Vince

A good friend of mine is selling his short stroke GM in a Nutrak chassis that will also come with a Blixt carb and DEP silencer. This is a really good, clean bike and the engine has only done 4 (gentle!) rides since servicing. Complete with sprockets and bits and pieces. PM me if you're interested.

Seems like the racing made for great spectating yesterday with the British Championship being decided by a collision between the contenders on the penultimate lap, the little I saw of the racing was excellent and there was no risk that spectators wouldn't have enjoyed themselves.

Have a look at F2 Speedway

A good practice session today, the Neave brothers were at it like a World Championship depended on every session so I think there will be some fireworks between them and the rest of the top half dozen in the country tomorrow. Quite a few French lads over as well showing excellent dress sense allied to complete madness whenever they get near a bike :-) Should be a good day of racing and if you only come to the afternoon event should move at a good pace with only 3 groups racing. Had quite a long chat with Len today and those who think he's losing his marbles should be looking in the mirror first, the old boy might not do things the way some want him to but he certainly has all his faculties.

Definitely still growing in this country with record entries this year. The top two in the British Championship also get to race in the Super Prestigio event in Spain against Marquez and some other Moto GP riders as well as some good Americans, last year the AMA Champion Brad Baker was the event winner. There is a training camp being run in Spain later this year by Kenny Noyes, this year with help from top American Sammy Halbert who is also attending the DTRA awards evening. Aidan Collins recently won the latest round of the European Championships and is generally accepted to be the best rider in Europe although he is now being challenged hard by some of the younger British riders. The standard seems to be rising rapidly in this country and it is becoming one of the favourite training techniques for the Worlds best Road Racers. How long or whether it will catch on as a spectator sport in this country I don't really know but at its best it can be great to watch.

The final round of the British Short Track Championship will take place at Rye House on Sunday 21st September with the titles still to be decided in most classes including the Pro class. The meeting is split into two parts with the Youth, Minibike, Vintage and Rookie classes being run from 10.30 and the Restricted, Thunderbike and Pro classes following on at about 2pm. Rye House really suits our bikes and with so much to play for and 12 riders per race there should be plenty of thrills and spills and it's free to spectate!

If Dean is in no position to judge who should or shouldn't be in the pits because he hasn't been World Champion then you are in no position to judge Dean as I'm assuming you never got to his level as a rider!!

I think it would be fair to say that SCB and I haven't always seen eye to eye!! However I do think he could be an excellent Team Manager if he had a captain who was good on the set up side for the bikes.

For what it's worth I thought the ref was in an impossible position having to exclude either Pedersen or Batchelor. I don't think either of them actually did anything wrong at all, Batchelor went to the fence and started to turn back in before Pedersen got there and Pedersen went for a legitimate gap. Just one of those racing incidents that should really be all 4 back imo.

I can't see Poole could really sack him when he was available to ride and had yet to actually be found guilty of anything. Doesn't appear to be any reason why the FIM didn't issue an automatic suspension until his hearing immediately he failed the test. That seems to be what other sports do, then again they probably have a lot more confidence in their testing procedures. Poole knew he was unlikely to be available so they are mad if they haven't spent their time preparing a replacement.

Strange how we all see different things in a rider. For me while Ward has fantastic balance and immense talent on a bike it's his racing brain that has yet to develop, at the highest level he makes more mistakes and bad choices than some of the other top riders. If he sorts his life and attitude out then he has a chance of learning those skills and being an all time great, personally I'm not convinced he will. The revelation of the past couple of seasons has been Woffinden who has developed the knack of putting himself in the right place at the right time more than just about any other rider I have ever seen. A few years back I could see a very good rider but never expected him to reach the level he has now. In contrast to Ward he has got himself on track to be one of the best ever in my opinion. As for punishment I think a fairly short ban and having to go through the qualifiers would be fair.

As far as I am aware all suits have some Kevlar in them. I believe it has been discussed many times that it is the way Kevlar is woven into a material that makes it more or less effective rather than the percentage of Kevlar. Certainly the suits my son has had have been up to the job and I speak as somebody who chooses to wear leathers. I do think many people don't realise that it is the undersuit that provides the majority of the protection for a rider. But I still think that if every suit was filled like the one on Ebay crowds at Speedway would increase and we would forget any safety issues.

IT WAS JUST A JOKE!!!!!

Having put Speedway into Ebay it came up with this alternative that is better than either Kevlar or Leathers in my opinion! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WOMEN-039-Multi-color-Bandage-BodyconThe-Leather-Speedway-Jumpsuit-Romper-YH6019-/380979480675?&_trksid=p2056016.l4276

I generally try to look on the positive side, unfortunately, as a referee Dave Robinson doesn't have one. If I remember rightly he was a trainee ref at the same time as Ms Vardy, presumably they were in desperate need of more officials at the time so didn't worry about the training.

Fact 1: if I have had one too many last night and get breathalysed today I would lose my licence and not be able to work in my present job for probably 5 or more years because of companies being unwilling to pay the extra insurance costs. Shelf stacking in a supermarket would be beckoning and everybody would be correctly thinking that it served me right. Fact 2: The court may fractionally reduce my fine if the were some truly exceptional circumstances. The minimum ban is fixed and would not be changed. Fact 3: I would think I had been bloody stupid for having a drink. I wouldn't think my problem was not drinking enough water to help mask the effects.

