21st century heathen

That's what I thought. If memory serves there was some sort of issue with the removal of earth so it was dumped on the 3rd/4th turn. I'm not 100% sure about it though. If this is the case then there will be some elevation on the 3rd/4th turn that should allow people to see over the air fence.

I should have mentioned that. Hopefully Wednesday will see a turning point for the relationship between B'ham Speedway and BCU. No probs when you're off the motorway. Use J7 and you're almost there. Most of the traffic at that time is heading out of the City rather than in, and much of that is heading along the Aston Express way towards J6. Just allow yourself some time as the M6 from J11 to J8 can be extremely busy at times. It's hit and miss. Sometimes you breeze through, and other times you will have to crawl for a few miles. Simply because the shops are closed, or mostly if not all, by half seven on a Wednesday evening. Even at other times I doubt there would be a problem. There's plenty of parking there, and I guess they would hope people arrive early and pop in to one or two shops. The B'ham website shows a cost for paying on the night. I don't have an exact figure, but with significant space available inside as well as people outside it must hold something in the region of 6000. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I can't believe I've never noticed but is the 3rd/4th bend banked?

I would agree with that Bert. Scott screwed up here, but at least he didn't treat everyone like fools. Congrats to Coventry. Sounds as though Hans, particularly, rode very well.

Forgive me if I'm repeating anything, but first-timers (particularly) may find this useful. B'ham have also announced further parking will be available. Details here. p.s. Not really my place to say this, but I will. It's very important to the Brummies that the neighboughs are kept happy, so please don't park in the streets around the stadium. The One Stop has plenty of free parking, and is only a few minutes walk across the road from the stadium.

Last night I found out that a family member is going with his wife and son. How random!! Formerly a Cov fan that doesn't go these days.

Can't imagine why you're only slightly nervous. I'd feel much worse in your situation.

As mentioned on the previous page - The Beer Factory. It's at the top of the Square on the right-hand side (roughly opposite the McDonalds) as you are walking up the hill towards the Museum. Not the cheapest (or particularly expensive) place, but the (ooops got excited and added a word) hopefully the hot dancer girl will be there again.

Yes. Using the stats on the KanDysoft website I can tell you that his home EL GSA is 7.14 (CMA 7.71). Both figures are just a tad above those posted by Simon Stead. Readers may also be interested to note that Olly has recorded just five 4th place finishes in the home EL meetings (from 28 rides), and Simon Stead just one (from 31 rides). Although it should be noted he's generally been at number 5. All the Bees have finished 4th more often than Simon showing just what a dreadful meeting he had compared to what he can do around Brandon, and that the decision to include him wasn't the complete joke some think it was. If Olly can score 7 points per meeting around Brandon in the EL this season, I think 5 from a SWC meeting is about right for him. All the others scored below what would reasonably be expected from them. I'm not sure what you mean by your closing statement. I've just posted an opinion based on the facts.

Looking forward to it. Hopefully the GP will be better this year, and I won't feel as though it got in the way of a good weekend.

Ah you mean when Bomber took a dive?! Just for the record I'm very much a fan of both riders, and only made my mind up on that one when I got home and reviewed all the angles shown on Sky. That was an incredibly foolish comment.

Of course I'll be backing the Brits. I'm British. Fingers crossed we get to the final and I can find somewhere to watch it.

Or perhaps Scott didn't feel the contact? He only clipped his leg (he was rightly excluded, don't misunderstand my point). There was no bike-to-bike contact. The contact did not disturb Scott's bike or his run into the corner. It's entirely possible that without the benefit of a replay he just didn't realise he'd taken Peter's leg from under him.

And herein lies the argument. We used to have independant countries, and it was changed. I don't recall a time that the Welsh raised a squad, but my memory is somewhat shorter than some on here, but the Scots had an International team in the past. If it's horribly slick I'll complain whatever the result may be.

A properly prepared grippy track is superb. It's a cocked-up grippy track that causes problems.

For the last year the track has been prepared on the slick to very slick side by CM. Not as bad as it was on Monday though. It doesn't matter what size and shape Brandon is. The problem was the Brits inability to adapt to the surface. I hope nobody mistakes my posts as making excuses. I'm simply stated what I see as the facts (although I could be wrong of course). The Brits should be able to adapt and ride to a good standard on slick tracks, even if they don't enjoy it. It just seems a cold hard fact to me that, generally speaking, they can't. As I said yesterday on one of the SWC, threads this is no different to some foreign riders that can't adapt to heavy/grippy conditions with deep/wet shale. Many have ridden enough times to have come across such tracks in Britain, but ride the conditions well. I'll start a campaign. Lance Sealey to prepare all SGP and SWC tracks in future. If Scott and Bomber still don't score well they'll need a slap.

