Leaderboard

The top 10 for World Final consistency in terms of average points per ride ( from a minimum of 3 final appearances and excluding run-offs): 1 Ivan Mauger 2.51 (176 points from 70 rides) 2 Bruce Penhall 2.47 (37 from 15) 3 Freddie Williams 2.40 (48 from 20) 4 Barry Briggs 2.34 (201 from 86) 5= Wilbur Lamoreaux and Jack Milne 2.33 (both 35 from 15) 7= Ove Fundin and Erik Gundersen 2.31 (173 from 75 and 104 from 45) 9 Ole Olsen 2.29 (119 from 52) 10 Hans Nielsen 2.28 (171 from 75) Others which may be of interest: 17 Bjorn Knutson 2.13 22 Ronnie Moore 2.06 24 Sam Ermolenko 2.04 31 Peter Craven 1.92 37 Anders Michanek 1.86 41 Peter Collins 1.78 48 Tony Rickardsson 1.65 79 Nigel Boocock 1.24 86 Chris Morton 0.98 97 Tommy Jansson 0.73 From less than 3 finals, Bluey Wilkinson 2.90, Les Collins 2.60, Wally Green 2.60, Alan Grahame 2.50, Gary Havelock 2.40, Sverre Harrfeldt 2.40, Gordon Kennett 2.40, Bob Oakley 2.40, Todd Wiltshire 2.40, Craig Boyce 2.40. In the GP era, Tai Woffinden has scored 946 points from 519 rides for an average of 1.82. This would have ranked 39th in the World Final list, but the formats are too different for a comparison to be meaningful.

Will we recognise you or did you have hair back then?

West Ham were very different. From 1967 to 1971 they had West Ham, London on their jackets, which made them really stand out. It really hooked me as a kid, and I'm fortunate to own two originals.

The demise of Rye House was probably a good template on all that is wrong with British speedway. Will lessons be learned, let's hope so.

For me three things need to change massively if you want to keep 'team speedway' One. Credibility - You need an emotional attachment to 'your team'. When your own riders can assist your opponents to be more successful than your own team it simply doesn't engender any emotional attachment. eg Why spend all season following a team who ultimately don't reach the play offs because their best rider went out and won matches for opponents who did? Can't take that seriously. . Two. Marketing - Some people will say that lowering standards will lower attendances even further. Some will say we should just go it alone without GP stars as crowds are down to die hards now so won't drop significantly from the current position. The truth is bringing back GP riders will only bring back those who are aware of Speedway and used to go. Nikki P for example at Sheffield may put 500 on the gate in his first match. A huge increase for Sheffield but in reality a small actual number of fans. Fans, in the main, who used to go from Sheffield and stopped or/and fans from other 'local' clubs... Will that increase be sustained? Not a chance if it follows the usual 'novelty pattern' of 'top stars' returning which sees crowds drop back as the weeks go by.. The sport seems to spend hundreds and hundreds of thousands on riders who have zero impact to crowd levels as the vast majority of people living locally haven't a clue who they are, yet (it appears) hardly a penny is spent on a professional marketing company which could tangibly increase crowds through its output. Invest in this marketing to see if it works.. And Three - Race Nights. The sport has to take place on nights (or afternoons) that you can get most fans in. All business is defined by how many customers it has and any business which only opens when it's employees tell you they are available, so you end up with irregular opening times, is doomed to failure. For many, Speedway is 'entertainment first', so run it when most of your local population can attend. Get the opening hours right as a priority then decide on everything else after that as it doesn't matter what level of Speedway you put on if your opening times are barriers to your potential customers.. In short.. Make it credible so its worth fans actually investing their emotional loyalty into it. Invest in marketing to raise the profile of the sport and increase the awareness of non Speedway followers, as ultimately no matter what standard of rider or level you run at will make a difference if hardly anyone knows you exist. And finally, open your doors based on your knowledge of when your largest potential customer volume can get there and not when your employees' personal agenda allows you to do..

Nicola trying to look one step ahead and doing the best for Scotland and by the next day has change her mind.(after being told it’s a UK government problem which Scotland is still part of).Wonder if an Independent Scotland would have survived with our 30 dollar a barrel Oil revenue.

Guy in the lead popping wheelies down the straights. That sort of showboating never ends well!

