mikebv

Finding 12 Mondays or Thursdays between early April to September cannot be easy can it?

A fit for purpose RR would negate guests... Keep it simple... The rider missing can be replaced by the riders above and below twice (if the manager wishes), with a max seven rides each in the meeting... No1 missing? Then any riders can take his place to a max of two of his four rides.. No7 missing? Then a No8 (unattached), comes in and takes two of his rides with the No6 doing the other two... Whatever rider is missing then that is the RR spot... Other riders may get injured in a meeting but that is sport so by all means have an IRR plan to accommodate it... Which includes any rider pulling out missing the next match as a matter of course so as to dissuade any dodgy practice... Ipswich's Tom Brennan making a massive contribution to Leicester winning the KO Cup is nonsense really isn't it? And so many guestfests take place needlessly due to the RR system being so flawed, and are often due to one or other of the teams seeing an opportunity for a few ringers being brought in.. Simply. In 2025 this sport will never be taken seriously by the wider media and public with such a system in place..

Has the Wild Card been published? If its Dudek then he could be a spoiler for both...

Sounds like Leicester's lux ran out... I'll get me coat....

Ahh... Now you've said it the third time I completely agree...

Keep going...

Give your head a wobble.... Without Kurtz this season would have been a write off already.... Possibly the GOAT has so far only managed three points more.... No one wins a world title without being a special talent... And that includes the likes of Szczakiel, Muller and Havelock, amongst others, who won one offs...

Just a Throttle Jockey....

I presume the Captains no longer have to sign the pre match declaration that all riders are paid up to date?

They are the Birmingham of Sweden... Looking at the others, one team seems to get around 1000 but the rest look like they get crowds that UK Speedway would be pleased with... One match that the sponsors pay for is a great idea which hopefully can help generate some wider longer term interest. . Was that the sponsors match last night? Or did two good teams generate the 4000 plus?

Some very good racing... 4000+ crowd too... Seems to still be very decent crowds in Sweden regardless of what some on here seem to comment on about a demise... UK Speedway would certainly like 2000+ (and often many more), at most top league matches....

Completely one sided hammering but some excellent racing... A real advantage Speedway has over many, many other sports is the score doesn't have to be close to keep it worth watching..

Tom Brennan showing the aggression he needs to show more often there if he wants to make it to top international level... Showed Zmarzlik zero respect ..

Matias Nelsen beats Zmarzlik....

Kirky Lane delivered some very good racing until Air Fences came in and took away the wider outside run that the likes of Screen, Ott, Ermolenko, Adams, Hamill, Crump, Nielsen, Trick etc etc all used to great effect... It was designed as a "small track that rode like a big one", with very wide bends for its overall size.. When the Air Fences came in, it then became very much "standard UK fayre", of fill your programme in after bend three, lap one... Monmore went a similar way after they reconfigured the bend two fence to make the entry on to the track.. , As the equipment changed, these tracks of those shapes sadly didn't deliver the same level of entertainment that they once did... Anyone watching on TV would keep far more interested I would think if the racing had plenty of passing, rather than reinforcing the view that so many hold of whoever gets out of the start first always wins, no matter how close the rider is behind for four laps.. The devoted fans may love watching tight technical battles but the vast majority of any Motorsport followers, (and commentators), are very much in it for the passing that takes place, and the excitement it generates... Hence sporting bodies like F1 (a sport whose reputation was 100% "follow the leader"), keep making restrictions and changes to car specs to try and keep racing closer and more competitive, and use "gadgets" like DRS used to increase passing opportunities... Watching Kurtz, Lambert, BZ, Bewley, Doyle, and Emil in particular, all fly around the NSS, passing rivals just inches from the fence at high speed, is surely the ultimate in bravery and skill on a Speedway bike, and why people go to watch the sport?

A tough guy, obviously., wouldn't mess with him......

