Vince

Marek Mroz and Brent Werner added today.

Lee Complin and Ricky Ashworth added to the line up today

Have to say that Sam was very lucky with the timing when he started Speedway. Firstly he first rode in September so then had a few months of regular training schools to go to (although it still meant driving a lot of miles). Then in 2004 there were enough riders about to give a good quality, year long U15 Championship that helped all the lads no end. However I should point out that we had to push pretty hard to get him into the Championship as he had done no competitive racing for anybody to know who he was. I accepted all along that it was up to us to chase for rides though as clearly it isn't going to be the other way round when they are new to the sport. Also he was 15 in the April and so able to go into the CL, which was a fair bit easier than it is now. Yet again we looked about at the different teams and which one would be most likely to give him a decent go. We then went and asked the Promoter for a place for Sam. It seems that so many people sit back waiting for the Speedway authorities or teams to contact them. The fact is that breaking into Speedway is difficult, invariably the costs and time needed for travelling make life hard and in my experience it gets harder as they go up the leagues. You will always need to chase after rides (or at least if or until you are in demand by teams). Second halfs are a pain with cancellations and one quick ride, they pretty much always have been. Personally and with the benefit of hindsight if I had a kid of 13 or under wanting to ride Speedway I would take him Grass Tracking instead. I would keep doing that until the winter when he was 14 when a cheap bike and Speedway training schools were a bit more available. Of course if money is no problem they can do both all along. I would also do everything I could to get some interaction between every Grass track club and the closest Speedway club. If the BSPA could use Grass Track as a breeding ground for the future perhaps they could be convinced to help the clubs with meetings, training etc. This in turn would hopefully see an increase in entries at Grass Tracks and an increase of riders progressing to Speedway. It's not a short term answer but at least it could be something practical to work towards. As for why the kids aren't coming through, the alternatives are so much easier. I can buy a MX bike for a similar amount to a decent Speedway bike. Then without ever travelling for more than an hour I can practice or race every weekend and some weekdays. I can get several hours of on-bike time for about £20 and ride if and when i want to. Or I could buy a Trials bike, practice all day for nothing and spend £100 a year on maintenance. Really it is more amazing that anybody commits to Speedway

Surely there are nowhere near enough riders to make splitting them into four groups possible. There aren't even enough for two sensible sized groups this year it would seem.

They are dropping like flies! Sam Hurst withdrew on Saturday as his hand hasn't healed as well as he was hoping. I think a lot will depend on which riders have experience of the track. We know Lewis goes well there and I don't see anybody beating him to the title. However the slightest slip up and I suspect Tai and Josh will be right there to take advantage. Outside bets for the rostrum - Nicki Glanz or Simon Lambert.

I don't think it is quite as simple as some of you seem to believe. For sure Motocross tracks are run in a farmers field but they are temporary so don't need planning permission if the site is only used a few times a year. I don't know what the current rate is but about 5 years ago it was around £500 for the day. As soon as you bring shale in you will need to get planning permission - you can expect that to take over a year and cost a few quid as well. Then in order to comply with the insurance conditions you will need a safety fence that complies with the regulations - another fair chunk of cash. Don't forget you will then need first aid cover at every training day and there will be lots more conditions laid down by the insurers. Insurance can be a major issue with new ventures expected to lay out the full years premium in advance. Motocross practice tracks find it worthwhile doing all this because a decent track will get 50 people on a bad day and maybe 300 on a good one. I know of a Speedway training day recently that had less than a half dozen riders and 50 would be a fantastic day. I think the only practical way would be to try and get one track each in North, South, East and West if possible that has suitable planning permission in place and find a way to finance a practice track within each place that could be open two or three days a week. Failing that another option might be to push Grasstrack as training for Speedway as you could then run the temporary tracks in farmers fields with a lot less outlay. You would still be looking at several thousands of pounds investment though.

JT, did you actually bother to read my post? If you really have such a strong urge to be rude to me why don't you come and talk to me face to face.

But I mean that some have claimed that if the team is winning crowds will increase by something around 300% - I don't think that is possible. I wasn't referring to past crowd levels.

I certainly had no intention of insulting anybody so perhaps I should explain why I don't think a huge increase in crowds is likely. Because I use the van for work lots of people have spoken to me about Speedway, mostly to tell me how they used to go in the past but now only watch on Sky or check out the results in the papers. Rarely does anybody say that they have completely lost touch with the sport. If there was a similar meeting locally I am sure the majority of these people would hear about it and a fair few would attend. This didn't seem to happen at Newport on Sunday. What has happened at other clubs over the past couple of years also suggests that a winning team doesn't necessarily produce a significant increase in attendance. Reading last year were in the hunt for the title in the top league, pretty heavily publicised and presented a professional image. In the winter they made no secret of having to reduce costs as there hadn't been sufficient increase in gates to make the additional expense worthwhile. Berwick and Hull have also had success without a happy ending. In fact it would be interesting to know if any club has manged to double their attendance in the past 10 years let alone treble it. There is also the problem that the way team building is done in the sport that a good year will often be followed by a bad one so how do you decide what is a sensible budget. You only have to look at every new track that opens to see that they will initially draw great crowds but they then tend to dwindle to a hardcore of support. Many said that winning at home would produce more supporters but it doesn't seem to have happened in a big way so far. I do think that crowds will / would increase with a winning team, I just don't think they would get to anything like the figures you had in the past or have been suggested on the forums as being reason to risk large sums of money that the club can't afford. My theories may be short on fact and long on theory but no more so than the often quoted theory that because you used to have big crowds they will return if you are winning.

