track), where Bengt Jansson, Barry Thomas, Bo Petersen, Dave Morton and Zenon Plech, routinely scored points from the back by using the throttle AND their brains to pass opponents. Ditto Sheffield, where the Morans would miss the gate and pick their way through the field, almost at will, when the Owlerton track was well prepared. Ditto at King's Lynn, where 'Mike the Bike' in his prime would usually outwit and pass any opponent quick enough to beat him from the start. Ditto.... at most tracks and fans of the old (Div 2) National League will bear me out here. Examples are endless. Yes, of course, there were a lot of predictable heats won from-the-gate back in the day. As there always will be. It's the nature of speedway. But, by and large, there were many more opportunities taken, especially in the pre-1975 four-valve era, for lesser lights to shine at the occasional expense of superstars. Not so now.

That is not the point he is making ..Thou racing is good it's not made the crowds come in ...it one of biggest myths about crowds and good racing . People need to feel like the match matters ..the problem is to most that feeling has gone .. Another myth is about racing being better in the old days ..it never was, most of the time is was poor just like today . When you have crowds and big names it always felt like the racing was better but really most the time it was gate and go .

Got no problem with transponders being used just not this Mickey Mouse qualifying system which some weeks some riders won't even be there to participate in

Started from scratch in 2005 & fixtures/buildings added when financially possible. Not a greyhound stadium leased for speedway & not council owned with millions thrown at it. Sheffield & Belle Vue, both your tracks, although slightly different, are "throttle on blast round" as you conveniently say.

The best racing I've seen on a week-to-week basis is at modern day Scunthorpe, so I understand Rob Godfrey's statement. If I'd have been privileged to watch racing on a weekly basis at Hyde Road in the 70s, maybe I'd disagree. To be honest, I don't think the racing is any better or any worse. The big difference is the atmosphere during meetings - that's not the same. And that's down to crowds being a fraction of what they were.

Neither Godfrey nor Chapman have the necessary "people" skills ( other than to collect "yes" men and women ). Neither of them is prepared to listen to views other than each other's and both see feedback from fans as an irritant. Cleary they are NOT "right" as both believe themselves to be. If they were, speedway would be capable of attracting - however slowly - a new generation of fans, There was little mention of marketing or promoting the sport and it does not seem important enough to either of them. They are woefully bereft of positive ideas of where to go next or how to achieve growth. Masses of words but little of value and very little decisive analysis of the real problems of UK speedway at present. The only part of this overlong outpouring I could agree with is that the future of sport here, is as a semi-pro - one big league and that is something that many fans have seen as inevitable for quite a while ( as long as Chapman and Godfrey have been at the helm! ), The silence of the Chairman is deafening. he failed to respond to the SS "crisis" issue, pre the last AGM and has said almost nothing else since.

If i run out of bog paper, i might find a need for his article.

totally agree its ridiculous that we haven't announced it yet! shambles from the management team if i'm being honest

