foamfence

There is another side to this, Richard gets on well with team mates and management, whereas Richie ........ Lakeside need strength at the top.

Well done Chris Harris! Maybe not the best rider but certainly the best man. Marcel must be delighted.

It's forecast to be fine for the rest of the evening, covers? The patience at SKY must be at snapping point by now.

They won't if they are under the control of Marcel, he isn't just going to hand one over and let someone do as they wish with it, that's why they still have their own equipment alongside, It's just that Chris has created a bad reputation regarding engines and PK is on his last legs so to speak, it needs someone with more credibility.

Well Robert Lambert had the loan of one, what is really needed is a couple of top riders to start using them, that would soon see the demand soar. Harris (whose shortcomings were exposed last night) and the ageing Karlsson, won't persuade potential buyers but a couple of riders winning things around Europe will.

My thoughts (sickened by the news) now go to our brilliant crop of young riders, their last meeting at Rye was rained off and now this, hopefully some more fixtures can be added for them.

Very top heavy.

I hope he serves them well but they certainly look to have a weak tail end.

Why have regional leagues and then pick riders from one region and put them in the other? Surely the point of a regional league is to reduce travel for spectators and riders.

Breaking away from the rest and having one semi-pro league and one amateur league, is something that comes to mind.

Probably even less than that, to be honest. There are simply too many people trying to make a living out of it.

If you look at videos of the recent World Junior Championships on YouTube, the 250s look adequately fast but how reliable would they be and would they be even more dependent on tuners and setup?

Who is Alex Harkness?

Howarth and the German were both on a joker, Howarth broke the tapes and the German got 6!

Exactly right and I hear he has a younger brother who looks the business as well.

Glasgow have shown that some improvement is possible without changing the rules and structure of the sport (true that not every promotion can afford to spend to their level) but a return to busy stadiums is highly unlikely. The two best supported leagues are in Poland and Sweden and both of them have seen numbers decline by probably a greater percentage than here (they just began their decline from a higher level). Another problem that can't be got around with current bikes and noise regulations, is that too many tracks are miles from anywhere and aren't particularly local to anyone, I used to go to Halifax, Bradford, Belle Vue, Sheffield and Doncaster by public transport, I even went further for some away meetings, these days that's impossible in most parts of the country. I've introduced lots of friends to the sport and explained what was going on, most enjoyed it but almost all of them drifted back to whatever occupied their time on their evenings and weekends before they were introduced to Speedway. It's a sad state of affairs but as Alex Harkess says "it's difficult to produce a cure for the ills."

It worked because most riders had off-track jobs and there wasn't the opportunity to ride in several countries a week, in many cases they were lucky to get one match a week. A semi-professional future is quite likely, the way things are going. There are already a lot of riders using club bikes or engines. With the very poor reliability record of modern engines a track spare probably wouldn't be the answer.

To be fair there was a lot of criticism in both directions.

http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/sport/speedway/redcar-bears-suffer-double-injury-9720104

What Masters got shouldn't be allowed to set a precedent, we can never overcome inconsistency or mistakes from referees. Tungate's action was deliberate and reckless, even if his intentions might have been less damaging than they appeared to be.

He was OK at Kings Lynn but deteriorated at Belle Vue, his PL form hasn't been as good over the last two seasons either. EL promoters bring in whatever they see as the best option. Are you sure he decides who gets a place? I should think that Chris Morton and his fellow promoters decide that.

What?

Sorry, I completely disagree. Two wrongs don't make a right.

Some people seem to think Tungate was justified because of Auty's reputation and the unproven claim that 'he didn't really mean it.' So am I to assume that they would come to a different conclusion if the recipient had been someone other than Auty? The fact is that Tungate should face an enquiry and be prepared to accept whatever consequences they decide to impose.

To me, his form has declined over the last two years, he wasn't improving with Belle Vue or Ipswich and that sealed his fate for this year. I wish him well and hope that he can get back to his best form.