Rob B

But what is the problem, what part are you getting stuck at. I take it you have set it to the English language?

Yes it is the shock absorber, Jason was the first person to start using them in the middle of 2005, had a conversation with him about it. It has a dial on the top of it which can be set to one of 50 damping settings. Sure he said they were about £800 each. Noticed most of the top riders have them now, they must think thats why he was so good last year, but it wasn't.

What are the exact problems you are having, never had a problem with it.

We are staying in Verona at weekend, where most of the speedway people stay, just noticed Verona are playing Juventus on Saturday, that should be interesting, place packed with Juventus fans!

All the Setana channels including Rangers TV and NASN are all part of the same package.

No chance, it only takes up part of the dome, the arena floorspace is only ice hockey sized, same as MEN arena etc. So any track wouldn't be much bigger then Brighton!

Can't beleive people are panicing already its over 2 months till Cardiff yet!!! And seetickets are by far the most reliable ticketing agency, I've bought lots of concert and sporting tickets and have never had a problem with them.

We are going next week, but are buying tickets when we get there this time, can anyone confirm start time, is it 21.00 local time like last couple of years?

This meeting is a joke now. All the fuss that was made that Belle Vue couldn't defend their title and now there are loads of pairs that are weaker then Belle Vue. The likes of Norris who can't be arsed and is being replaced by a reserve in Bridger.

Noticed on the bit shown on SKY last night Sam appeared to be wearing a Nicholls cap. Is he helping out Nicholls this year?

Quite a dissappointing meeting to start the season, very poor attendance for first meeting of the season, think it was a combination of United playing on the TV, very cold weather and people not that interested in an individual meeting. Atmosphere was terrible, not helped by the terrible new PA system but more about that in the PA thread. Racing wasn't that great, some good races here and there, track started off very wet and seemed to have a problem patch entering the third bend which caught quite a few riders out. Towards the end though there was some deep dirt on the outside for those that were brave enough. As for the Belle Vue riders : Stead - no where near his best, won his two rides off gate 1 and didn't do much else. Screen - definatly the best Aces rider on show, got out wide in the deep dirt and had plenty of speed, shame he had engine problems in heat 3 whilst second beating Nicholls else he would of won the meeting! Wright - James started off brilliantly beating Nicholls and followed that up with another win and second place but in his last two rides completly messed up the gates and looked like a different rider then. Fisher - was quite happy with Ryans performance seeing as he didn't get any practise on the track last week, took him a while to get going but had a great race in heat 20 holding off Chris Harris. Laukkanen - bit up and down, had some good races and poor races Doolan - didn't start off too well but then seemed to get his bike setup right, suffered an engine failure whilst leading heat 16 and didn't come out in his last ride. Skornicki - terrible, looked nothing like the rider at Oxford on Friday, looked like a junior that had never ridden the track before.

Scott Nicholls 2, 3, 3, 3, 3 = 14 Joe Screen 1, 3, 3, 3, 3, = 13 Andreas Jonsson 3, 2, 3, 2, 3 = 13 Chris Harris 2, 3, 2, 3, 1 = 11 Simon Stead 3, 2, 1, 1, 3 = 10 James Wright 3, 3, 2, 1, 0 = 9 Ricky Ashworth E, 2, 3, 1, 2 = 8 Ryan Fisher 2, 2, 1, 0, 2 = 7 Gary Havelock 1, 1, 1, 2, 2 = 7 Kaj Laukkanen 2, 0, 1, 3, 0 = 6 Jason Lyons T, 1, 2, 2, 1 =6 Joel Parsons 1, 0, M, 2, 2 =5 Josh Auty ® 3, F = 3 Kevin Doolan 0, 1, 2, E, - = 3 Shane Parker 0, 1, E, 1, 1 =3 Adam Skornicki 0, 0, 0, T, 1 = 1 Ben Wilson 1, 0, 0, 0, 0 = 1 Ben Hopwood ® 0, 0 = 0 Heat 1 : stead laukkanen havelock skornicki Heat 2 : jonsson harris parsons ashworth (eng fail) Heat 3 : wright nicholls screen doolan Heat 4 : auty fisher wilson parker fell rem (lyons exc tapes) Heat 5 : harris stead doolan wilson Heat 6 : wright fisher havelock parsons Heat 7 : screen jonsson parker skornicki Heat 8 : nicholls ashworth lyons laukkanen Heat 9 : screen lyons stead hopwood (parsons exc 2 mins) Heat 10 : nicholls harris havelock parker (eng fail) Heat 11 : ashworth doolan fisher skornicki Heat 12 : jonsson wright laukannen wilson fell rem Heat 13 : nicholls jonsson stead fisher Heat 14 : screen havelock ashworth wilson Heat 15 : harris lyons wright auty fell (skornicki exc tapes) Heat 16 : laukkanen parsons parker doolan (eng fail) Heat 17 : stead ashworth parker wright Heat 18 : jonsson havelock lyons hopwood Heat 19 : nicholls parsons skornicki wilson Heat 20 : screen fisher harris laukkanen

Sun is out again now.

We've just had quite a heavy rain/hail shower, lasted about 15 minutes. Roads are very wet now, but looks brighter in the distance now, hopefully we won't have another one of those before start time.

Yep after all the sun this morning the top surface of the track could probably do with some water on it. No the weather is coming down from the north so anything you get has completly missed us.

Been nice sunny day so far, gone a bit more cloudy now, but doesn't look too threatning at the moment, but looking at the radar, there could be chance of us getting some small showers later this afternoon.

Yep

We had quite a few heavy hail showers yesterday and a little bit of snow during the night but this morning its nice and sunny, but bloody cold. Hopefully will stay that way for tonight but think there is a chance of some showers this afternoon.

James didn't have any phone call to say he hadn't been selected for the meeting, he found out by reading it on teletext. It is thought Ian Thomas and Peter Oakes did a deal that James wouldn't be used so he could ride for Workington. Think it's a big year for James this year, 10+1 for Belle Vue on Friday, 14+1 for Workington tonight, think he is going to be challenging Kennett & King for best U21 rider.

Going to be bloody cold! Early forecast says its going to be -2 on Monday evening with a windchill factor for -8!

Of course it will, since when has a football match stopped a speedway meeting going ahead apart from maybe England playing in the World Cup.

No Belle Vue in the pairs, Arena have been chosen as the wild card.

I'm not sure but I doubt it, would be a bit unfair taking Rickys place in the meeting after a BSPA ruling.

Same for us, its a lot more expensive to fly out of Manchester due to the taxes and surcharges, thats why we always fly from Stanstead or Luton.

Off the top of my head can't remember riders names but there has been quite a few bad injuries at Sheffield over the last few years, wouldn't call it a safe track. One rider broke both his legs.