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Thinking of Danny's family and friends on his funeral day, today (Valentines day ). Ride free Fella x

My thoughts are that it may have been in deference to Danny's farewell today. Seems a bit crass to announce anything good or bad before that IMO, and it is only my opinion of course, like others I'm getting a bit twitchy about the team now.

Thanks Greg for all the great nights celebrating your unbelievable career. For the years at Cradley Heath, where you and Billy gave us fantastic performances both home and away, particularly those unbelievable occasions at Monmore Green against Ronnie and Sam. No one will ever match your Grand Prix records. In the top six for 15 consecutive years. Not 1, not 2 but count them 3, world titles after the age of 40. No one had done that once before you! Ignore the idiots who call you boring or overrated. The silent vast majority of speedway fans recognised you for what you have been. One of the sports greatest ambassadors

Got to be the most stupid post ever

HIS record would suggest otherwise...

I'm glad this has made the main sports page on the BBC website https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-51503386

https://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/sport/speedway/danny-ayres-ipswich-mildenhall-fen-tigers-tribute-lap-1-6515266 Danny's last lap

I guess witches are waiting to see who boro announce as no.1 then before signing the same rider a few days later

Absolutely, with Dennis Sigalos also potentially in the mix. Gundersen was no2 to Penhall at Cradley and Nielsen had a year's more BL experience than Penhall, but Penhall was still a lot quicker to the very top. Like you say, he had the lot. He was also super professional too. He could have easily operated at the top for several more years, had he wanted to. His loss was terrible for speedway. But looking at it coldly and in retrospect, it was exactly the right thing to do for him. He'd won the last title at Wembley and defended it on home turf...he was never going to top that....and certainly not at places like Norden, Bradford, Amsterdam or Vojens.

I was never a fan of the Americans, other than Kelly and Shawn who you couldn't help liking, even though Kelly referred to Hackney as 'the armpit of the speedway world.' To be fair to him though, the Yanks didn't have much luck at Waterden Rd. There is no denying though that Bruce Penhall had it all..Quick starter, fast machinery, brilliant from the back and charisma in abundance. Obviously he blotted his copy book at the Overseas Final, but I reckon that would have been forgotten in time if he'd carried on riding into his thirties. Penhall is the only rider who could have stopped the Gundersen/Nielsen steamroller imo.

Why does having 3 x 2019 Championship number 1s make it look really weak? Neilsen and MacDonald have Championship track knowledge and experience and Cook has at least seen a number of tracks when he was staying with Middlo for several weeks last summer. Keleher is that much older and has had offers from Poland but wants to do his 'apprenticeship' in UK first. Play-offs first is always the initial target for Poole.

Todd Kurtz, Jack Holder, Kyle Howarth, Sam Masters, Nicolai Klindt, Brady Kurtz, Josh Grajczonek, Charles Wright, Dan Bewley, Rasmus Jensen, Nick Morris, Chris Holder, Jason Doyle, Rory Schlein, Troy Batchelor and Peter Kildemand. Should be a cracking meeting for Todd, what a line up!

Jonathan Swales not Stuart Swales.

If you take out the doubling up/down you probably couldn’t fill seven teams. Yes the fall from grace is dramatic hence the powers that be should start to re-build the sport from the bottom and forget Poland etc. Those days when British speedway was a force to be reckoned with are for now, long gone. They should be encouraging riders at all levels and let teams without home tracks compete in the NDL. What is the harm if it is unearthing new talent. Get as many teams as possible named and race matches on a 4TT basis but with one rider from each team in each race over 20 heats. Make it interesting by starting on green light, no tapes and no exclusions for offences. Just handicap the offending rider by the starting position with 10, 20 or 30 mtrs handicap depending on the offence. Just do something different and stop the same old same old routine.

A great tribute. That race at BV against Chris Harris was a real cracker.

Hancock should not have been given a Wildcard. SGP now has to suffer Smolinski

He has averaged over 7.3 since 2014. Thats pretty good for success and bar 2014 and 2019 he has been closer to 8.5. I think thats pretty good really.

Says a lot about British speedway when only 7 teams cant be filled with suitable riders.

Just watched it. Very moving finale.

Have you included GB discount for Harris and Nicholls?

It wouldn't be so bad if they said we were hoping to get Chris Holder, but his visa application has fallen through,, but we did have a back up in mind,, and we are currently negotiating a deal with them.

It’s also been suggested that the signing of a number one would follow Tungate?

Iron Scorpion, apart from the Bank Holiday Monday fixtures, away support at Central Park is a very small number of fans. This is probably true at most tracks ? With the distances involved , and time taken off work to get to midweek meetings, the cost of admission is a relatively minor expense for away support.

It was worth the effort. I'm not sure that anyone at the club is listening, at least not in the public domain anyway, but behind the scenes may potentially be different I'm told. At least as it stands you'll not have to worry about planning a trip to Peterborough in 2020 and beyond because while they meet part of your criteria with possible parking close to an entrance, those entrances are nowhere near your intended destination so if you or a friend or relative has a disability then the new arrangements will make your mind up for you.