There was a fair number of passes, but generally when someone made a mistake by drifting a metre off the curb. I prefer it when riders can use every line, including a big blast round the boards in the dirt.

I think it would be absolutely fantastic to have a Scottish team as well. I think they'd have a decent chance of qualifying if they could all click on the day. I don't mind competing as Britain as we are British. It's just the traditionalist in me that doesn't like it. Oh, and Team Great Britain (or "Team GBR as they seemed to have evolved into ) sounds crap (couldn't put what I really wanted to there ).

Forgot about those. They were going up a bit on the skew. That's good. A happy customer. The BSPA should have you stuffed and put on display. To many years and disappointments has the rest of us somewhat jaded I think. Hey-ho. Onwards and upwards?

Mostly because more often than not CM is preparing a slick track. When it's been grippy, usually when it's been rained on and he can't do anything about it, the Bees have ridden well and picked up good results.

This my fourth season watching speedway regularly at Brandon, and believe me when I tell you that when the track is very deep and grippy Scott and (in particular) Chris are very fast around Brandon. I've seen Chris give people a 50 yard head start by the time he's got through to second place and still catch them and win with a bit to spare. The speed he generates is incredible. He broke the track record a few weeks ago when there was some dirt down. Simon hasn't been particularly fast or consistent this season, but all his best rides come early in meetings when there is dirt down. Olly has beaten Jason twoce at Brandon this season when the track has been heavy/grippy. Lee would almost certainly prefer it with grip but not too deep and heavy. Whilst I agree that to get anywhere on the world stage our boys have to learn how to set up the bikes and ride on slick or very slick tracks it doesn't change the fact that they prefer grippy conditions. They should get what they want when on home shale.

I watched the Sky footage last night. Kelvin Tatum immediately explained that it should be all four back because the bike didn't touch the tapes. I think it was Ales Dryml that did likewise. Very nice to meet you and the Scottish clan too. If I ever track down my 'members met' list (have a feeling it's on about page seventy-something ) I'll be sure to you. We do just make our own entertainment if the on-track action fails us.

I agreed with the point you made, and still do. Why was it a crazy comment? They are generally crap out of the start, and when they did make a decent one they were passed because they are generally crap on slick tracks.

Actually that was a different 'she'. 'She' is hot though, and hilariously funny. Shame she's not a bit older. The only reason I called her 'she' is because she's not a member and I don't want to use her real name here. Always nice to know our beloved sport can attract newbies. Please don't be put off by one bad experience. All the latest fixtures are listed at the bottom of this page. Hopefully something will tickle your fancy.

When the track is on the slick side, or very slick as it was last night, Bjarne is very good around Brandon. I've seen more than one maximum or close to in the last few years. Well lets flip the coin. Why do some foreign riders look utterly lost and near useless when a track is very heavy, deep, grippy, rutted etc? It's not as though it's the first time they've ridden such a track. But Brandon hasn't been that slick since about 1983. We should have home track advantage but that went out the window with the shale. Of course Jonas rode well on his Arena bikes, if that's what he used, as it's a slick track as well. The biggest surprise for me was that AJ didn't score more, although he also likes to get out very wide in the dirt and there wasn't any. When the track is prepared the way Lance Sealey did it a year ago AJ and Bomber a cut above anybody in the world around Brandon. Last night they both struggled, less so AJ of course.

That has to be a joke? Perhaps if they'd seen and/or ridden the track back in the 80's when Olsen was there they might have had a better idea of what to expect. Wierd how Brandon had a reputation for being slick when he was there, and now that he's Race Director... Better pack up the forum Phil. Apparently we're not allowed to voice an opinion if we're only paying our hard-earned to watch the sport. Has it crossed your mind that the reason people are up in arms about that kind of performance is because they care? Perhaps she is smarter than people gave her credit for. I should think not. If they needed to be told how bad that was I would be rather surprised. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And, for what it's worth, I don't think it would have made the slightest bit of difference who was TM last night. I never particularly minded Midlo in charge, but a change was probably right to freshen things up a bit. I didn't like the comments Jim made prior to the meeting but thought he got the tactical moves right on the night.