I much prefer those "technical" tracks where riders can ride sideways into the bends, blocking the track almost completely, meaning the rider behind has to follow exactly the same line... With him then hoping the rider in front gets some extra grip and gets fired "right" towards the fence, meaning a pass may then take place... The anticipation of waiting for some passing after bend two, lap one, for sometimes 15 heats in a row is simply breathtaking... To be honest, I am not sure the promoters of Redcar, Worky, Glasgow, Scunthorpe and the NSS know how boring all the passing that takes place there can be.... Edit. Forgot to mention the blue groove that can also appear on the "technical" tracks. For me, that "Azure Blue" hue adds colour and excitement to the event given all the riders use their throttle skills to constantly ride over it, never moving off it, and all skillfully keeping the same distance apart from each other for the entire race.....

I remember an interview with Hans Nielsen who said he weighed the same at the end of his career as he did at the start .. Vitally important to starting in particular was his view.... He was quite tall for a rider too, so made it his mission to be as light as possible... I also remember an interview where he got asked what advise he would give a particular young up and coming, talented rider to improve his performance.. "Lose 5 kilos" was his answer... Riders openly say they drop kilos in the days before a GP to ensure they minimise any possible disadvantage come race night... I would imagine for young riders today, their size could determine their success level... And, the taller you are, the more you will need to work at it....

At least he isn't booked for Kings Lynn in the 2nd leg....

There will be far too many passes too... It will get boring after the first ten or so...

Every sport ensures its National Team is as successful as possible as they know it has a direct positive knock on impact to the public interest, media coverage and domestic league... Hence, both Cricket and Rugby Union, who were struggling to compete with Football's cut through, went down the route of central contracts... They knew that the likes of Middlesex or Saracens winning their respective leagues wouldn't drive the sport forwards, but a successful National Team would... Speedway has a different idea than using a successful National Team to drive their domestic leagues forward.... A good idea....

It does take me ages to get away from OT... I have wrote to Sir Jim Ratcliffe and said that 70,000 every game is simply too much... And had he thought of reducing it to around 40,000 so I could get home quicker. . He didn't even answer my letter .. In fact, I have seen plans for a 100,000 seater stadium being built... They just don't listen do they?

Definitely one of the very few who won't let BZ take liberties.... He is quite happy to turn left on BZ, and risk contact, when he is dive bombing into bend 3 at ridiculous speed... Zmarzlik seem to know it too, given it has happened quite often, and he doesn't tend to launch at Woryna the same he does at others...

I thought the car parks (there are many), could be an issue getting out from... They had some very pleasant marshalls on the road in, upon arrival, but probably need them to direct people into the car parks further into the complex.. And have them after the meeting stopping and starting the exit of cars, at maybe five at a time, from the different car parks.. Someone suddenly came out of a field as I left that I didn't even know was a car park!! I got out early due to the drive home length, but could imagine that one lane being full very quickly.. The promotion are obviously trying to ramp up the "experience" of the evening so feedback on any tweaks needed always helps... And as such, the gents toilets on the first turn only had one basin with water, and that was only the cold tap working .. Best wishes to the promotion there, they are quite correctly targeting getting kids in, which is the way to develop the business as each kid will have a circle of friends (with their parents also knowing each other), so word of mouth is a key tool to use... A mithering kid can get his or her parents to take them places!! Especially if their friends are going already and the parents talk positively about the evening out... I heard that someone filmed the rider locked in the toilets, so, hopefully they will get that on in the socials and YT as that is the type of thing that goes viral and quickly... Write some context across the screen as to what is being watched, and add in some action from the racing, and include the clubs name, race night, and time... A small community can get phenomenal % reach from such opportunities....

Isn't that what happens now?... Having to use a 75% guest is a facility isn't it?.. If you were not allowed to sign riders who are needed elsewhere (either by another club, a country, or at an FIM individual event), then you would have teams full of NDL second strings and reserves... Running Saturdays will be good for crowd levels but also will mean home and away teams may not have their seven riders there... Much the lesser issue given that the challenge in getting numbers through the doors is the one to prioritise. Genuine reasons for guestfests, or non genuine reasons for guestfests? It makes zero difference.... Virtually every meeting has a guest, for a myriad of reasons, therefore just run them on the best night you can get people to turn up to watch.... Looks like Plymouth are doing OK out of Saturday Speedway...