I was looking through FOUR of the greatest riders of all time stats Steve in which i believe were there peak years ( could be wrong years??? probably are Norbold/Bobbath /BL65 or Ove should put us right ). and it is really interesting. FUNDIN (1956/61 ). - 1956- 10.34. 1957- 10.38. 1958- 11.60. 1959- 11.00 1960- 11.56. 1961-11.51. NIELSEN ( 1984/1989). 1984- 10.76. 1985- 11.35. 1986- 11.57. 1987- 11.38. 1988- 11.03. 1989- 10.91. MAUGER (1969/74.) 1969- 11.38. 1970- 11.11. 1971- 11.41. 1972- 11.37. 1973- 11.30. 1974- 10.88. BRIGGS ( 1965/70). 1965- 10.91. 1966- 11.12. 1967- 11.05. 1968- 10.87. 1969- 11.12. 1970- 10.53.

In danger of repeating the blindingly obvious. It has nothing to do with BSPA/SCB what 22 individual Clubs do! In the same way that when Workington and Lakeside and Rye House went bust, it's 22 individual Clubs, 22 sets of Directors and 22 different strategies to the issue. Your season Ticket Refund is between you and your Club. No one else. Some Clubs have refunded. Some Clubs have clearly set out processes to refund on request. Some Clubs appear to have done nothing.

Any sponsor will want maximum publicity for their buck. Currently they would not get that. They would not want to waste valuable advertising money/contract length on the current avenues available. If the BPSA want to give them freebies at the minute then I’m sure the sponsor would not object, however I would be surprised if that happens.

No point naming them as there would be clauses in any deal voiding it so would imagine its "on hold" until further notice and if covid19 has caused financial loss then the contract will be ripped up. Also its quite common for it to be paid in installments also.

I think taking those stats only, you'd have to say Hans was the greatest. His average in 89 is equivalent to a high 11+ in other year's when you take into account the nominated rider's heat introduced that year.

Fans should be able to get a refund if the Date of the Original event is changed IMo.This “small print sh#t “ does not show the sport in good light.Doing more harm than good in the long term IMO.

Oooo, on the spanners for this one,,,,

And ? No doubt he was one of the top riders, so shouldn't have had problems getting through in the top 16. That is a totally different thing to winning on his home track......apples and pears

Maybe replace Derek Timms with Doug Davies to make five world finalists. I can't think what on earth the five riders would otherwise have in common

11 Lionel Van Praag 2.21 12= Kelly Moran, Jan O. Pedersen, Malcolm Simmons 2.20 15= Bengt Jansson, Olle Nygren 2.16 17 Bjorn Knutson 2.13 18= Kenny Carter, Tommy Knudsen, Michael Lee, Cordy Milne 2.07 22 Ronnie Moore 2.06 23 John Louis 2.05 24 Sam Ermolenko 2.04 25= Torbjorn Harryson, Shawn Moran, Gote Nordin, Simon Wigg, Jack Young 2.00 30 Per Jonsson 1.97

Never been a problem for Speedway.

I doubt any club would keep season ticket money as it would be the ultimate PR disaster, maybe clubs are waiting to see what is to become of the 2020 season first then make a decision, or maybe once we know what is happening there will be a directive/instruction from the BSPA.

Sending Blackford in to sort it out.He will reckon it’s Westminster's fault though. They should never have built that Bridge.

NICE informative interview with World Champion Bartosz Zmarzlik this week in SS conducted in his native Poland by our correspondent there.

Tomorrow's match v King's Lynn from 1999 premiered on Youtube.

I'm thoroughly enjoying the racing. Always good to see a small track where you can pass on the outside. I've been a couple of times but you get a better idea from these excellent videos. Thank you for helping us through this awful period, Monarchs. As for Mike, I wish I'd had the courage to be quite so direct! A true antidote to the sycophantic videos being posted by a certain outfit near Bournemouth ;-)

Yes, they are doing nasal and throat swabs.

This weeks Re-Run, kindly sponsored by Save Coventry Speedway, sees the Bears take on Scunthorpe Scorpions from July 2018. Join us on our Facebook page on Friday at 7:15pm, in association with our friends at Tapes Up Productions. Speedway GB

Our government’s tests are based two-thirds on taking swabs and one third on taking the p*ss.

12= with Jan O. Pedersen.

May have been Mike Lanham? I think Tony Davey's career ended at Leicester after suffering a particularly bad broken leg after not long coming back from injury.