I make it 22 weeks from the start of November until the first week in April before the first meeting of the 2019 season. That's plenty of time to get at least 30 decent news stories into the local media. I'm no comms expert but came up with this in 15 minutes, took me longer to type it out than think of it. If this was my job, it should be even easier. Now I'm sure some of this has been done but to be honest, the whole build up to this season has been so non-existent, speedway has hardly featured in my thoughts (and that off the back of a decent season). Might be off on some dates/timings but this is back of the fag packet stuff on a dull afternoon at work Not all of this is for the media but for things such as social media, keeping fans engaged and wanting more. Week 1: Determined to build on disappointment of last season, defiant message, we'll be back blah blah Week 2: Build up to the conference Week 3: Conference news, team manager thoughts, confirm pricing, season tickets etc. Ex-Young Stars and our assets getting rides in the Championship Week 4: Many team building options, looking at different riders blah blah. Hope to have signing news soon Week 5: Announce rider 1, thank Tru7 group for their sponsorship. Looking for new team sponsors/appeal to businesses to get involved etc etc Week 6: Announce rider 2 Week 7: Just before Xmas, push season tickets, merchandise etc as last minute gifts. Christmas present for fans with announcing rider 3 Week 8/9: Christmas period so lots of other stuff, taking people's attention. Do short sharp stuff. 12 days of Xmas (great old riders, race highlights, famous meetings, build up to announcing rider 4) Week 10: Announce rider 4, Week 11: Update from either rider 1, 2 or 3 on pre-season prep. Built up about training camps, equipment builds, hopes for the season. Ex-Young Star Josh Bailey being in Australia (future Star etc) Week 12: Announce rider 5. Have video footage from training camp (showing one or all of the 5 announced riders rather than p*****g most fans off by saying the team was there but we won't tell you who it is yet) Week 13: Update from rider 1, 2, 3 or 4 (not same one from Week 11) with the same kind of pre-season update. Week 14 (this week): Announce new team sponsor giving them full coverage for that week Week 15: Announce riders 6+7 (maybe reserve duo). All team announced and done now. Details of a fans forum/meet the team night before start of the season Week 16: Training camp update showing all the riders present Week 17: Team manager thoughts on pre-season prep. Got the team I really wanted, looking at team riding order, partners blah blah Week 18: New team logo with new sponsor, hint at racesuit design (if having them) Week 19: Announce team & vice captain/team bonding session update Week 20: Final pre-season round up, start to build the local derby meetings. We've been top dogs in East Anglia last few seasons etc etc, want that to continue (all good natured stuff but get people talking) Week 21: Press practice, fans and sponsors meet the team evening and then coverage and sound bites after the event Week 22: Build up to first meeting Tie in things like competitions for maybe a season ticket in conjunction with local media (KLFM, Free Paper, Lynn News) and should get you plenty of coverage. Team announced by mid Feb. Plenty of build up, bit of variety but mainly a speedway story of some sort every week from the end of the season to the start of the next.

Unfortunately the first of this season's State title meetings, the Queensland Championship at Maryborough Speedway had to be cancelled today (Nov.18, 2017) due to the weather. This event was scheduled to be re-staged at Maryborough Speedway on February 3. https://www.frasercoastchronicle.com.au/news/qld-sidecar-titles-cancelled-at-maryborough-speedw/3268904/ Other dates and venues for sidecar speedway championships 2017-18 in Australia are: Victorian Sidecar Championship (Jan.26, 2018) @ Olympic Park Speedway, Mildura Queensland Sidecar Championship (Feb.3, 2018) @ Maryborough Speedway was again cancelled / this event will not be restaged New South Wales Sidecar Championship (Feb. 10, 2018) @ Oakburn Park Speedway, Tamworth Western Australian Sidecar Championship (March 10, 2018) @ Pinjar Park Speedway, Perth South Australian Sidecar Championship (March 24, 2018) @ Gillman Speedway, Adelaide Oceania Sidecar Championship (March 31, 2018) @ Gillman Speedway, Adelaide F.I.M. Sidecar Speedway World Cup (April 1, 2018) @ Gillman Speedway, Adelaide Australian Sidecar Championship (April 13-14, 2018) @ Oakburn Park, Tamworth

