1 valve

Many think that. No doubt. There’s also a few who see UK speedway as an opportunity to grow something from the current mess it’s in into something, bigger and better. Lots of hurdles to clear along the way and the principal of “less is more” will need to be understood as a first step.

There’s plenty of Uk based riders who aspire to achieve the highest levels possible. Just that to do so they need to ride in Poland. It’s more the promoters who over the past decades have failed to aspire to “be the best” which is dragging the sport down.

What a lovely coincidence that the article is written by Phil Lanning, the son of Dave who for many was the voice of speedway on TV and who introduced darts to the TV world and now is son, is the Suns dart correspondent the very same newspaper for whom his dad was the speedway correspondent. Great to see speedway back on terrestrial TV.

Sadly, Matchroom Sport have previously looked at and are not interested in UK speedway. First and foremost because of the outdated and self serving corporate governance in situ.

A highlights show, broadcast at a reasonable time and not when everybody has gone to bed would be a good idea. However, the question I have is where would the consistent quality footage come from? All other sporting highlight shows are made up of recent events that have been shown live, or purposely recoded for the show. so unless BSN can be persuaded to license their footage it is difficult to see where its going to come from, nevermind whos actually going to edit and present the show. But as I said, good idea and I hope it can be made to work.

Only if they are in business. 🤞

The Polish clubs get significant support from their local authorities some of whom actually own the stadium. TV income works hand in hand with major advertisers and the clubs sponsors which enables the teams to fund the promotion at a profit (but sometimes not all of the time) the big factor re income and success is gate receipts. If teams do well and or the table toppers are in town then gates remain good. Not so if the club is having a poor season v another struggling team.

Regarding stock cars. Back in the day when Brandon was alive & kicking they held F1 stock car meetings once per month. As did (and still do) Brafield. Should Brandon have new life breathed into it, you can be sure that the F1 promoters will bring Stoxs back to Brandon with no ill effects to attendance given the way they spread meetings over the month using both Saturday & Sundays. As for speedway, if promoted well, rather than suffer due to the existence of Northampton, the close proximity will be good for both clubs (and Leicester) due to local Derbies/rivalry.

Sheffield more than likely will not be a Premiership club in 2027

Depending on exchange rates at the time. Winning the Extraliga earns the winning team circa £100k prize. The winner of a GP gets £10k with a sliding scale down to £4k for last place. No money paid for heats.

Spot on. So long as UK keep to Monday & Thursday otherwise almost all of those in your list will leave UK.

Howarth said he was fed up racing the same four tracks. That statement is irrelevant because he would ride 16 tracks

Howarth said he was fed up racing the same four tracks. That statement is irrelevant because he would ride 16 tracks

Yes. Have a league that runs on Friday & say good bye to all those Australians & Poles who ride in Poland, Danes, Swedes , Czech etc leaving enough riders for nine teams made up of current lower scoring Championship and NDL riders. Not a healthy recipe to ensure the continuation of speedway in Uk

Can’t see that being a relevant point for Howarth. As a rider who doubles up, he would ride at fifteen different tracks during the season including the two “home clubs” he’s left. There’s more behind his reason for quitting than taking a break - there’s sufficient time between October and March next year to rest up.

As has often been stated, “One big league” in the UK would actually mean a maximum of eight teams featuring the best available riders (full time professionals) coincidentally the same number as Polands top flight leaving all other promotions to operate on a semi-pro basis providing rider development opportunities. No other formula is reasonably possible given the quality of rider availability and cost. Top league of eight - Belle Vue. Kings Lynn, Leicester, Northampton, Ipswich, from current Premier league plus three from Scunthorpe, Oxford, Poole & Glasgow. All of the above have sufficient availability of stadium to run on Monday or Thursday with sufficient capacity of at least 2.5k which are two of the necessary fundamentals as a means to attract a significant TV deal, halt the decline & provide a basis for growth.

As has often been stated, “One big league” in the UK would actually mean a maximum of eight teams featuring the best available riders (full time professionals) coincidentally the same number as Polands top flight leaving all other promotions to operate on a semi-pro basis providing rider development opportunities. No other formula is reasonably possible given the quality of rider availability and cost. Top league of eight - Belle Vue. Kings Lynn, Leicester, Northampton, Ipswich, from current Premier league plus three from Scunthorpe, Oxford, Poole & Glasgow. All of the above have sufficient availability of stadium to run on Monday or Thursday with sufficient capacity of at least 2.5k which are two of the necessary fundamentals as a means to attract a significant TV deal, halt the decline & provide a basis for growth.

Amazing that 300 extra folk attending would be a game changer, a number which should be in easy reach of any club who professionally promotes their club. but, spending a grand a week on the concept would need funding otherwise the £90K extra benefit actually becomes a lot less nett wise. .

It looks like (Dougy apart) the Lions riders just don’t have the correct set up or maybe even the right engines for BV. Masters especially.

Poland has eight teams in their top flight and seem to do rather well.

Being brutal, maybe shift workers will miss meetings. The reality is that the majority of speedway fans are not shift workers and its impossible to facilitate any form of fixture list which can accommodate all eventualities. FYI, back in the day, when I worked shifts, where possible I arranged swaps or even had to have my fingers crossed that the meeting finished on time to enable me to get to work on time for the 22h start.

Why would a league of eight teams mean less fixtures during the season than the current league of six?

All of the above would be definitely be the right road for the recovery of British speedway. But will need the promoters to be looking forward and working together behind the scenes to ensure it happens and continues to evolve. let the track action be the place where the competition between promoters exist - not in the board room.

Attendance for this week’s second leg of the KO Cup at Leicester appeared to be around 2,500, with a strong mix of travelling Witches fans, supporters from other current and former tracks, and a sizeable Leicester contingent. This is surely the kind of crowd Premier League promoters should be aiming for as an average attendance. Yes, there was a trophy at stake, even if the tie had largely been decided after the first leg, however, the meeting was also shown on BSN, which many blame for lower attendance figures. Looking ahead to 2027, I hope the sport’s top level moves beyond “hobbyist” promoters whose survival plan is simply to do nothing. Instead, we see the continual emergence of profit-driven promoters developing a cohesive strategy for growth to include better top end riders, far less doubling up, a clear distinction between Premier and Championship clubs which results in an “Elite” competition comprehensively promoted every week to generate greater and wider media interest to attract significant sponsorship opportunities for both riders and clubs. As I believe the initiative to make this happen is already work in progress, yes I am very much interested in 2027 and beyond.

Maybe Doyly pulling out of the meeting (with very painful rib injury) could be the reason the aces capitulated to defeat But maybe not. After all, he had ran a distant third in his fist race, and his two remaining programmed rides yielded a win and strange decision by Lemmon to put in Z Cook. Yes he may have featured in heat 15 but it would have been hard to justify given the performance Norick was putting in throughout the meeting and certainly no gurantee that he would have bettered both Leicester riders Fundamentally, Whereas the Aces got off to an absolute flyer in the first five heats the Lions were none existent. The stats make interesting reading. In the first five heats, a Lions rider finished last four times conceding four heat advantages as the aces raced to a 12 point lead. In the next nine races Lions finished last just once, notched up seven heat advantages to lead by four points with just heat 15 remaining where they duly collected the required two points. On balance, I would say the turning point wasn't the loss of JD but the much improved performance across the board by all of the Lions riders from heat six onwards.