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Nice to see positive things happening at newcastle , at least one club has news to spread , alot of other clubs are very quiet. ( Btw , I'm really pleased for archie's dad and Dave rowland on archie's great achievement)

Polish press informed about a dispute between GM engine manufacturer and danish engine tuner Flemming Graversen. https://www.przegladsportowy.pl/zuzel/zuzel-porownujemy-czesci-silnikow-gm-i-graversena/n6q24yd Interesting to read via Chrome translation .... Fact is, most SGP riders do still need highly price tuning of their GM-machinery. Be it Graversen, Kowalski, Johns, Holloway, Karger, Kugelmann or others .... Fact is, somebody has to pay for it. On the other hand, not only in my opinion time is overdue for change to lower this extracosts. The FIM has to make new rules. For example why not forbid certain expensive engine parts as camshaft, valves, springs, piston etc. Tuners are still allowed to do maintenance on engines but sellling highly prices special parts would be forbidden in order to reduce costs. These parts have to be homolagated by the FIM. Of course this would be the case for all manufacturers as GM, GTR, Godden and Jawa. A reduction of maximum RPM should also be major topic. These rules should made compulsory not only in SGP but all Speedway leagues. Look how many clubs have gone bankrupt or having financial problems over the last years in countries as England, Sweden and Poland to name a few. Massive cost reduction for 2021 is necessary for the sake of our sport. PS: riders are always desperate for the fastest engine available, often somebody around them or a sponsor is prepared to pay for it.

Rye must have averaged around the 1,300-1,500 mark in their first season in the top flight, so it's complete bullsh1t, when people come out with the crowds weren't there. They were there but were never going to be after being forced to run on a weekday by the pair of clowns.

wait til diluted teams turn up at Glasgow and 250 fans turn up. They need to get real.

What a complete fiasco, cock up, failure. No easy way out from this now.

Fair play to Ribbons or anyone attempting to make it difficult for Musk. T0ssers like him shouldn't be able to trample over years of history. The best outcome is for motorsports only to be enforced at the site and this will put him in a difficult position. I don't see Rye ever returning now as the track is gone and lease to someone who doesn't care about the club/sport. The whole thing is an absolute disgrace and the Speedway Star should be asking questions about the whole episode. The role of the two imbeciles, Chapman/Godfrey needs to be questioned as they played a major part in the clubs demise.

Round 2 was held at St. Johann, but I have no results.

It’s just a case of wait and see.GB don’t seem to be pro- active in securing deals and signing riders.Nobody seems to know what is happening next season yet.we need to put pressure on riders to make up their mind instead of waiting to see who’s left over.

Sorry, I have no infos at all about the 2nd round, and only the top ten point scorers of round 1, which are as follows: AUSTRIAN CHAMPIONSHIP 1985 Round 1 at Wiener Neustadt: 1. Siegfried EDER, 14 2. Heinrich SCHATZER, 13 3. Toni PILOTTO, 12 4. Walter NEBEL, 11 5. Adi FUNK, 10 6. Josef FASCHING, 9 7. Franz KURZWEIL, 9 8. Robert FUNK, 8 9. Andy BÖSSNER, 8 10. Manfred "Fuzzi" TRISKO, 8

Somerset are supportive of the Glasgow position. A number of other clubs are supportive of 'the bigger picture'?! Poole have stated they are happy to go with the majority - presumably having sounded out possible replacements for Adam Ellis just in case?! Lets not forget the Promoters have been having regular Zoom meetings so they all know what the points options and/or team numbers are likely to be. Its simply that some are keeping their own counsel whilst others go public!!

Don’t worry they can all move into the Championship which is thriving apparently.

Once they are gone, in terms of speedway, they are gone - we must assume. The best you can hope for is a speedway related street name.

They put my mail order bride in a clear plastic type envelope and she turned up on time, so I don’t think it is the packaging.

http://www.historyspeedway.nstrefa.pl/zawodnik.php?imie=Toni&nazwisko=Pilotto

And scratchings!

I think the real issue here isn’t just about saving Rye House. It’s about how the sport as a whole has allowed a circuit owned by the speedway promotion, with no curfew or restrictions about race or practise days to die. I have empathy to Lakeside’s plight but their scenario is different to ours in many ways. In Rye House the sport has lost a venue with fantastic potential to help develop British riders and a track with a direct train line into London literally next door. Efforts were made to save Ipswich and Peterborough who are tenants at their tracks. Nobody helped Lakeside, nobody helped Rye House.

Watched the film online. Was it always there ? But quite interesting, with some info that was unknown to me about his time in the US at least. Sadly no new film of him in action, and did wonder what the old stock film of board racing was doing in there. Nice to see one of the last pics of him looking well. As ever, always seems sad looking back that nobody had a thorough interview with him in the 70s.....and hope he finally gets into the Portland hall of fame

Archie Freeman makes it a Happy Christmas for Newcastle Diamonds Newcastle-born teenage speedway star in the making, Archie Freeman turned 16 at the back end of November, and had now made the day for his home club and supporters by putting pen to paper on a Newcastle Speedway full contract with club owner, Rob Grant. Club co-promoter, Dave Tattum said: "This is a key moment for the Diamonds, signing a superbly talented, locally-sourced prospect as Archie Freeman is a vital move for us and our aim to cultivate a vibrant squad of young up-and-coming British riders in our squad and as Archie is a Geordie it makes it all the sweeter. "He's won lower cc class British Youth Titles a couple of seasons ago, and he's been involved in that important series of events all through 2020, on his 500cc machine, when other events weren't allowed to take place, and he has made more excellent progress, maturing into a fine speedway rider with bags of potential and we cannot wait for the winter to pass to get him on track next season." Team manager Darren Hartley added: "It's brilliant for Newcastle to get this strong young local lad into our squad, and while initially he will be in our National League side, once he gets more and more racing under his belt, we'll be looking at introducing him into the Championship Diamonds' side to continue his impressive progress. "However, we'll be bringing Archie along to all our Championship level matches in 2021 anyway as part of the team and he will be looked after an integrated into the Diamonds pit activity to get him accustomed to the whole match atmosphere at its heart and that in itself will bring him on in leaps and bounds with experience of real matches in progress. "We have massive belief in Archie's ability, and his future progress, which we at his home track were always desperate to make sure took place with us, and Brough Park is a track he's learned a lot about since he started training there on small bikes, many, many years ago, and the crowd who watch the second half racing will know what we're on about having seen his young racing, and this signing will be good for him, and good for us." Archie Freeman himself also commented, saying: "I’m over the moon to be riding for Newcastle, this has been my ambition ever since I sat on a bike at Newcastle Speedway, and from then it’s been a lifelong ambition of mine, and for it to become reality right now is amazing. "Next year I aim to move up into the main body of the team and to consistently score, and hopefully to attract more sponsors. Overall, I really can’t wait till next year and hope to bring in some more faces to Newcastle. I’d just like to thank everyone who had helped me over the years to get me here. Especially Colin Poole, David Rowland, Mark Hubbard, Lawrence Heppell, Trevor and Lynn Strawbridge and obviously my Mam and Dad, not to forget about Rob Grant for giving me this brilliant opportunity." From Newcastle Speedway Facebook page. Great News. Sounds like the right way to develop. Got #8 just need to find #7... once the points limited is decided.....

Loved the smell from that bakery as we approached the turnstiles.