Same era when riders had their 'normal' engines and then if they were already near the top and could afford it hired in a motor for the big events. None of this turning up on the very best equipment they can afford like the lads do today. You can see how much faster the bikes are today by the lap records! Not really much difference in time. I'd agree that the sport in this country might not need the top riders in action every week and lower order riders can provide just as much entertainment. However despite some good racing the NL is hardly pulling in big crowds. I honestly believe that those people mourning the loss of the good old days have some seriously dodgy memories. You used to get mostly mediocre racing with a couple of good races thrown in on a good night (and some of them were due to an astute promoters paying a 'bonus' for last lap passes etc). Now and again you got a brilliant race of the type that makes us all love Speedway and want to return in the hope of seeing similar. Exactly the same as it is now, the exception being that in my opinion the majority of riders push hard in every race which wasn't always the case.

It's all very well but if you have a minor illness by the time you research the banned substance list and find something to relieve the symptoms you will be very poorly indeed. Like a lot of these things there is a very large grey area to trap the unwary and the banned substance list is a minefield. Some of the most unlikely medications could see you banned from working, it's not as simple as taking a breathalyser like many companies do now. Unlike most sports Speedway riders don't tend to have medical experts on their team to offer advice either, Speedway medics tend to specialise in injuries.

The only change I would like to see is all riders getting at least a point for getting to the semi finals. Perhaps score them 4,3,2,1.

Apart from when the riders go from dirt to what will be raised concrete after a short time and back on to dirt again on every flying lap!

You really think that a rider anticipating the start or even just making a really good gate is as bad as using an oversize motor or drug cheating??? If the rider can't roll and doesn't touch the tapes which rise in a fraction of a second just how do you tell whether he made an excellent start or anticipated? Riders who continually anticipate the start will touch the tapes as often as they get a good start if they are made to sit only 2" from the tape. I would much rather see them get the odd flyer than really good gaters getting penalised frequently which has been happening a lot.

Best thing that ever happened to Speedway was to make riders keep still at the starts. The old system with riders rolling over tapes and pulling back and rolling again made the start a lottery and ruined a lot of potentially good races in my opinion. The solution is easy, riders called to the tapes by the start marshall have to respond immediately and put their front wheels within two inches of the tapes. Once he is satisfied he signals the ref and if any rider moves backward by even an inch the ref puts the red light on and guilty rider (not a replacement) goes from 15m. Otherwise if a rider doesn't touch the tapes and happens to get a flyer good luck to him. Any rider not coming forward when called in by the start marshall is given one warning, second offence in the same meeting and he is excluded from the race with no replacement. One or two start marshalls will need keeping in line by the ref but that should be easy enough.

I always put the tube in the tyre first as I find it much easier to get the valve through the wheel. Put the tyre in the sun for a couple of hours and as great central says use plenty of lubricant (windowlene is good if you have no tyre soap). Then just take your time and take tiny little bites with the lever. If that doesn't work just take it into the pits and say "This tyre is so tight I don't think anybody could manage it" There'll be a queue to prove you wrong!

You can be a sporting God or a war hero on a Playstation or PC without any real effort or any risk of getting hurt. Unfortunately many people, not just kids, think that's the same excitement they would get from doing it for real.

Where was the best Speedway in the 60's or 70's or whatever? At different tracks at different times and it was pot luck whether you saw a good meeting or not, just like it is now so you're asking an impossible to answer to your satisfaction question. Of course the clip doesn't confirm that which is why I quite clearly made the point that it proves nothing any more than a TV meeting quoted by yourself does. I could equally make the point that I saw some bad meetings at just about every Southern and Midlands track throughout the late 60's, the 70's and 80's so Speedway must have been really poor then. However I also saw some really good meetings at most of those tracks as well during the same period. But to answer your question I have seen some really good races in the past decade or so at Poole, Oxford, Reading, Eastbourne, Newport, Kings Lynn, Mildenhall, Coventry, Stoke, Buxton, Scunthorpe, Sheffield, Newcastle and Edinburgh that I can think of easily. Strangely I have only been to Somerset two or three times and never seen a good meeting, however I am willing to accept that I have been unfortunate and take other peoples word for it that the track usually provides great racing. Of course I have also seen some poor races but it's my OPINION that what I see now is generally better. Riders that are at the very least a match for the best I saw in the early period (and in my opinion are actually better) would include Rickardsson, Pedersen, Crump, Woffinden, Holder, Sayfutdinov, Hancock and Adams. My idol as a youngster was Mauger with Briggo close behind but I think todays riders are more skilled and while Mauger was exceptionally professional in his day the majority of top riders would meet or exceed his standards now. The way of riding now may have changed a bit but to dismiss it as less skilled si crazy, it's just different. Dave Lanning best Speedway commentator ever, World of Sport great coverage of Speedway? I remember just how exciting it was to see Speedway on the TV because it was a rarity and also only ever highlights. So much easier for a commentator to avoid the repetition and so much easier for the Speedway to be memorable when it's a rare treat than when it's on TV several times a month. Could modern Speedway be improved? Of course it could but not by harpng back to some fictional past but by embracing the positive side of the sport then bringing the rest of it into the modern era in my opinion. Of course there are lessons to be learned from the past but during most of the wonderful times being quoted the sport spent periods of being on the verge of extinction with very short periods of boom times.