Leaderboard

Former World Speedway Number 2, Gordon Kennett, To Race At Smallbrook Stadium In British Upright Championship Final Even though the meeting is still some five months away, interest in the NORA 2022 British Upright Speedway Championship being promoted by the Wightlink Warriors at their Smallbrook Stadium in Ryde is intense with currently over 30 riders hoping to be invited to compete in the event. That level of support has come as no surprise to Warriors co-owner Barry Bishop who said, “We knew from the very positive response to the inclusion of the older, more traditional style of upright engined speedway machines that formed part of our race night last year, that interest from both riders and supporters in this category was strong and so to develop it more, with the support of our great friends at NORA, we were determined to include it in our 2022 programme. With no other equivalent Championship on offer it made sense to make our meetings that much more meaningful and I am thrilled that we have been able to appoint Lee Coleman as our Championship Co-ordinator and he has been instrumental in linking many aspects of the event together culminating in the announcement of the formula for the Championship and the first four excellent riders who we look forward to welcoming to Smallbrook. It really does promise to be a very close fought Championship that will add another dimension to our varied summer calendar”. Championship Co-ordinator Lee Coleman added “I’m thrilled and very grateful to Barry and Martin who have asked me to help with this very exciting project and just as soon as preliminary information was released, we have been kept busy with a whole string of recognisable names wanting to find out more. As a result of that we have settled on a format that will allow us to seed eight riders straight through to the Grand Final on 11th August where they will be joined by the top four riders from each of the two qualifying rounds on 30thJune and 21st July. The Grand Final will run on the standard 20 heat individual programme. With the arrangements now firmly established I am buzzing to be able to name the first four seeds that will compete in our Grand Final. They are former World Speedway Number 2 and World Pairs Champion Gordon Kennett, 1984 National League Riders Champion Ian Barney and British Indoor Ice Champions Wayne Broadhurst and Tony Atkin who are both equally at home on shale and especially grass where they hold multiple Championship titles. I’m told all these guys are already gearing up, both physically and mechanically, to be as competitive as possible and the other four seeds, who are already signed to the series and who are equally as keen, will be announced shortly. I know Barry and Martin can’t wait to see these guys blasting round the wide-open spaces of the Smallbrook raceway and I’ve got to say I’m the same. Summer can’t come soon enough”.

Great News... Tai Woffinden is making a key announcement at 6pm next Tuesday

VOLUNTEERS WELCOME THIS WEEKEND! The club will be working at the stadium this weekend, and will welcome any volunteers who can lend a helping hand. Work will involve general repairs, both to the safety fence and in other areas which suffered damage during the recent storms. Volunteers are requested to enter via the pits area.

Petrol/diesel prices at around £2 a litre might put some off.

Great to see long term sponsors taking over the stadium sponsorship. The stadium will now be called "The ECCO Arena" thanks to Keith Miller their MD, a great supported of The Bears. Roll on the start of the season against The Diamonds on 25th March at "The ECCO Arena". With Press and Practice being on Sunday 13th March.

once again, people underestimate Peterborough

Reading the Brummies forum, I think we can safely say that 'WE' (B'ham) are going to have a decent side, a competitive side, a great race track and we will definitely see the season out! Let the good times roll!

End of Shelbourne Park ? Sadly it seems Harrolds Cross stadium has also gone https://www.irishtimes.com/business/shelbourne-park-greyhound-racing-track-owner-seeks-to-develop-site-for-housing-1.4809506

Certainly not ideal i think it's going to put the older generation off in the future. Looks like this could be my last G.P unfortunately.

Britain's top 3 have all chosen Poland & Sweden / Denmark over the UK. I'm glad that the top Aussies still want to race here!

Hi All, We have already held several My First Skid sessions following the flood. The track is in first class shape. Other little bits that needed repairing following the burst are being done as and when materials/volunteers are available working with the loss adjuster from Southern Water who have been very good. now we look forward to more MFS (this Thursday and every 2 weeks) before starting another action packed speedway adventure from June 23rd. Many thanks and I trust you are all well and looking forward to the start of the season with your local clubs. All the best, Barry

Correct. One swallow doesn’t make a summer and all that. Always been good team spirit at Berwick and a happy workplace makes for better riders IMO

I think Cram and either Howie or Lockhart are great commentators, they raise their voices only when necessary - which was not often. The guys who do all the snowboard cross/snowboarding stuff are very excitable, but that fits in with the vibe of the sport so makes perfect sense. My real beef is with commentators who can't speak English properly. John Jackson, the 'colour commentator' for the sliding sports could barely get through a sentence without the English language taking a pummelling. I'm not a pedant, but a constant stream of 'lines what they're driving' 'good starts what they're making' type comment is fairly unbearable.

I thought Steve Cram and Rhona were brilliant with the curling commentary knowing and explaining what shots were on to not on, and why. Once again Curling, after a major completion, will be the talk of people who never go to the rinks to watch it. Fascinating sport, played in a good and fair competitive sport, where the tactics and their execution are unbelievable. Pity there is no rinks beside me where it is played.

i thought the curling was good . never before have i been so interested in a minority sport . crowd looked bigger than a normal speedway meeting in the uk ! if you dont like the comms , turn on your mute button . long live curling and other minority sports

For Great VFM I'd recomend the Golden Helmet weekend in Pardubice, Czech Republic. in 2022 they will host the final round of the SEC on the Friday, On Saturday there will be the FIM Flat Track GP round & their U21 Golden Helmet event followed on Sunday with The Golden Helmet. That will be around 80 speedway stars from around the World on show + the Flat Track riders all taking part in over 100 races over three days. All on the same track. If that is still not enough On the Monday night you can get to Prague for the Lubos Tomicek Memorial meeting. This will normally feature many SGP stars + some that will have ridden in the previous events in Pardubice.

#variety

Just seen on the Warriors website the details of this years Three Team Tournament featuring the Warriors up against Weymouth Wildcats and Cradley Heathens. Looks like the tournament will provide three good evenings of entertainment.

Because it seems to work and appears to be popular with fans? Everyone knows. Speedway is two seven man teams over 15 heats with as many pro riders there as possible... All ridden on nights to suit the riders so they can ride in as many meetings, and represent as many teams, as they can... Mustn't ever change that... Imagine the chaos!! And who knows. Maybe the odd amateur talent could be unearthed given they will be coming up against established NDL riders so can benchmark themselves against a higher standard...

The amateur meetings with riders paying an entry fee will make money too. Look at the riders competing across the various classes and it is definitely a higher standard than the normal amateur meetings you spoke of. I really don't see why it's a problem!

The list of "announced" riders released thus far for the 3TT are all NDL riders. Im sure there might be a couple of fringe amateurs feature in the main events and perhaps moreso in the grasstrack classes but its a decent distance away from clubmans amateur events.

I've said it many times but I would expect more than just fifteen heats of racing after paying my admission price and petrol to travel to my local track some 60 plus miles away irrspective of the expected rise in the cost of living.