Ted Brine (manager), Ron How, Cyril Brine, Gerry King, Gerry Jackson, Cyril Maidment, Ronnie Greene (promoter). Barry Briggs on bike with Bob Andrews and Bobby Croombs kneeling. 1958.

Indeed. Here is the article that has appeared on here already that the photo has been half inched from. You can see the Stamp bottom right https://www.motorcyclistonline.com/too-much-speed-on-speedway/ and the thread

As the recently departed Eddie Large may have said.. "Steps back in amazement"..

Not being mothballed at all. As said many times, the only reason it's not being used as much now is that so many hospitals in london had tripled and more their capacity, so most hospitals have coped with the flow to a point with the exception of Homerton, Whipps and Newham in the early to mid stages of the lockdown. Once elective surgery and clinics start to come back across london, the extra capacity that is currently available will disappear quick enough. As for Wales, they will be as susceptible down there no doubt once normal hospital traffic resumes, so i doubt the stadium will get off scot free as far as usage goes.

Or possibly Jimmy Gooch, Leo McAuliffe, Eric Williams, Derek Timms and Reg Luckhurst.

BSI Were told nearly 3 weeks ago that the stadium was unavailable for the Speedway GP and the WRFU couldn’t guarantee any future 2020 dates due to uncertainty when the stadium will be returned to them as although it is not in use the time it takes to get it equipped the government need to have these emergency hospitals in place in case of a second wave of outbreak. The WRFU like NEC and Excel are getting very good compensation payments for venue hire. Getting back on topic not sure why BSI are reluctant to cancel Cardiff whether it’s financial and want to keep ticket sale money for as long as possible or more likely that they are looking at putting the whole GP series on hold for 2020 as they have already lost a number of events and Warsaw and Wroclaw are in serious doubt at present as well. There is also no firm information coming out of Russia about when and who they will let into their country following Covid19 it was already a pain to get visas and permits but fully expect even further restrictions. I note with particular interest that Both the German and Czech GPs are held at traditional Speedway tracks and promoted by the relevant clubs but yet when cancelled cannot give new dates this I believe due to having no plans to stage these events this year

Beating Ole Olsen twice from behind and setting a new track record soon after rejoining Hackney in 79. Leading the Hawks to an amazing win at Halifax, after being 16-31 down after eight heats. Being the only rider to make it to Sheffield for the inter-league 4TT final, after riding in the world pairs in Vojens the previous day. He said he was determined to ride as a tribute to Vic Harding who had his fatal crash in Hackney's round. Giving me his NGK cap that he wore on the world final rostrum in 79, (I'd like to think it's the same one anyway!) Being an all round great chap whom you never heard a bad word said against.

Well there’s good news and bad... The good, Neil Ferguson has resigned from SAGE after some extra curricular “ modelling” with his married mistress, and Sweden have got their R rate down to 0.85 without lockdown.... The bad, Nicola Stalin promises 3 weeks more of house arrest, if Scotland’s pubs don’t open soon, we are going to turn into a nation of alcoholics.....?!

That didnt take long to change his mind

U-turn from Pedersen as he agrees new contract to ride in Poland.

https://grasstrackgb.co.uk/tony-george/

Many Doctors are starting to expose the scam brum. At least no one is dying from stroke, heart attack and cancer anymore. It's a joke...

Sorry for quoting your post RAR it’s just the numbers I’m having an issue with. For the 4th time in 7 days people I know have lost someone, however have had NO known symptoms yet all 3 have had Covid19 on their death certificate. What I’m starting to understand that ALL deaths seems to be attributed to Covid19. im sure those 4 people and their families aren’t the only ones questioning those false diagnosis's.

Great race...think that Bobby was to blame but a 50/50 split in my view!

Comments from various CL Promotions on their websites, social media and Speedway Star indicates either no such directive from BSPA or some Clubs ignoring it. Most likely no such BSPA directive. Kent - Len said weeks ago he will refund all season Tickets, no messing refunding all. Redcar - announced they will wait and refund on a pro rata basis once more known re Fixtures but fans can contact them Eastbourne - said will review in June but anyone wanting refund due to hardship to contact them like Redcar. Every Club is a separate Company. They are governed by BSPA on Speedway' matters but surely can't be instructed by BSPA on a business decision like this. Those 3 Clubs and probably others certainly aren't listening to alleged BSPA comments It's between you and your Club!