Nicholls would be a terrific reserve, had a bad season last year I would expect him to put at least a point on his average especially if he was at reserve.

Ignoring the program a season ticket for 20 CL & 6 NL meetings represents a whole £14 discount. Obviously increased should cup progression or play offs happen but its hardly breath taking (unlike the adult admission price). The deciding factor on if i make any visits will be the calibre of the opposition.

What’s the betting Nicholls will be at reserve and we will have a bang average rider as “number 1” and we start the season well under the points limit

Yeah don't think he meant Burrows! I don't remember Burrows ever riding top level speedway.

The.SS report on the second leg of last year's championship final described Ellis Perks as Leicester's "unlikely hero" which I thought was rubbish because he was already a hero. Early part of the season he benefitted from riding with Scott Nicholls but on the occasions when he was put at 3 or 4, or Nicholls was at 5 for a month, Ellis showed he could step up. In fact right at the end, when they occasionally rode as a pairing again, they seemed more like equals. Look at the number of bonus points to his name! If he keeps to the same fitness and health regime that clearly benefitted him greatly last winter, he certainly could be pushing Nick Morris for top dog. And Swindon will be optimistic about him too.

Wasn't gonna comment again on this thread but, oh well. In my (limited) experience 'life-challenged’ people wish to be left to cope themselves as far as possible and will ask for help if they really need assistance . They very much prefer to be left to 'get on with it' usually only requiring the odd minor, consideration like in this case being allowed to park as near as possible to the event and ideally not be required to cross uneven ground. A further consideration is that for various reasons people need to arrive & leave venues at different times. e.g. in my own case depending on commitments I like to watch every lap of racing & practice, at other times I need to be out of there as the riders are on the slowdown lap after the last heat. So while using ‘golf buggys’ or other such transport from the parking area to the entrance, is one possible solution I don’t think it is workable. TBH I can’t be bothered with trawling through all the responses but I believe someone mentioned they know the Peterborough promotion to talk to, specifically Buster Chapman, I think he has commented that he is aware of supporters’ concerns so chatting with him about disabled parking issues at The East Of England Arena on speedway days hopefully a solution will be found. In my, and my friend’s dad’s case (who has walking difficulties), if / when we a plan to visit a track we will telephone beforehand, and also confirm on the day of the meeting, whether we are able to park as near as possible to the entrance, using my friends dads Blue Badge. While I cannot speak for others at this time, if we cannot be guaranteed close parking, then unfortunately we likely won’t go….

So, was the damage due to vandalism? Keep us posted on here regards Sunday, as not all have the facebooky thing. Might be able to do an hour or so.

I think championship racing will need a better prepared race track to race on where as the Nl riders will ride just about anything Really As they don't moan much Kent track the way it has been the last few years we have raced there won’t make for good fast entertaining racing it’s pretty much a one line track but could be a lot better with a little bit of work

If people stopped commenting on the thread then it would soon end up on page 5 of list of PL topics. But you all seem to like keeping it on page 1!!

There was no tarmac base at Brandon.

Perhaps there were unfortunate errors in a previous visa application?! For some visas you are not allowed to apply again for at least 2 years with no guarantees that it would be processed quickly just because he is a previous World Champion. Any application would also need to be 'sponsored' by a club or organisation that holds a 'sponsorship licence', ie a potential employer!!

You can't expect common sense to be shown from the BSPA!

They had one but compassionate management have decreed it can no longer be used.

I think the safest way to put it was that he has had a few scrapes that perhaps have made any visa processes not so straight forward.

Thread should have been pinned ages ago

Championship discussion that has no place in the top league.

What an article. And what a range of feelings it stirs. Sadness, profound sympathy, anger, frustration - the list just goes on. The recurring thought, "if only, if only." A son who was probably still suffering bereavement, picking up the courage to ask for help and perhaps being rebuffed. The loss now being felt by his father, partner and children. MIND is a fantastic charity, Samaritans is another doing life-saving work and they in turn need support.

You are wrong we are stuck with the bikes we have now, that's not gonna change. But like I've said said tracks need to be smoother. Go to tracks like redcar scunthorpe, bell vue and they have good racing week in and out

As I said, focus on the main stand and lower first bend terracing. Get those up to standard and close down the rest. It'll give the capacity needed.

They only need to be smoother and slicker to enable current bikes to go as fast as they can and give the rider the easiest ride. It does nothing for the racing.

What is a waste of money is paying a fortune to riders, and then giving them a terrible track to perform on. Better track preparation is putting money to better use.

From Mildenhall Speedway - We will be producing a special Danny Ayres tribute t-shirt in consultation with Jodie and the it will be available from the opening meeting at Mildenhall and throughout the season. All profits to the family. Also Re-Run productions will be producing a special Danny Ayres DVD with all profits again going to the family. We would like to offer our thanks to Steve Girwood of Re-Run for his very kind offer.

Most overrated rider ever

What's Gino and Paco up to,