I didn't realise how unfortunate Wolverhampton were at the time. I just wanted my team, Belle Vue, to win the match - and in doing so, the title. I'm talking about the 1993 season. Remember, that final showdown between Wolves and Belle Vue that decided the league winners, long before the hyped-up and often manipulated Play-offs. Although I was a keen Aces' fan at the time and got caught up in winning the title, I still felt sorry for the Wolves. But, just going through some mags from the season, I didn't quite realise the extent of Wolves' misfortune. They had been odds on favourites to win the title, all season, having a double-figure points lead much of the time. However, at the same time Belle Vue began registering their first league points on their travels - it was as late as August - Wolves had a terrible dousing of misfortunate sprinkled over them. Within two weeks of late August-early September, they suffered three injuries that would have finished most other teams. Middle-order rider Graham Jones was injured on August 21. That was six points a match gone. Then, 10 days later Charlie Ermolenko picked up arm injuries at Poole that also wrote off his season. Another six points were gone. But worse was to come. Twenty-four hours after the younger Ermolenko was crocked, Ronnie Correy, the number two, broke his back while riding in Sweden for Bysarna. His year was over - indeed, the injury meant he didn't race in 1994 either. That was almost another 10 points a match gone. Wolves should have been on the canvas and counted out. But they battled on. Obviously, the loss of over 20 points from three riders took its toll. Wolves lost five in a row and their title chase hit quicksand. Young Mikael Karlsson, for his first taste of British racing, and veteran Gordon Kennett, out in the cold after starting the year at Exeter, were introduced. Wolves battled on as the Aces clawed back the gap on the Midland side in an interesting end to the season that, in all reality, would have been all but over had the Monmore side remained untouched. Personally, I feel history would have been different and Wolves would have managed to hold on - but in their penultimate fixture, the final, cruellest blow came when Sam Ermolenko was injured and his year was through. It was the first race of Wolves home match with Bradford. Ermolenko, of course, was the best rider in the world and in domestic racing. It was his finest season. They had lost their kingpin, the World Champion, and did well just to hang on for a 56-52 win over the Dukes. Wolves went into the decider with Belle Vue four riders missing from the side that had brought them to within touching distance of their second title in three years. They borrowed Gustafsson from King's Lynn, and his paid 16 from six starts just wasn't enough to claim the draw (they lost by just a point, 53-54 ) which would have won the title for Wolves and denied Aces the dramatic last heat clincher. History would have been changed. Ermolenko, I'd have bet, would have roared to a maximum. He had scored the full 21 at Bradford before his injury. His presence in the team alone would have encouraged lesser men to cajole an extra point or two, maybe. But he was out with a broken thigh. Not only had Wolves lost three integral members of their side - numbers two, for and five, which otherwise they'd have coasted to the league, I believe they would have dragged out a win versus the Aces - and therefore been league kings - with Sam against the Aces. As it was, they won just thrice from their final 10 matches without their full side, and for the first time since 1979, the title had gone down to the wire. As a fan of Belle Vue, I recall the jubilation on the terraces that night. But, at the same time, I also felt like we'd won through an own goal. The annals of history should have been written differently. Luck swings two ways - good and bad. Indeed, it reminds me of the previous Belle Vue title win of '82, again fortuitous after Cradley lost Penhall. Wolves 1993 have to be the most unfortunate team... least in my memory.

The standard of riders was obviously better back in the day, with most of the best riders in the world appearing in British racing, but that doesn't necessarily lead to better racing. The best guys were largely full time and filled their boots against riders who might be turning up with only one bike and riding at tracks they saw once a season. Obviously, there were great races but they stick out in the memory and the processions get forgotten about. Speedway seemed better because there were bigger crowds and better presentation. Alan Morrey's two minute button at Belle Vue was legendary, whereas most of the recent meetings I've been to have dragged interminably. Speedway back in the 60s and 70s also benefitted from presenting more races. I've recently been looking at the Speedway Researcher website and the Coventry section for the early BL years has details of the second hald races. Coventry regularly put on 20 races, most tracks 19 and one or two 21. The evening ended with a Rider of the Night final, which certainly in some of the runaway Belle Vue victories I saw was often the best race of the night and cute promoters elsewhere knew to get the riders to put on a show in the last race of the night (none of this should be seen as a plea for the return of the second half as they'd certainly had their day by the time they were got rid of). The other thing was that speedway then was full of confidence; the formation of the Provincial League, the successful amalgamation of the PL and the NL and the formation of Division 2 all took place within a 10 year period and the sport seemed to be going places. Now, the atmosphere seems overwhelmingly negative, with contraction not expansion the chief expectation. It's difficult to see a recovery like there was 50 years ago, but then that recovery could never have been predicted 10 years before it happened. Let's hope history repeats itself.

