John Leslie

Wrong. The Speedway Regulations state that the National Development League "is the entry level league dedicated to the training and development of young home grown riders"

Tai Woffinden, Nicki Pedersen, Chris Holder, Niels Iversen, Chris Harris etc etc are a right bunch of nobodies aren't they? How can it be described as a major event? Surprised they have sold out the grandstand 12 months in advance with such nonentities. Could work to their benefit if people want to make a weekend of top international speedway followed by the city's football derby

Bad decision. Harris was riding his own race and had no idea Janowski was there.

Good to see that Shovvy is out. Hope they let Jerran Hart out next.

Hans would never get up to 88mph to go back to the future

True. We need someone like SCB on the case (The forum SCB not THE SCB). He can work out the stats and the BSPA can copy that and pretend they did it That wouldn't make any sense as you'd have doubling up second-strings Ricky Wells (5.91) and Sam Masters (5.60) as heat leaders, and proven heat leaders Hans Andersen (6.45) and Troy Batchelor (6.91) as second strings

They can't just pick a cut-off figure and say above that is heat leader and below that is second string. That wouldn't remove the problem. The averages need to be weighted and readjusted first. Someone (like Andersen) who averaged 6.50 riding all season at heat leader is equivalent to about 8.00 in old money. Someone who averaged 6.50 riding all season at second string is equivalent to about 5.00 in old money. You can't class them as equal. Someone needs to go through the figures, calculate the heat-leader/second-string split, work out the necessary weighting percentage, and apply it. Only then can you draw a line under the top 24 riders to determine who would be heat-leaders.

Only logical guesses, not fact, but I presume the answers are...

The only way it can be done fairly is to re-calculate averages split between races at heat-leader and races at second-string and then apply a weighting to level it up.

No. Steady will have to be Lord Sheffield.

But youths are restricted by age (quite rightly) to 125/150cc and 250cc, with over 14s moving up to full-sized 500s. What use is an oversized engine to anyone?

So it's completely pointless as far as Speedway is concerned??? A bit like me inventing a cricket bat that helps defend more of the wicket....it's 2 feet wide.....oh, and it can't be used in a cricket match.

From what I remember of the Belle Vue situation, theirs was effectively Manchester Council applying to Manchester Council for planning permission, and there was no way it was going to be turned down. But even so, they still had to go through the procedure of a formal planning application, notifying residents, putting notices on lamp posts, waiting for objections, and the a 3 Month cooling-off period before permission could be rubber stamped. So if the PP for Swindon still isn't in place, and there's a formal application to be made along with a 3 month waiting period, building wouldn't be able to start until the end of February at the earliest? Is this the case? I think our best hope is that the Abbey can be preserved for another season in 2016

Hope this engine works better than the one Sudden Sam backed on Dragon's Den!

What have Cradley's crowds been like at Birmingham compared to what they used to get at Wolves? What have crowd levels been like for Birmingham and Cradley? Similar levels for both teams?

You can't have 2 entries in ironic post of the year. That's just greedy

And the prize for ironic post of the year goes to.....

A final that had everything....including the traditional Poole winning by cheating

Gogglegate draw. Expect the SCB to sweep it under the carpet now.

Gogglegate decider?

If they don't make a comment how will anyone know when they've concluded their investigation, or what the results of the investigation are?

Surely the SCB have got to make a decision today? If they don't make a statement today it's going to look like they waited to make sure Poole won by more than 4 points before reaching a decision. Seems quite clear to me. Newman wasn't ready to race at the expiry of the 2 minute allowance as he wasn't wearing goggles, so he must be disqualified. The 2 points he scored in the race should be removed and the score becomes 46-44. I don't blame the referee for missing the fact that a rider went out without goggles. It's not that easy to see from a distance. BUt why didn't he review TV evidence and make a decision? He used TV replays before excluding Nicholls for tape touching, and before excluding Cook in the first bend bunching incident. Why didn't he use a replay to review gogglegate?

But is Dakota North going to be offered a couple of grand to stay away again?

Yes, it was someone being sarcastic in response to a stupid question. Another poster missed the sarcasm and thought it was factual, and from there an urban myth was born.

A Belle Vue fan said that the track was going to be "4 handlebar widths wide on the straight and narrower on the bends (because you don't need 4 riders side by side on the bends)". You didn't actually take that seriously did you??? He was making a sarcastic reply to a stupid question. It's well documented that the track is going to be approx 350m long (way above the FIM minimum). Extremely wide (way beyond the FIM minimum) and banked up to the maximum level of banking allowed by the FIM (I think a maximum 10% gradient on the bends).