Perhaps as we don't know both sides of the story we aren't as quick to jump to conclusions and apportion blame. I am amazed that anybody thought Phil Crump was going to be doing anything other than exactly what he did. I guess that whatever meeting had been put on and whoever rode how it wouldn't be good enough for some. Disappointing crowd makes a mockery of claims that crowds would treble with a winning team in my opinion, they might increase slowly over time but to nowhere near the level some have claimed in the past. For Tim to invest more than the club can afford on such grounds would be a certain end of the sport in Newport I believe. I thought it was a great day, Michal's move to round Neathy was as brave as anything you will see anywhere all year and Tony has got his bikes back to their best and his confidence grew with every ride and it was great to see him enjoying his racing so much. There seems to be a really good team spirit with the Wasps guys this year. Obviously I have no idea what the atmosphere was like in the stand but it was a relaxed and very enjoyable day in the pits.

It is some time since I have seen Mark ride and he has improved almost beyond recognition, I was very impressed. I was also impressed by Ben Barkers first lap in the final when he ran the fence for the entire lap, he certainly earned the win in that race.

I have ridden a 500 many times - none of them fast - and even a 250 Grass bike on the Speedway. In my opinion an excess of power is very rarely a problem, in fact it generally makes the bikes safer as when they are spinning too much they stay away from the fence. Again it is only my opinion but things start to go wrong with 500's when dad starts trying to get the bike to drive harder than junior can cope with. Already we are seeing very inexperienced riders with the new style back ends and the wheel shunted right forwards, then the timing is knocked back and low tyre pressures used. Additionally they may well be using an engine set up for a professional rider on slick tracks and you have the perfect recipe for a rider picking up and heading toward the fence at every small mistake. Possibly the 250's will give them a head start when it comes to using professional type set ups but I think they may well be a problem on bigger tracks for the same reason a 'soft' 500 can be. Personally I am glad that Sam was able to start on a 500 that was always left set up long and sharp (and still is in the main) so that he has to use throttle control to find drive. When he gets into trouble there is a good chance that a big handful of throttle will get him off the lowside.

Not at the Weymouth round according to the release that we were sent.

Now you're just being pedantic - I think that's the right word, anybody got a dictionary? Anyway I am glad I went to Newport as I might have embarassed myself among the English professors at Wolverhampton.

I think rather than Burza making a mess of the second corner Sam saw him coming and shut him down pretty hard. Burza then had no need to try and pass a teenager on a mission or Tony on what had become a difficult track. Tony was undoubtedly faster than Sam but the showers had made the dirt line so wet that there was no drive off the outside. All Sam had to do was not get over excited and go into a corner too hard and Tony was left with no chance to go by. To his credit Sam rode the 4 laps without a mistake but it was just a good gate and no disgrace to Tony for being beaten with the track as it was.

From my viewpoint I thought Bomber made his mistake on the way into the third turn which meant he couldn't get off turn four properly and cost him the race. Sandie, that is exactly my point, I do know and like SCB when I meet him but there is no denying that some of his posts on here don't match the person I know. Full marks to him for his last post accepting his mistake though - I might take a can of Special Brew up to Newport for him as a reward I do know quite a few people who post on here but obviously there are a lot more who I don't know.

I will happily talk to anybody and have spoken to SCB several times when he has been polite and no problem to chat to. There was no need for the childish name calling in that post and it's not the way he is away from his keyboard was the point I was making. Of course there is another slight hitch in that I have no idea who most of you are!

I know that when we were in the pits we had no idea what was behind the stand weather wise. When we had a shower everybody was saying "gosh and golly, where did that dashed rain come from" - or words to that effect. I didn't hear any of the riders pass any comment at all about the rain effecting the track. Off at a bit of a tangent, has anybody noticed how keyboards and large amounts of special brew have the same effect on some people. Firstly it makes them add words into what started out as a reasonable comment that turns it into a rant. It makes them say things that they wouldn't normally be brave enough to and it seems that both are capable of making the quietest mouse believe he is a lion. See below for a example of binge keyboarding.

Trouble is that if there isn't a CL match the Mavericks riders usually want a ride and by the time they have had a go all the track staff and first aid are ready to go home.

Ah but it's not so easy to find a proper bike these days, seems like every one you look at the engine is hanging out the front!

You need to talk to Peter Oakes. If you phone the SCB I am sure they will sort you out with contact details.

Tim got the message about Shaun. Without going on and on and on maybe Lewis isn't available! At this time of year most riders need a bit of notice in order to get equipment ready.

Three changes to last weeks line up. Lubos Tomicek is unable to get back over and is being replaced by Glenn Cunningham. Eddie Kennet is on holiday and Shaun Tacey is his replacement. Finally Sam Simota is a last minute cancellation. Although his ticket was booked he was unlucky enough to get some metal fragments in his eye while in the workshop. The metal has been removed and there is no long term problem with his eye but he doesn't want to risk it quite so soon. He has accepted a place in the Welsh Open so that should be something to look forward to. Replacing Sam is Ricky Ashworth who should do very well.

I have to say that the weather forecast was indeed the same last night as this morning, however they were all wrong. The BBC (and apparently Sky which we never looked at) gave persistant heavy rain. Metcheck gave persistant light rain, very light until the meeting would have been over. Reuters gave light showers until evening. Heavy rain that stopped at 11.30 for any amount of time I didn't see anywhere. During the week we have been speaking about the weather at length every night and Metcheck and Reuters had been the two that had been most accurate in that time. If he had pulled the meeting last night and the forecast he used had been accurate he would have been criticised for that, bit of a damned if you do, damned if you don't job really. Probably right that somebody should have stayed on at the track but everybody had had enough and the guys that had been working all morning were soaked through so I guess it was a courtesy that got missed. I think it was about 12.30 by the time everybody left but I can understand it would have been frustrating and I will mention it to Tim.

I believe he is - although eating in Newports McDonalds may have been enough to change his mind