Yea look at Workington and how Saturday nights were helping them ...another myth

Reading the RG comments you couldn't help but get the impression of someone 'stating the bleedin' obvious'! It's almost like a summary of the past five to ten years on here!! However you then read comments around the fact that 'all promoters now realise what needs to be done' and you then think (amazingly), that maybe there have been some promoters over the past five to ten years who must have thought it was all going 'OK'! Maybe there now is a true realism of actually where the sport currently sits amongst the rest of the sports in Britiain and realistic plans will be put in place going forward? But you then read comments around guests for example, where they get dismissed as an almost 'inevitably', without even a thought to eradicate something that destroys any credibility the sport has, and you think that maybe after all that the reality will be more of 'same old, same old'.. He did mention being in the 'last chance saloon' so hopefully there is some real focus as a collective now... My doubt to be honest though is that as they are the ones who have led the sport to its current position (whilst blindly not seeing the obvious and inevitable conclusion that such a ridiculous operating and business model would bring), then, are they really the ones capable of sorting it all out? I hope so, but do have my doubts..

No argument about standard etc dropping that is a given ..that go's back to my point about no one caring ..look at Woffy he won't even ride in it

Would you not agree, that the standard has dropped quite a bit though? Not at GP level or Poland and Sweden. Both leagues seem to be of high standard. I'm not sure why, but if you look at the British Final for example. It's been turned on its head. You must remember how hard that meeting once was. For a 2nd Division rider to make it was a truly great achievement. Unfortunately now. The field is made up of 2nd division riders. Yes doubling up is a factor for this, but Some of the riders appearing in the final would not have made it past the first qualifying round! Never mind make the final!

Decent drills don't come cheap!

sorry, forgot about that. Anyway, better twice than never

Keep up Bavarian - already posted on previous page by yours truly

It was not gate and go with Briggs,Ashby,,Crump (snr) not in my experience anyway all of them could pass and had to the tracks then you could pass consistently.

You have more money than sense

good news at last

Vince you are a guy who i respect big time, but you are way off the mark here speedway today generally is nowhere near yesteryear,I go some weeks and by 9 o'clock i want to go home be tucked up in bed in the last five years i have not seen a lot of great racing..

BECAUSE riders feel that it helps them determine the performance of various bikes.

There wouldn't be this problem if the staging promotion paid both teams, at standard rates, a maximum of 105 points per league match Would be a help in budgetting, knowing virtually exactly what outgoings would be in terms of rider payments

While you can agree or disagree with his assessment with the standard of the racing,Imo the problem is the sport cannot be taken seriously as professional with regards to the rules and regulation brought in for “best interest of the sport “ and the interpretation and manipulation of the rules to suit the situations as the problems arise.Fixtures and averages are an example.

Individuals funding loss making clubs is why the sport is now in terminal decline. Speedway (currently) is a professional sport but mainly run by rank amateurs or enthusiasts with very little intelligence or business acumen. Godfrey and Chapman are living proof....and they and others are to blame and why the sport is bust. The stadium is a dump, the track is sort of okay but it’s hardly an oval, it’s a circle, throttle on blast round no technical ability required. Boring. Just saying.

I'm all for it,we need to move on,most other motor sports use the same system.How do they know in advance which gate is the best?How do they know how the track is prepared for a GP compared to qualifying? They don't. Also it could lead to practice/qualifying on live tv,as in most other motor sports.Sometimes as exciting to watch as the actual racing. Speedway is stuck in a time warp,most fans are middle age to elders and want things to stay as they are,I myself am 68 but think this is a good idea,we need to move on. I'd love to see transponders used in league meeting too,when non speedway people ask me how do we time races and I say a bloke with a stop watch they cannot believe that in this day and age. Bring it on.

In this article he mentioned if an away team won it was not good news for the promoter of that winning club because of having to pay his riders too much money the same as a big home win. Not sure how but maybe it is time for a different pay structure for riders is introduced,and not paid per point maybe clubs would not loose as much money each year hence not go out of business. Speedway must be one of the only sports that pays solely on performance only, perhaps this is one reason why this great sport is not going forward.

Same. It’s been such a strange winter with a lot to take in and there’s been a fair few up and down emotions but now the dust has settled and the season is nearly upon us, I’m very much looking forward to it. From an Ipswich perspective, I don’t think we have a great team but that’s not stopping me from looking forward to the season. I’m really interested to see how the Pole takes to Foxhall as he is a rider I’ve not yet seen. Enjoyed the Ipswich/Panthers meetings in the Championship and I’m looking forward to these meetings again in the top flight. Will also be good to see old favourites like Hans Andersen back at Foxhall too.

