21st century heathen

B0!!0X Can't do Prague. Date clash with someone at work that already has time booked off. Might just get a new job though. Ahhh good that includes us then. UKGBNI.

I was trying to say go really fast without telling you to speed.

Well hurry, you can still make it. Rain should be gone by tapes up.

Want the job?

I said that assuming there was some shale that would be the case, which would be better than rain on the horrible surface that we saw on Friday. Steve Turner pointed out that at least water will just run off concrete!!

Can't see them not re-staging if necessary. Three more days of the season, and more money to be squeezed out of the paying public.

Hope they put some of that brown, shale, stuff on the track. Last night was like dusty concrete!!

Good to see that it's not going to rain until overnight, so full steam ahead. Roo should be easily the best rider on show, but it will interesting to see if anyone can make him work for it.

I'm a Sitera fan. He was great at The Barr on Wednesday. Check out the Brummies/Wolves thread for thoughts on him. There's no way I'm standing on the 1st/2nd turn for his first ride though. I'll come back when he's had a few laps. In brief...he took a ride to work out the track (putting it politely ), then scored 13 from 5 rides. He only dropped points to Freddie in his last two, and wasn't that far away from him. Pretty good line-up, and should be good. Any plans to re-stage Mon/Tue in the event of a rain off, or will it simply be cancelled?

If I am mistaken I apologise to him most sincerely. If he did it must have been very late indeed as neither I, nor those immediately around me, saw it.

Col meet Yorkie. He used to annoy me at Coventry...and now I get him at The Barr too. The stand-out moment of this meeting was the shockingly poor riding by Tai. There is no excuse for not raising your hand when the bike packs-up on the straight. Only the skill of the following riders prevented a Reading style pile-up. It could have been absolutely horrific. Hats off to all three for missing him (God only knows how), especially to Scott who was unsighted. And before anyone says it, his youth is no excuse whatsoever. Surely raising your hand is right up there with laying the bike down safely as the first, and most important, safety lessons any rider learns. I sincerely hope that someone had a 'word' with him after the race. Rather surprised if his fellow riders weren't there to 'explain' it to him. Apart from that it was a fair result on a decent night of action. Nermark, Hansen and Baby Lindgren did well (outside of the top riders). Louis and Lyons the biggest disappointments. They were the ultimate gating-tarts all night. The rest were pretty much as expected. Race of the night goes to PK and Scotty.

I'll be the one really really not wearing one of those hats.

I've worked out the perfect, if stereotypical, trip across Europe. England - Fish 'n' Chips France - Wine Belgium - Chocolate Holland - Got to get a photo of a windmill Germany - Beer IT'S GELSENKIRCHEN BABY!!! *edit* Because I got all excited and made a horrible mess of the grammar.

Wouldn't have gone that far, but I've seen better. Perhaps the disparity between some of the riders was half the problem? I don't think it was slick, but the inside wasn't working as well as usual. The wider racing line was the place to be and it left few options when behind. Heat 20 being a perfect example.

Can't see anything about Andy, but Ben has a broken wrist and is out for the season. http://www.birminghamspeedway.co.uk/news.php?extend.263

My friend and I commented that the end result reminded us of the crash Tai had.

Pretty good night all round. Certainly the end of the meeting was as tense as you could hope for. Rory, Jason and Joe could all win the meeting (or force a run off) with a heat win and Billy needed a heat win to possibly force a run off for a rostrum place. Rory looked to have made the jump again, but Jason drove better to the first turn. He just got enough of a wheel over Rory that he could get off the curb. This gave Billy a clear run on the outside. For a few seconds it looked as though Billy could swoop around the outside of both Aussies. Jason got his wheels in line the quickest to hold the lead going in to the 3rd/4th turn for the first time. For a couple of laps Jason did well to hold the lead as Billy tried outside and Rory tried inside. He pulled well clear as the race went on, but there was little to choose between the two Bees riders. Rory was clearly the quicker of the two but just couldn't find enough grip on the inside. Billy rode a great race to stay in the dirt and keep up his momentum. Of the others Franc impressed me. I didn't expect him to show quite so well. Compton was disappointing by contrast. Had these two performed the opposite way round I wouldn't have been surprised. Cam rode well but was a bit of a gating tart on the night. Did nothing when he missed it, but rode very well otherwise. He looked perfectly at home on the track, and certainly didn't make any mistakes. Rider of the night has to go to Jason for his win, but Rory was consistently the quickest rider on show. He was just a bit unlucky to be pinned to the inside when it mattered most. Congrats to Jason. I'm not sure what Andy did to crash. My eye was just drawn after the incident by the flying debris and the light reflecting off it as it flew through the air. The mess it left behind, and the distance Andy travelled from hitting the fence to where he came to rest made it look as though it must have been a really big crash. There was no news on his injuries last night. Best wishes to Andy. Ben had a big crash with Jason, and was withdrawn from the meeting. He clipped the back wheel of Jason's bike which sent him over the high-side in a big way. It was a very heavy fall for Ben as he was thrown pretty high in the air before gravity took over. Jason went down as well. A nasty crash for him too. He'd have been taken by surprise by the click from behind, and I doubt he could react to save himself. He hit the fence pretty hard but was up after a few minutes. Ben took a while longer, but thankfully he was able to walk away (although clearly shaken up). Best wishes to Ben too.

I'm really looking forward to this meeting. I've been waiting all season to see how one or two EL riders would go around The Barr. If Roo makes a flyer I'd expect him to break the track record (depending on track conditions). I don't expect him, or Billy, to do anything silly when out-gated though. I'm sure everyone will understand that they have bigger fish to fry (and I mean no disrespect to this meeting by that comment). Someone said Billy may break the record. There's no chance of that but David Howe could record a very fast heat 1 time if he were to make a good start. I wish Smoli was riding actually. I think the track would really suit his style. It's not too small, and has a good inside line. Back to who is riding. It's a good line up of quality riders, and Craig Watson (just wait for the response by SCB to see why I said that ). Lyons and Compton are likely to give the EL riders something to think about, but I can't see anyone else troubling them too much. Hopefully Roo and Billy aren't too conservative. Ben Powell has been doing a good job, and I look forward to seeing how he copes with what is a very tough field for him.

That's a fantastic title.

You can count in all the Wolves riders, and probably a few of their other assets too. I'd guess Scott and Chris will get an invite.

Great night for Scotty. Just goes to show what he can do. If only he could find more consistancy he'd be fighting for a rostrum place. Next year Scotty...next year.

Congratulations Nicki. You've been the best rider since the first round, and fully deserve all the credit you're going to get. What a way to do it as well. Only dropping a single point along the way. Your last to first ride tonight was superb. congratulations again. Nice to hear from Erik.

That'll do. Now, has Nikki found the nearest hotel bars yet (something else we were cooking up the other day )?

Really? Where's that then?

Granted, on this occasion a number of lads were injured.