Amazing !.......Speedballs suggestion sounds great however let me get this right, he is suggesting at week 15 we announce the last two team members, week 15 is as far as I can see is mid to late February, which has not happened yet, with four riders already announced it is likely that by the end of February we will know the full 1 to 7, more or less in line with Speedballs timescale, this is exactly what KL is being continually critisised for, but is now being praised........by the same people !

That's brilliant news, have set plus to record it, thanks for passing on the news, hes a good guy !

It’s obviously been hard road for him but it’s great to see his determination to get on with life the best he can.TopGuy.

Ricky Ashworths progress to be aired on BBC1 Breakfast show next Thursday 14th at 6.40, 7.40 & 8.40

I like the idea. Fair play for trying something new.

Welcome back MPT and welcome aboard Poultec.

As good as Phil was not sure you could compare him to Ivan

I'd have titled that "Most Tragic Team."

1948 to 1955 at Bristol. absolutely potty about speedway then. Being so young obviously made a difference. In the winter I could play a card game called "Skido" where you could move riders around a track. I adapted the rules so that I could play it solo and ran whole meetings over 14 heats using names taken from old programmes.

So... Definite play-off teams Somerset - Best looking team in the league, will be hard to beat IMO Sheffield - Strong again, won't be touched at home and will compete for top-spot Play-off contenders Glasgow - Obviously strong, but look weak-ish at the bottom end Redcar - Love our top three and we will get some points on the road, and Stewart Bacon and Smith are very exciting prospects Leicester - They could be the dark horses for me, look a good team Workington - Always strong at home, and can't be written off - but hard to see a repeat of the title Missing out Eastbourne - If Lawson and Kennett are confirmed, they will be hard to beat at home Edinburgh - Not too impressed, they might struggle early on, but like always with a good promotion they will make changes Scunthorpe - Not a bad team, but not sure strength is there to challenge play-offs - List in top-five is a bit of an ask Bottom dwellers Berwick - Might push higher but still not too strong and don't see how they can challenge the better teams Newcastle - Poor team, unless last signing is Nicki Pederson - although I can see them making early changes which could make big difference Birmingham - Built to a budget, can see it being a bit of a struggle first season back

Last weekend, March 10th, saw the staging of the outstanding State Sidecar Speedway titles in South Australia and Western Australia, (Tasmania and Nthn Territory have not held state title mtgs since 2012.) At Gillman SA, Trent Headland & Darryl Whetstone went through the card unbeaten, New Zealander Andrew Buchanan with Denny Cox in the chair taking 2nd place from Mark Plaisted & Ben Pitt. (Ht points: 15, 14, 13 respectively.) The WA title meeting at Pinjar Park was full of excitement as veteran Brad Willis, with Jesse Thomas as chair-man, had to do it the hard way, - again and again - , much deserved after a 34+ year wait ! After 3 wins from 4 rides Wills lost a coin toss for a place in the Final alongside unbeaten Scott Charsley & Morgan Cornwell, (4 wins from 4 rides; all heats 3-man races), the other 11 pointers Chad Harvey & Jamie Thomson going directly into the Final. Wills, riding with Thomas for the first time, had to take the flag in the 'Last Chance' semi to join them, which he duely did. In the Final the hitherto unbeaten Charsley & Cornwell made a good start from gate 1 and led for 3 laps, with Wills at the back in third place, but creeping up on the leaders. On the final charge down the back straight Harvey blasts underneath Charsley followed by Willis. Out of turn four all three outfits were bunched together, but Harvey gave a little ground heading to the flag, enough for Brad Willis & Jesse Thomas to squeeze by. A great race, - the crowd went wild: Brad Willis, - third in 1983/84, third in 1995/96 - , had finally made it. The Sidecar scene moves next to the International 'biggies', with the FIM Oceania Sidecar Championship on Sat. 31st, and the FIM 1000cc World Cup the following day, Sun. April 1st., both at Gillman, SA. The Australian National sidecar title is raced for at Tamworth, NSW, on April 14th.